A fourth endurance world title for Toyota and Michelin

Toyota’s one-two finish at last weekend’s 6 Hours of Bahrain allowed the Japanese carmaker to make sure of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship crown with one round remaining. Equipped with MICHELIN Pilot Sport tires developed specifically for the sport’s latest-generation prototypes, the Toyota GR010 Hybrid will go down as the first title-winning car of endurance racing’s Hypercar era.

The 6 Hours of Bahrain at Sakhir International Circuit saw Toyota and Michelin harvest their fifth victory of this year’s campaign with the N°7 GR010 Hybrid of Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez which completed the distance ahead of the N°8 sister car of Buemi/Nakajima/Hartley.

Thanks to the experience and expertise of Michelin Motorsport’s engineers and their colleagues working out of the Michelin Technology Center, the latest MICHELIN Pilot Sport tires engineered for these exciting new prototypes were developed virtually at the same time as the cars themselves were being designed using CAD technology. The first ‘real life’ track tests took place just weeks before the start of the 2021 season and the data collected on that occasion perfectly matched that obtained during earlier computer simulations.

The MICHELIN Pilot Sport-equipped Toyota GR010 Hybrid went on to win the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), the 8 Hours of Portimao (Portugal), the 6 Hours of Monza (Italy) and the famous Le Mans 24 Hours (France) in August, before collecting a fifth consecutive victory in Bahrain to provide yet another illustration of the tire’s ability to deliver lasting performance across an exceptional spectrum of conditions.

The 2021 FIA WEC will conclude at Sakhir International Circuit with Round 9 – the 8 Hours of Bahrain - on November 6 when the Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles still up for grabs will be settled.