Toyota to stick with team orders for WEC title deciders

Toyota has confirmed it will continue with its existing team orders policy for the final title-deciding races of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, allowing its cars to race freely until the final stint of the race.

The #8 Toyota crew of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima hold a 14-point lead over Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi heading into the Spa race, with 64 still up for grabs.

Toyota has operated a team order policy of letting its cars race freely until the final pit stop at all races so far in this WEC season, prioritising one-two finishes to help the team’s title ambitions.

But with the LMP1 teams’ championship set to be clinched at Spa, its two cars are now fighting against each other for the drivers’ title.

Speaking on Friday at Spa, Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon confirmed the team’s approach to team orders would not be changed for the final two rounds at Spa and Le Mans.

“It’s clearly an intense situation sometimes in the races, but our guidelines are very simple and very clear. We allow free competition,” Vasselon said.

“The only thing we don’t allow is to have cars colliding. We don’t want to see two Toyotas colliding. This is the condition we set. All the rest, the fastest car has to be in front.

“Before the last pit stop, they are free to race. In qualy, they do their own thing. They will race hard.”

The team order policy aided Alonso to victory on his WEC debut at Spa 12 months ago when Conway was told to hold position when running a close scond in the final stint of the race.

Toyota has taken one-two finishes at all but one of the six WEC races so far this season, with the only exception being Silverstone, where its cars were disqualified due to a technical breach after crossing the line first and second.