Petrol Powered Progress

Toyota Racing Technical Director Pascal Vasselon (pictured below on the right) took time out yesterday evening to explain how the Toyota Racing team will tackle the current gap in full race performance between the TS030 and the Audis:

“It is clear that there is a gap in fuel mileage between our car and the Audis, but there are lots of other factors besides the obvious line that diesels are more economical.

“Firstly there is our own strategy – You must remember that this is still very early in a new programme and we are being very conservative in many ways.  Certainly at Silverstone our fuel strategy was based on securing a finish so we held plenty in reserve, we never fuelled the car on the limit, we always had a lap of fuel in hand.  There are then things we can do about that aspect of the gap.

“Then there is analysis of our consumption against the other petrol cars – That is almost entirely linked to pure performance – If you go faster you use more fuel, and our analysis so far confirms that.

“We are then very much at the stage where analysis is the area where we can make the most progress, closing the gap and balancing performance against consumption to the optimum over a full race.

“And that is the key, while there are those that look at the need to take a splash at the end of the race and see it as a disaster, we look at the time it takes to get a little fuel and convert that time into what would be require earlier in the race as a reduction in pace to make it unnecessary to take that stop.

“The difference across the six hours is 0.2 seconds per lap – Anything we do to reduce pace to secure the need not to take a splash cannot cost us more than 0.2 seconds per lap as it would, over the full distance be a less efficient use of the time available!

“Beyond that there is the question of relative performance between the cars in different phases of the race and there, definitely, there is work to be done too.

“We seem unable to unlock the real pace of the car early in the race, and in stints, there are again several factors to consider but there is likely to be work done there to improve.  Happily though later in the race we are faster than the Audis – We are looking for better balance between all of those factors and we are happy with progress so far.

“To be this close this early is a boost for everyone.

“The final factor, and the one I hear about most often, is the balance between petrol and diesel provided by the regulations, tank size, fuel flow etc. and obviously we look to that too – For now though we are playing with the cards that are dealt – We might be talking to the ACO about the future regulations for 2014 and 2013 but we will not be seeking to change those for 2012 to find a solution, we’ll be looking within, to ourselves, our strategy, our efficiency and our speed to find solutions there. That is the correct way to proceed with a new programme, do all you can before making the problem somebody elses!”