The Toyota TS040 hybrid Le Mans prototype has won the FIA World Endurance Championships. Though it didn’t prevail in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the race is but one of many in the WEC season, and Toyota scored enough points to win overall in both driver’s and manufacturer’s categories.
The victory marks the first time a hybrid race car has taken the series championships. The automaker has already announced that technology gleaned from the WEC race program will trickle down into the next-generation Prius, currently under development, though its power rating is expected to be slightly lower than the TS040′s 1000 hp.
Toyota’s hybrid engineers work on the race team in six-month shifts, and are then sent back to Toyota City to work on production drivetrains.
Toyota began campaigning its hybrid system in motorsports in 2006, and took its first victory in 2007 with a hybrid Supra.
By the penultimate race in Bahrain, it was already presumed that the Number 8 car driven by Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi would take the championship, as their points lead was too great to catch. However, what wasn’t yet known was whether Toyota would win the manufacturer’s championship.
Ultimately, the TS040s finished second and fourth at the final race in Sao Paolo. The points were enough to push the Toyota team over the top in the manufacturers’ rankings over rivals Porsche, Nissan, and long-time dominant force Audi, leaving WEC fans enthusiastic about a legitimate challenger to the diesel-running Germans for the 2015 season.
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