Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ are ready to put cars to the test with WSeries Round 2 at Formula One Barcelona Grand Prix this weekend. With FIA approving homologation of the TGRNZ FT-60 Castrol TRS racing car as a formula regional car and engine combination, the final sign off sets new bench mark on partnership between WSeries and the promoter of Castrol Toyota Racing Series Championship in NZ.
In new era of Formula racing, whereby sustainability of resources has become paramount to the setting of budgets inclusive of freight of cars to and from F1 GP’s, this initiative ticks number of boxes. Toyota Gazoo Racing has provided 18 cars with identical Tatuus chassis as WSeries cars, but with Toyota engines, transported via sea freight for Round 2 at Barcelona and Round 6 at Suzuka.
The co-operative project not only reduces WSeries freight costs across 8 Rounds in 3 continents: Europe, America’s and Asia but also contributes to the reduction of carbon footprint while utilizing TGRNZ cars during their off-season.
One the eve of Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ debut appearance at WSeries Round 2 at F1 Barcelona GP, the company’s Motorsport Manager, Nicolas Caillol up-dates process of cars to track.
Nicolas: ‘The cars left New Zealand at the beginning of March to travel by sea freight up to UK where the W Series has its base workshop. Cars have been unloaded in their workshop on 19th April and have gone through final preparations (finalizing the liveries of the cars and making sure all cars have gone through the travels without any issues).
The cars have then been loaded in the W Series trucks to travel south to Spain (they left England on Thursday and have arrived today in the paddock in Barcelona). All the technical team support from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand will arrive on Wednesday at the track. They will then go through the final preparations (setup of the cars) before hitting the track for the Free Practice on Friday morning’.
WSeries Opening Round and 2 races at Formula One Miami Grand Prix provided exciting array of racing from the 18 drivers, all-female line up. Defending 2x WSeries Champion Jamie Chadwick mastered her way to victory in both races, with battle royal taking place between top 3 drivers in Race 1: Chadwick, Marta Garcia and Jessica Hawkins, and in Race 2: Chadwick, Nerea Garcia, and Alice Powell.
Racing the new street track circuit of F1 Miami GP proved learning curve for many with best performances of newly selected drivers: Chloe Chambers (USA) posting P7 and P10, Bianca Bustamante (Philippines) P11 and P14 and Emely de Heus (Netherlands) posting consistent P12 x2.
With all drivers completing WSeries test at this weekend’s F1 Barcelona GP circuit earlier this year, expectations of tighter racing will be evident, and so to will performance of Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ cars.
Nicolas: ‘Even though it will be the first time the FT60 will race in Europe, there will be no special tweaks required from how they have been running here in New Zealand. It will be a straightforward operation and our technical support team will make sure that everything runs smoothly for all the drivers to enjoy their time driving their Toyota powered cars. Barcelona being a normal road course track, there will be less challenges for the drivers than Miami Street circuit which doesn’t allow too many errors. Barcelona is more forgiving for any mistakes, so we are expecting less damages on our cars than what happened in Miami’.
Are congratulations in store for the success of the initiative between WSeries and TGRNZ? Yes, most certainly. Such collaboration sends message loud and clear that alignment of operations outside in-house management are achievable, and in doing so stretch the feasibility of reaching sustainability targets in present day and in the future.
Nicolas: ‘With the current challenges with freight operations all over the world, I have to say we had to face very little disruption for the cars travelling from New Zealand to United Kingdom. Therefore, having the cars arriving within a week of the forecasted day was in a way rewarding.
On another subject, the whole TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand Team has been pleased to receive some nice comments from the W Series organization on the quality of the preparation of our cars. It is always good to have the recognition of all the hard work and efforts the team here is putting in preparing the cars for the W Series or for our upcoming season’.
WSeries Round 2 at Formula One Barcelona Grand Prix May 20-22. Header Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing NZ.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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