It’s a brave new world in the LMP1 class, with the last men standing in the LMP1 Hybrid, Toyota, facing a brand new challenge.

They are doing so with a combination of established technical excellence, a truly world class driver line-up, a pre-agreed in-built performance and efficiency buffer, and, it seems, a little bit of politics too.

The TS050 was the dominant racing package in the second half of the 2017 FIA WEC against the all-conquering Porsche 919 Hybrid and there’s little to suggest that pattern won’t continue when measured against the impressive numbers of new for 2018/19 non-hybrid contenders.



The Toyota’s hybrid powertrain, despite a major fuel capacity deficit to the non-hybrid cars should give the cars a full lap’s advantage at Le Mans on a fuel load, that translates to two laps at Spa, and three laps at Fuji.

There are also performance advantages involved, and, depending on your point of view, these have elements of regulatory involvement too. The hybrids expected to be around a second or so faster per lap over a stint with half of that earned on track, and half with a longer fill time in the pits – expect to see a non-hybrid car taking around 5 seconds longer to fill than a Toyota.

The Equivalency of Technology (EoT) values between the Toyotas and the privateer cars was given a tweak after the Paul Ricard Prologue test resulting in the Toyotas getting another little bonus with the privateer fleet seeing the adjustments made for fuel per kilometre and per stint reduced in comparison to the values used at the test.

That’s been a bone of contention for some, whilst at least one team has registered concern that the squeezing of fuel mileage could well be set to see the non-hybrid cars pitting even before the LMP2s!

Toyota’s effort is based squarely around the technology of course but their driver line-up adds massive punch.

The five returnees are all amongst he most rapid in the field, the #7 crew sees Le Mans record-breaker Kamui Kobayashi teamed with the seemingly increasingly rapid Mike Conway and ‘Pechito’ Lopez.

The #8 though is, undoubtedly, where most attention will be focused with the stellar and stoic Seb Buemi again partnered with Kaz Nakajima. The major reason for the focus though is the ‘new boy’ in the trio, Fernando Alonso arrives with a big reputation – a pair of F1 World Championships would be enough to secure that even without the additional evidence base of more recent racing efforts.

Spa though will be his first race in the Toyota, a car that is hugely different from the F1 and Indycar machines that his recent career has featured, and, after all of the hype, his performance is set to be examined forensically!

His presence is a simply massive fillip for the FIA WEC in this transitional year, Alonso, and the fanbase, are looking for success – but all involved need to be fully aware that it needs to be fully earned if it comes. The looming question as the opening race approaches is “How much of an edge is enough?”

Rebellion debuted the first of their R-13 Gibson LMP1s at the Prologue and, out of the box, the car was fast and reliable.

Derived from the successful ORECA 07 LMP2 car the aerodynamic development potential for LMP1, and the power of the thoroughly uprated 4.5 litre LMP1 version of the Gibson 4.2 litre LMP2 engine could be just the ticket for a formula that relies on the cars being bulletproof, faster than an LMP2, and close enough to Toyota pace to pounce if a TS050 stumbles!

The team took the first car to Magny Cours after the Ricard test for further systems and set-up work. The second R-13 meanwhile, is debuted here as the #1 for the stellar trio of Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna; the #3 crew have the car that has had all of the mileage so far.

There’s little doubt that in the absence of any race data for much of the privateer grid the Rebellion outfit starts as a tip for success in the effective sub-class, and therefore to potentially inherit places in the event of misfortune for Toyota.

SMP Racing are likely the other major contenders in the early part of this new era on raw pace.

Let’s leave aside just for now the news that 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button is set to join the team for Le Mans onwards, in the #11 BR1 AER and look instead at the form and forebears of the team thus far.

Built by an amalgam of BR Engineering and Dallara, the relentlessly conventional, but seemingly highly effective, BR1, powered in this instance by the highly revised 2018 version of AER’s turbo V6 was the first of the new breed out of the box and has been racking up the testing miles ever since.

Its reported pace was certainly one of the early catalysts for a confidence wobble chez Toyota that has led to the pressure being exerted to ensure that the mandated performance advantage of the Hybrid concept is maintained.

That pace was maintained at the Prologue with the Russian flagged team drawn into the chase of Toyota’s (then to be revealed out of EoT) pace.

With Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov, a well proven duo in the #11, to be joined by Jenson Button after Spa, and a blend of youth (Igor Orudzhev and Matteos Isaakyan) and experience (Stephane Sarrazin) in the #17 there are sub plots galore in prospect here.

This is another effort that looks set too catch the eye!

CEFC TRSM have had an unsteady lead-up to Spa. The first car tested twice at Aragon, still very much under the wing of the car’s builder Ginetta, the first test interrupted with engine issues, the second WAY more convincing.

The second car debuted, and indeed had its build completed by Ginetta, at Paul Ricard; its addition is a very late call. The Prologue was spent bedding in the #6 and shaking down the #5 as the six man driver squad came together.

Beyond the smoke and mirrors of Toyota’s test in France the #6 Ginetta was the fastest on track of all of the LMP1s in the final eight hour track session in the hands of Oliver Rowland, all involved here though are very well aware that whilst that is a nice headline there is work to do, lots of work!

The elements are all here – an experienced team, a car that looks right on the money, an engine that undoubtedly has more to come and a driver squad with a blend of hunger and experience.

Can that cocktail be mixed correctly by CEFC TRSM? The rewards are potentially huge if they can.

Dragonspeed’s WEC effort is focused on providing a high quality, top level, racing experience for their funding driver Henrik Hedman, and they are super serious about it!

That includes running a parallel ELMS effort in an Oreca Gibson to further enhance Hedmans skillset.

Hedman expressed himself to be very comfortable with the transition at Paul Ricard, the uptick in performance of the LMP1 car. It was “very manageable, perhaps not as big as I had anticipated in my own mind, but really fun!”

The team opted for the BR1 chassis with the Gibson engine, a potentially potent combination of pace and reliability – and backing up Hedman are the team’s stalwart Pro Ben Hanley, plus Renger van der Zande, though the flying Dutchman is replaced at Spa, and later in the season at Fuji, by the reigning and final Formula V8 World Series Champ Pietro Fittipaldi.

And last but not least, is ByKolles. It’s an effort that looks to have made major strides.

At Paul Ricard, it’s pace was on the money and the car ran reliably too – now the squad return to the site of one of their strongest ever runs – here at Spa a year ago, with the hope that their off-season testing and aero development, a thoroughly re-worked, more powerful and reliable NISMO turbo six and a refreshed driver line-up will combine to improve of their 2017 pace.

The team has been out testing since the Prologue, most recently at Monza, with the new aero package being bedded in before racing action gets underway.

Oliver Webb knows the car and the team very well, and Dom Kraihamer has plenty of LMP1 experience to build upon. Then you have Tom Dillmann, who returns to the WEC to show the raw race-winning pace he displayed as a ‘Super Silver’ in a Signatech Alpine for a few races in 2015, also contesting a one-off race in 2016 for ESM.

The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is set to begin on Saturday at 13:30 local time in Belgium. The entry list can be found HERE, and if you missed any of our other class previews ahead of this weekend, follow the links below:

LMP2 | GTE Pro | GTE Am