TOYOTA RACING opens 2026 season with Prologue

TOYOTA RACING kicked off its 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season in changeable weather conditions during the Prologue test at Imola, venue for this weekend’s opening round.

The TR010 HYBRID – with new bodywork, a fresh livery and a one-off logo to celebrate the team’s 100 hybrid WEC races – made its official on-track debut at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. With eight hours of testing across two sessions, the Prologue allowed the team to build on the positive work done during its comprehensive pre-season testing programme.

The day started with a wet track, but soon the TR010 HYBRIDs switched to the 2026 Michelin slick tyres. With relatively little testing so far on the new tyres, understanding tyre performance and degradation was a key element of the Prologue test programme. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries set the 11th fastest time of the three-and-a-half-hour morning test in their #7 TR010 HYBRID. The #8 sister car of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa finished a fraction behind in 13th.

Rain fell in the afternoon as well, starting around 60 minutes into the session. On a damp circuit, neither TR010 HYBRID had an opportunity to improve on their flying laps set within the opening half hour. After four-and-a-half-hours, Sébastien, Brendon and Ryō were the highest-placed TR010 HYBRID in ninth, with Mike, Kamui and Nyck close behind in 11th.

The team will use the extensive data on the TR010 HYBRID and Michelin tyres gathered during a productive day to refine set-ups and strategies before Friday’s first free practice sessions for the 6 Hours of Imola.

Quotes:

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “Finally we’re back on track. I missed two pre-season tests, so it’s been a long time since I drove the TR010 HYBRID and it was nice to be back, especially with all Hypercars on track too. This helps us get a picture about where we are in terms of performance. We still have work to do. The car feels good, we need to gain some lap time but so far, I am happy. We will work on what we learned today and try to put it all together for the weekend.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “It was fun to get behind the wheel today. We had mixed conditions all day, but I feel we maximised our track time and did a lot of running. We will learn from our experience with the changing track conditions, and this will help for the race weekend. Now we have some homework to do to find a bit more lap time. We’ll try to learn from today’s data and improve.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “It was useful to drive in the different conditions today. We had experience in almost full wet conditions, on a damp track and during the crossover from slicks to wets and vice versa. We covered a lot of laps and followed our own programme. Everything felt pretty good, but it’s hard to know the overall picture.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “It was great to be back because it feels like a long time since Bahrain. Obviously, we’ve tested but it’s nice to be here with the other Hypercars. The conditions were challenging and now we have a lot of data to analyse. I’m looking forward to spending time with the engineers over the next days to optimise the car, because I think we have a strong basis.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “Our new car looks great, and we all had a good feeling with it around Imola. The good vibes were helped by the fact that Imola is such a high-adrenaline, old-school track that everyone enjoys. It’s hard to draw conclusions from the day but, so far, I would say we are in the mix and, of course, we are aiming for the podium in a few days’ time.”

Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “It was a challenging day with the rain, which meant we drove in almost all conditions. We completed a lot of laps which help us to understand the car and the new tyres. We’ve learned a lot and I’m starting to get a positive feeling in the car. So far, so good. Now I’m excited to head into the race weekend.”

For full results, please visit https://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com

Click here to access the 2026 TOYOTA RACING WEC press kit.  Click here to download rights-free video material of the TR010 HYBRID.