Toyota has taken the covers off the updated version of the Le Mans Hypercar that will contest the 2026 World Endurance Championship.
Christened the Toyota TR010 Hybrid, the V6 twin-turbo-powered car marks the next iteration of the GR010 Hybrid that has been in service since the inception of the Hypercar class in 2021.
This is only the third time Toyota has introduced a major update to its LMH prototype after previous revisions early in its lifecycle in 2022 and ‘23, which included the switch to narrower front and wider rear tyres and other changes to make the car more driveable.
The TR010 Hybrid that will make its debut in Qatar 1812km in March features a brand new livery, with Toyota ditching its matte black colour scheme in favour of a red-white-and-black design.
Exact changes about the car are yet to be revealed, but the pictures clearly show a heavily revised front-end, including new headlamps that borrow the design philosophy from Toyota’s road car range.
It’s only the third time in the present-day WEC that Toyota has revamped the naming convention of its top-line prototypes. All its LMP1 cars in the previous decade carried the TS0X0 designation; the TS030 that debuted in 2012 was followed by the TS040 in 2014 and the TS050 two years later.
It introduced the LMH-spec GR010 Hybrid in 2021, promoting the new Gazoo Racing subsidiary that Toyota had established.
However, the Gazoo Racing branding has now been phased out entirely from Toyota’s hypercar, coinciding with the Japanese manufacturer renaming the research and development centre in Cologne, where the car is built, to Toyota Racing GmbH, effective 7 March.
Its WEC team will also now race under the Toyota Racing moniker, dropping Gazoo Racing completely from its name.
However, Toyota will continue to use the Gazoo Racing brand in other areas, including its successful World Rally Championship programme where it fields the GR Yaris Rally1. The newly-renamed Toyota Racing GmbH division will continue to support Gazoo Racing’s other endeavours, including through the supply of engines for rallying and producing GT4 cars.
Toyota ended the 2025 WEC season second in the Hypercar manufacturers’ standings after ending its win drought in the Bahrain finale.
Further, Toyota’s WRC team is set to be rebranded simply as Gazoo Racing from 2027, with no reference to the Japanese manufacturer in its name.
Read and post comments