Toyota Gazoo Racing cars are in action at WSeries Round 6 at Formula One Singapore Grand Prix this weekend. Having secured partnership arrangement with the all female single-seater Series, NZ based TGR supplied their FT60 car’s at WSeries Round 2 at Barcelona in May, followed by shipment of cars to Singapore for racing over weekend September 30 – October 2.
With sustainability of resources key to growth for WSeries, the co-operative relationship with TGR enabled saving freight costs between Races, while at same time forming new arrangement to utilize the NZ’s Formula Championship car’s during the Series off-season.
Given TGR car’s retain same specifications as WSeries Tatuus F3 T-318 cars, albeit with Toyota engine, the unique amalgamation of Formula racing Championships provides opportunity for 18 female driver’s to increase their knowledge behind the wheel of both cars.
As confirmed at WSeries Round 2 at Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, TGR cars held their own on track, with defending Champion Jamie Chadwick taking the win ahead of fellow British driver’s Alice Powell and Abi Pulling.
Fast forward to this weekend’s night race at Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, and conditions will again test the women, with humidity, and warm temperatures both on and off the track – not to mention the bumps and close track walls on the circuit – challenging driver’s to maintain track position while at the same time preserve car safety.
Toyota Gazoo Racing Manager Nicolas Caillol details the full extent of the partnership, from shipping the NZ’s Formula Championship cars between Rounds 2 and 6, along with explaining the value of the initiative which ramps up the profile of all entities.
Nicolas: ‘The cars have stayed in the UK (W Series facilities) since their return to Barcelona. They have gone through a post meeting check and have been loaded in their container for their trip to Singapore. They left England at the end of August and they will be arriving in the next few days prior to the Singapore round. The W Series and our technical team will go through all the cars in the build-up days prior to the first practice to make sure everything has travelled well and will be ready to go on-track with no issues.
The collaboration is a first in the world of formula racing and has been very positive. We’ve had the opportunity to have Chloe Chambers fly to New Zealand in September to do some testing and get more mileage to get ready for Singapore (as her last race with W Series was end of July).
We’re hoping we will attract a couple of drivers from W Series to our 2023 season. Another positive aspect of this collaboration is we have had several kiwi drivers interested in taking part in the W Series, therefore their option to prove their value to W Series is to take part in the Toyota Racing Series to get ready for the big jump overseas.
Since 2018, the Toyota Racing Series is in the Super Licence Points scheme for Formula One. When you look at the history of the Toyota Racing Series, we have had 21 drivers who competed in TRS who ended up in Formula One (as a race driver or test driver) and we have currently five drivers on the grid of the 2022 Formula One Championship: Lando Norris (2016 Champion), Lance Stroll (2015 Champion), Nicholas Latifi (2012), Yuki Tsunoda (2020) and Guanyu Zhou (2016).
We are currently in the process with the FIA of having our Super Licence Points allocation revised as we have, since the beginning of 2022, our engine FIA homologated, therefore we have a full package fully Formula Regional homologated. So we can still be an interest for drivers like Colton Herta who are chasing their missing points to be integrated in Formula One grid’.
WSeries Round 6 at Formula One Singapore Grand Prix September 30 – October 2. Header photo: TGR image ready for WSeries Round 6 credit: WSeries.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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