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2020 Toyota Racing Series

The 2020 Castrol Toyota Racing Series was the sixteenth running of the Toyota Racing Series, the premier open-wheel motorsport category held in New Zealand. The series consisted of fifteen races at five meetings. It began on 17 January at Highlands Motorsport Park, in Cromwell, and concluded on 16 February with the 65th running of the New Zealand Grand Prix, at Circuit Chris Amon in Feilding.

Changes

Technical

In May 2019, the new Tatuus F.3 T-318, nicknamed "FT-60", chassis was revealed to be the chassis used from the 2020 season onwards. The change in chassis will also be accompanied by a new engine. The modified 1.8L Toyota four cylinder 2ZZ-GE production engines that were used since the series' inception will be replaced with a 2.0L turbocharged unit, increasing power output from 200bhp (150kW) to 270bhp (200kW). The top speed of the cars has increased to 250 km/h. The improved aerodynamics mean that the FT-60 is expected to generate around 25% more downforce that its predecessor. The six-speed Sadev paddle-shift sequential will remain.[1]

Tyres

In July 2019, it was announced that Hankook Tire would become the series' tyre supplier starting from the 2020 season. The new contract stipulates that 1,600 tyres will be brought in for each season, with each driver receiving 17 sets of tyres, with the ability to add a further two sets of wet weather tyres if required. The tyre is of the same specification used in Formula Renault Eurocup and the W Series. Tyre dimensions will also be changed in conjunction with the changing of supplier; 230/560 for the fronts and 280/580 for the rear.[2]

Teams and drivers

All teams are based and registered in New Zealand.

Team changes

A joint three-year effort between MTEC Motorsport and France-based R-ace GP will see the latter organization take charge of the race engineering side of the operation starting from the 2020 season.[3]

MP Motorsport and Kiwi Motorsport announced they would be joining forces by supplying engineers and mechanics. [5]

Race calendar

The 2020 calendar was announced on 30 April 2019 with each round to have three races, with qualifying taking place for both races one and three.[6]

Championship standings

The series had introduced a new drivers' championship points system for the season. Drivers were awarded the same number of points for Races 1 & 3. Race 2 featured a reversed grid of the top 6 to 8 finishers from Race 1, and awarded reduced points to the top 15 finishers. Drivers must have completed 75% of the race distance and be running at the finish to score points.[7][8]

Scoring system

Race (starting grid from qualifying)
Reversed grid Race

Drivers' championship

Footnotes

  1. ^ Caio Collet originally won the race, but received a 5-second time penalty for performing a practice start on the formation lap.

References

  1. ^ "New FT-60 will put NZ firmly on global motorsport map". 29 May 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  2. ^ "Hankook Tire confirmed as Castrol Toyota Racing Series tyre supplier". 22 July 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b "mtec and R-Ace GP join forces to create formidable TRS challenge". 30 July 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  4. ^ "2020 Season Drivers". Archived from the original on 2019-12-20.
  5. ^ "Watch out for Kiwi Motorsport this summer in TRS". 6 November 2019.
  6. ^ "SPEED WORKS EVENTS PULL BIG PUNCHES WITH PROVISIONAL CALENDAR". 30 April 2019. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Castrol Toyota Racing Series Points Table". Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  8. ^ "The DownLow; The Official Magazine of the Castrol Toyota Racing Series; Issue 09". 15 January 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2019.

External links