[chernaudi]

As far as lap times outside of Imola, the 908 wasn't really any faster in race trim as far as them having a decisive advantage.

The 908 did, however, have a slight but decisive advantage in straightline speeds about everywhere--the only reason why it didn't help them at Le Mans is that the R18 in LM trim was a lot better in braking and in the faster corners than the 908s, which at LM tended to be very twitchy and less stable under braking (which may've caused Davidson's near off at one of the Mulsanne chicanes) and in faster corners.

However, when the Pugs didn't have to run with a full LM trim, they did fine, and it was Audi having to sort out issues with their HD bodywork, as they focused on their LM stuff, which paid off at LM, but didn't help them elsewhere.

The big issue for TMG is how fast can they catch up to Audi if the rules are fairly equal, can they handle 24 Hours out of the gate (easier to make a reliable car faster than to make a fast one reliable), and can the gasoline hybrid deal with the power, and especially torque, of the diesel, let alone the diesel hybrid. We have to consider this--Peugeot claimed that the 2012 908 was about a second a lap faster in testing than the same car last year, and that was with 60hp less and the fender holes, and Audi have clearly done work on the R18--what that exactly is we won't know until at least late this month when the definitive R18H will break cover--aimed at tackling Peugeot.

Toyota haven't exactly been away from top level racing, but they left F1 at the end of '09, and aside from selling engines to Rebellion, they haven't been directly involved in endurance racing since '99, when they left to run F1. And we have to remember that the worlds of endurance racing and F1 are still very different, even as the LM24 has been turned into a glorified 24 hour sprint race. You can only hammer cars like that for that long though experience, and that's something that Toyota/TMG might have to re-learn a bit.

Even as serious as TMG are, they have to know that '12 is a building year--remember that Peugeot said the same about '07, and while they dominated the LMS (no serious competition helped there, but they also used each race to gain info about the 908 that helped in '08 and later), they knew that LM was going to be a struggle, and it was. They set a goal of having one of their cars finish, and even though it nearly lost its engine, they not only got one of their cars to finish second, but the other one, if not for a fuel injection issue, could've finished well, too.

We do have to be realistic--TMG now claim to be behind on testing, and they won't make Sebring, which may or may not hurt them, but it certainly won't help. I don't thing, especially as the season wears on, that Toyota won't be a push over and we shouldn't expect a repeat of F1--untold hundreds or millions of dollars spent for fairly few results--but we shouldn't necessarily expect them to dominate out of the gate, either. Such a thing will take time, and we saw that with Peugeot. But also, as we've seen with Audi and Peugeot, the best aren't infallible, either.