Toyota impressed by 'disciplined', 'keen' Alonso in WEC test

Toyota LMP1 technical director Pascal Vasselon was pleased with Fernando Alonso's first sports car test outing in Bahrain on Sunday, saying the McLaren Formula 1 driver was both "disciplined" and "keen" in his display.

Alonso completed over 100 laps during his first LMP1 test for Toyota at the Bahrain International Circuit as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's rookie test at the end of the season.

The two-time F1 world champion is keen to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year, with this test acting as a first step towards doing so.

While Toyota was unable to speak too much about Alonso's test given his contractual status with Honda via McLaren, Vasselon told reporters after the session he was happy with the performance.

"A very good job, very disciplined. No spins, no off-track, no damage on the car, which is the first target we give when they jump into a TS050,” Vasselon said.

“So all in all, good. We’ve done obviously a bit more work with Fernando. After getting familiar with the car he went this afternoon to do some tyre testing, complementing what Mike [Conway] was doing on the other car.

"I think Fernando has achieved more than 100 laps, so more than during a Formula 1 weekend. All good.

“We did not do any low-fuel runs, we did not do any qualifying runs. There was no trophy to win. We’ve done a full tank all day long and working as much as we could.

“I think he enjoyed it. But you have to ask him! I’m sure he has enjoyed it. He spent a lot of time already with the engineers. He’s very keen to understand our systems.”