TOYOTA GAZOO Racing heads into uncharted territory for the second round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season at the inaugural 6 Hours of Imola.
After a determined performance in Qatar last month to score strong points from both cars in the season-opener, the team travels to Italy second in the manufacturers’ World Championship and determined to return to the podium.
Cadillac’s disqualification four weeks after the chequered flag in Qatar elevated Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries into fifth place in their #7 GR010 HYBRID while defending World Champions Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were classified eighth after a challenging race.
This week’s second round marks TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s first visit to the 4.909km Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, located around 40km south-east of Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region. It replaces Monza, which is undergoing renovations, as Italy’s representative on the 2024 schedule.
Imola has become one of motorsport’s most recognisable circuits after its opening in 1953. It has hosted World Championship endurance racing three times, the most recent coming back in 1984 when Hans-Joachim Stuck and Stefan Bellof won the 1000km of Imola.
After that 40-year absence from top-level endurance racing, Imola will host a fierce battle among 19 Hypercars, featuring competitors from Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Isotta Fraschini, Lamborghini, Peugeot and Porsche for honours this weekend in the second of eight races on the 2024 WEC calendar.
Although Imola is a new track for the team, most of its drivers have competed there before. Ryo is the most recent winner having triumphed in a European Le Mans Series (ELMS) race in 2016, while both Kamui and Nyck won junior formula races there early in their careers. Neither Mike nor Sébastien have previously raced at Imola, while Brendon did so just once, in ELMS in 2013.
An intense programme of preparation will begin for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing on Friday 19 April with two 90-minute free practice sessions. Hypercar qualifying takes place from 3.25pm CEST on Saturday to determine the grid for the inaugural WEC 6 Hours of Imola, which begins at 1pm on Sunday 21 April.
