Toyota is planning to race its proposed hydrogen combustion Hypercar class contender alongside its existing GR010 HYBRID in the 2028 World Endurance Championship.
The Japanese manufacturer will take advantage of the move announced in June that gives a two-year extension to the current breed of Le Mans Hypercars and LMDhs while phasing in a prototype built to the delayed hydrogen rules now set for a 2028 introduction.
Toyota is expecting to race a car that will be developed out of the ideas showcased in the 2023 GR HY Concept in the Le Mans 24 Hours WEC blue riband and no more than twice more in its maiden season.
John Litjens, project leader of Hypercar development at Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, said: “What we have planned is to start with the hydrogen car and to run it first in a couple of races, not a full season.
“The Automobile Club de l’Ouest [which jointly runs the WEC with the FIA] has mentioned three races in the first year, so there would be a transition.
“It all depends on what the regulations allow us to do.”
ACO boss Pierre Fillon confirmed plans for a phase-in of hydrogen technology in the Hypercar class for ’28 around an appearance for the first cars powered by the alternative fuel at Le Mans in June.
“The plan is to have them at Spa [which traditionally takes place at the end of April or early May] and Le Mans for the first year,” he explained.
Asked if the cars could race again in ’28 after Le Mans, Fillon said that an appearance in the Japanese round at Fuji would be a possibility in a clear nod to Toyota’s aspirations.
Litjens stressed that uncertainty remains around the timeline for Toyota’s hydrogen project in the absence of a firm set of regulations.
But he insisted that a hydrogen-powered Toyota prototype could enter competition in 2028 “if we get the regulations in time”.
FIA technical director Xavier Mestelan Pinon explained that the first step for the governing body is to “define what we call the generic regulation for liquid hydrogen” after the announcement in February that it would prioritise and promote that form of storage for motorsport applications.
“After that we will we will launch a dedicated technical working group with the FIA, the ACO and IMSA [whose GTP class runs to the same rules as Hypercar in the WEC] to build the regulations for the manufacturers,” he said.
Mestelan Pinon and his opposite number at the ACO, Thierry Bouvet, outlined a vision to have the new 2030 regulations for the Hypercar class in place for 2028.
These will allow hydrogen cars to compete on equal terms with conventionally-fuelled machinery, a key tenet of the ACO and the FIA’s philosophy for the alternative technology.
They believe that they must give manufacturers the chance to win overall in the WEC and at Le Mans given the high cost of developing a hydrogen prototype, whether a combustion car or one powered by fuel cell technology.
Toyota has no plans to build a conventional car to the 2030 rules, explained Litjens.
“To develop two new cars in parallel is not possible,” he said.
The ACO and the FIA stressed the difficulties of introducing hydrogen into the premier class of the WEC.
“We are starting from white sheet of paper,” said Mestelan Pinon. “We have a lot of challenges in front of us.”
