Defending champs Toyota confirms 2015 WEC lineup

Toyota Racing has confirmed its driver line-up for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship. The team’s two TS040 Hybrid cars will battle Audi, Porsche and newcomer Nissan with the aim of retaining its drivers’ and manufacturers’ world champion titles.

As 2014 champions, Toyota will take the No.1 and No.2 plates for its cars. Car No.1 will feature Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi, who jointly claimed the 2014 drivers’ title, alongside Kazuki Nakajima. Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway will share duties in car No.2. An announcement regarding a test and reserve driver will be made in the coming weeks.

“We have worked with all our drivers for a long time now and have developed very strong relationships. This stability and consistency has been a significant part of our recent success so it was a priority when planning for 2015 and beyond,” said team president Yoshiaki Kinoshita.

“Based on our experiences in 2014, we have decided to modify the line-ups for each car and we believe this will give us the optimum overall performance as the individual driving styles are now well matched. All our drivers are WEC race winners and we are confident they will add to their tally this season and in the future,” he added.

The WEC line-up announcement came on the same day where Toyota confirmed plans for a World Rally Championship entry in 2017. In the top rally series, the Yaris WRC will be battling factory efforts by Ford, Citroen, Hyundai and current champions Volkswagen.

“To run two works motorsport programmes simultaneously (WEC and WRC) is of course a challenge but we believe we have the expertise and determination to succeed. There is much to do as we make the journey back to WRC but to have received the support of Toyota Motor Corporation and our president Akio Toyoda is already very encouraging,” said Kinoshita, who is also president of Toyota Motorsport GmbH.

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