Lotterer and his teammates in Rebellion Racing's #1 R-13 Gibson, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna, finished as best of the rest in the WEC season opener at Spa earlier this month, two laps down on the winning Toyota.

They were subsequently disqualified when their car was found to have excessive wear on its skid block, handing the final podium spot to the sister #3 Rebellion.

Toyota's domination followed a change in the LMP1's Equivalence of Technology designed to slow down the privateers for Spa, and Rebellion warned in the wake of the Spa race that a revision to the EoT was needed to keep the championship's top class "attractive".

Speaking to Motorsport.com at last weekend's Nurburgring 24 Hours, Lotterer said he knew going into the Spa weekend that the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids would be on "another planet".

"To be honest, I didn’t have any expectations," Lotterer said. "I mean, I come from Audi and Porsche. I know the potential of these cars.

"We are never going to be able to touch them even if you give us a lot of power [and] the four wheel drive system. It’s just another planet."

Asked about his prospects for the Le Mans 24 Hours, he added: "Let’s see what they do with the EoT. But we are not allowed to go faster than them by the rules, so the only strategy is to be consistent and reliable.

"If they have a problem, it is possible [to beat Toyota], but it depends on how big the problem is. On pure pace they will not be beatable."

Lotterer was referring to the promise made to Toyota by WEC organisers of a laptime advantage of half a second per lap at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Any non-hybrid LMP1 car that ends up quicker on outright speed is liable to receive a penalty as this would imply a distortion of the EoT.

"That’s the way they set up the championship and that’s the way we have to play it. Even if we are quicker, we are not allowed to go quicker than them by the rules," Lotterer added.

"It’s pretty hard to understand and to follow [for the fans], and I don’t think they should even know that, because it's quite sad to have a rule where you are not allowed to drive faster than someone else."