Mike Conway and his Toyota Racing team kicked off its 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season in changeable weather conditions during the Prologue test at Imola, ahead of this weekend’s opening round.
The TR010 HYBRID – with new bodywork, a fresh livery and a one-off logo to celebrate the team’s 100 hybrid WEC races – made its official on-track debut at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. With eight hours of testing across two sessions, the Prologue allowed the team to build on the positive work done during its comprehensive pre-season testing programme.
The day started with a wet track, but soon the TR010 HYBRIDs switched to the 2026 Michelin slick tyres. With relatively little testing so far on the new tyres, understanding tyre performance and degradation was a key element of the Prologue test programme. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries set the 11th fastest time of the three-and-a-half-hour morning test in their #7 TR010 HYBRID. The #8 sister car of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa finished a fraction behind in 13th.
Rain fell in the afternoon as well, starting around 60 minutes into the session. On a damp circuit, neither TR010 HYBRID had an opportunity to improve on their flying laps set within the opening half hour. After four-and-a-half-hours, Sébastien, Brendon and Ryō were the highest-placed TR010 HYBRID in ninth, with Mike, Kamui and Nyck close behind in 11th.
The team will use the extensive data on the TR010 HYBRID and Michelin tyres gathered during a productive day to refine set-ups and strategies before Friday’s first free practice sessions for the 6 Hours of Imola.
Speaking after the Prologue, Conway said: “It was fun to get behind the wheel today. We had mixed conditions all day, but I feel we maximised our track time and did a lot of running.
“We will learn from our experience with the changing track conditions, and this will help for the race weekend. Now we have some homework to do to find a bit more lap time. We’ll try to learn from today’s data and improve.”