Stephane Sarrazin will be replacing Anthony Davidson this weekend, then the 6 Hours of COTA is run in Austin, Texas.
Toyota Gazoo Racing announced it in a press release this morning, and the reason for Davidson’s absence at the 6th round of this years FIA World Endurance Championship held at Circuit Of The Americas, is of personal reasons.
That will bring Davidson’s hopes of a second World Championship title with Toyota to an end, for the team that he claimed his first title in 2014, alongside Sebastien Buemi. Instead Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima will be joined by Stephane Sarrazin in the car, who drove at the 24 Hours of Le Mans too in car number 7, and previously was a full season drivers for Toyota since their programme started back in 2012. He has been part of the FIA Formula E Championship through its first 3 seasons, in addition to doing some Rallies, and helping Toyota develop their Yaris WRC car, which has already secured to wins in its debut season.
The team doesn’t specify the reason for the swap in greater detail, but states that it’s only for this race.
Photo: JJ Media
Currently Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 with the TS050 Hybrid car is sitting second in the Drivers Championship, 41 points behind the leading Porsche. Toyota are 56,5 behind Porsche in the Manufacturers Championship, so they have a steep mountain to climb.
The team has never won on the track in Austin, where first Audi and then Porsche in the latter years, have cleaned the table. With the departure of Porsche after this season, Toyota surely will do everything to try and beat them, since next year’s programme for Toyota Gazoo Racing hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The 6 Hours of COTA will be run on Saturday and will start at 19.00 CET.
