Toyota's first success handicap under new WEC system set for Fuji

Confirmation of the penalty has come with the publication of the handicaps for the Japanese round of the WEC on October 6 published the FIA Endurance Committee.

In the table released on Monday, the extent of the handicaps on the LMP1 field at Fuji has been revealed, as well as how they will be achieved.

The 1.4s penalty for the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez will be achieved by a reduction in the amounts of hybrid energy that can be deployed and fuel that can be used by the car.

Hybrid energy deployment is down from 4.15 megajoules per lap to 3.02MJ/lap, maximum fuel energy allowed per lap is cut from 46.4MJ to 44.3MJ, and fuel per stint is down from 35.1kg to 33.5kg.

The second-placed Toyota at this month's 2019/20 WEC opener at Silverstone will be slowed by one second a lap.

The most heavily penalised privateer will be the #5 Ginetta-AER 60-LT-P1, which finished fourth at Silverstone behind the two Toyotas and the #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13.

Shared by Ben Hanley, Egor Orudzhev and Charlie Roberston, the #3 Rebellion will receive a 0.66s per lap penalty courtesy of a 34kg increase in minimum weight to 867kg.

The #1 Rebellion-Gibson, which was the fifth LMP1 car home at Silverstone in 10th place, will be penalised by 0.03s a lap with a seven-kilogramme weight increase.

The second Ginetta, which was the last P1 car home at Silverstone, is not penalised because it is the so-called reference car.

The new system of success handicaps has been introduced to supplement the Equivalence of Technology in a bid to create a level playing field between the Toyotas and their non-hybrid privateer opposition.

Individual cars will be penalised by 0.008 seconds per kilometre for each point by which they lead the last-placed entry in the P1 championship classification.

The third position taken at Silverstone by the #3 Rebellion, which is not entered at Fuji, does not affect the handicaps on the sister car.

Rebellion's #3 entry will take the same penalty as the #1 car when it returns to the WEC, which is scheduled for Spa next April.

The FIA Endurance Committee has also confirmed the weights of the GTE Am cars for Fuji under the conventional system of success ballast introduced for 2019/20.

The minimum weight for all cars has been reduced by 20kg and the ballast added to that figure.

The AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Emmanuel Collard, Niklas Nielsen and Francois Perrodo has accrued 30kg, 15kg for winning at Silverstone and 15kg because it is leading the championship.

The second and third-placed cars, the Aston Martin Racing entry and the AF-run MR Racing Ferrari, are penalised to the tune of 20kg and 10kg respectively.