The technical director of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Tom Fowler, reveals that Elfyn Evans used three hybrid units during Rallye Monte Carlo as his Yaris suffered from hybrid problems two times.
The Welshman did the 2-3 for Toyota on the season opener, but he was the leader of Rallye Monte Carlo from Thursday to Friday. In fact, he lost the lead over Thierry Neuville at the end of Stage 10 while he dropped one more place on the overall classification after SS12. Evans started to lose time on Friday when his Yaris faced an issue with the hybrid unit which was the same with Rally Sweden in 2022 and was related to an engagement between the clutch and the system. The second hybrid problem remains a mystery for Toyota as Evans reported that he had no hybrid power on Saturday morning resulting in being down on the splits compared to Neuville and Sebastien Ogier. After the end of Rallye Monte Carlo, Evans has 21 points on the championship and is behind Neuville and Ogier for nine and three points respectively.
"The first problem he had – on Friday – is quite a well-known one", Fowler said.
"It’s actually the first ever hybrid problem we had back in Sweden 2022, when we couldn’t get out parc fermé because the clutch wouldn’t engage the drive into the system.
"That first issue didn’t actually affect any stages: he had a difficulty leaving service on Friday morning.
"As per the regulations, we informed the organizers in advance of the issue and were then allowed to use the engine to get the car moving.
"The second issue is more of a mystery.
"We changed the unit because of the clutch problem on Friday, but the second one has had some of these faults which can be fixed with a system reset – Elfyn had a couple of those during Saturday and unfortunately one occurred during the middle of a stage, so he lost performance.
"We changed it at the next service, so he’s now on his third hybrid unit of the event".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
Post a Comment