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I think it's more of a sign of going easy during 2013 because of the new 2014 regs. What better time to demonstrate hybrid tech in a rule set that looks very Group C-ish?
You should read the autosport article before saying things like this. As for winning the championship, the highest scoring factory car counts towards the finished total 💡, that means Toyota can still win with only one car. Oh, and guess what? Even DNF's at LeMans and Bahrain, and DNS at Sebring and Spa, Toyota's #7 still placed 3rd in the championship.
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Audi don't really care much for anything outside Le Mans. That's were they dominate. Audi aren't brilliant or anything like that, but they outspend everyone. Audi outspends the competition and benefits from not only a fast car, but a well built reliable one as well, which counts for a lot. Peugeot was usually faster, but only won 1 Le Mans in 5 years competing. Underestimate Audi at your own peril.
Third in the driver's cup, but well behind the top 2 Audis. Is finishing ahead of privateers that you were multiple seconds faster than, even with 2 DNS, really an accomplishment?You should read the autosport article before saying things like this. As for winning the championship, the highest scoring factory car counts towards the finished total 💡, that means Toyota can still win with only one car. Oh, and guess what? Even DNF's at LeMans and Bahrain, and DNS at Sebring and Spa, Toyota's #7 still placed 3rd in the championship.
They are all being publicly hopeful, as the racing personnel should be. But they were also publicly hopeful for 3 cars at Le Mans this year and 2 cars in the WEC, but we all know how that turned out. TMG and Toyoda could be as committed as possible, but if the board decides there is not enough benefit in continuing the program, when the cost outweighs the rewards, they will cut the tap and there is nothing Toyoda or TMG will be able to do about it.
That bolded part is so wrong. They were touting their FIA WEC success, to say they don't care about anything but LeMans is ignorant. If it were true why are they bringing 2 cars to Sebring? Why did they run in the ALMS for so many years? The second bolded part is also wrong. No one underestimates Audi. Audi underestimated Toyota. You talk about finishing in front of privateers, but that's what Audi did in ALMS. That's what Audi did at Spa. That's what Audi did at LeMans before Peugeot.
See my response to LancerEvo
they're running two cars at Spa and LeMans, how is it pinching pennies if they're running within their budget? Don't forget TMG is also a business. This isn't just some playground Toyota can go to. People like to say "bean counters" but they don't know the situation. It's all guesswork. They like to point to their F1 foray as spending huge amounts of money, but in reality it was building the TMG facilities and getting them up and running and adding the state of the art testing and tooling equipment that added to that.
And that is exactly why it will be difficult to win the Manufacturers Championship with only one car. If the one car retires or loses a dozen laps with a problem, you are left with nothing or minimal points instead of a fallback 2nd car with 2nd or 3rd place points. Look at the example in my previous post, Toyota was faster than Audi on average from Silverstone to Shanghai, but Audi scored more manufacturer points because they always got 1st or 2nd place. Retirements will become disasters for Toyota if they are trying to win the Manufacturer's cup.
Not AS MUCH. They obviously care about every race they run, or they wouldn't be running them. But priority goes to Le Mans. Everything else is secondary. The resources go towards building a car to win Le Mans first and foremost, but that can also run and win in WEC.That bolded part is so wrong. They were touting their FIA WEC success, to say they don't care about anything but LeMans is ignorant. If it were true why are they bringing 2 cars to Sebring? Why did they run in the ALMS for so many years? The second bolded part is also wrong. No one underestimates Audi. Audi underestimated Toyota. You talk about finishing in front of privateers, but that's what Audi did in ALMS. That's what Audi did at Spa. That's what Audi did at LeMans before Peugeot.
A budget, that is by all reports, considerably smaller than Audi's. Toyota is in fairly good shape as a company once again, so why can Audi afford to run two cars in the entire WEC and Toyota can't?
TMG is a business, but where does the vast majority of the money come from? I guess I'm just guessing here, but I would hazard a guess that it's coming from the Toyota boardrooms in Japan.
Ignorant? I probably know just as much or almost as much as you do about the subject. I follow all the news about Toyota's program very closely. You are calling me ignorant because I don't come to the same conclusions as you do?
RACECAR
