Toyota out to rob Porsche of Nurburgring record

Toyota is rumoured to be building up for an attempt to snatch the outright lap record of the Nurburgring Nordschleife from Porsche following boasts from its LMP1 team boss that its TS050 Hybrid racer would be quicker around the world's most famous public road course.

Toyota's Rob Leupen announced in an interview with

That means the Toyota would have to lap faster than the 5m19.546s time Timo Bernhard clocked in the 919 at the 20.832km German circuit.

"I'd like to try that, that would be fun," Leupen told motorsport.com at a WEC event, adding: "I think this car would be quicker on the Nordschleife than the Porsche."

Leupen's comments are seen by the motorsport community as a power-play by the Toyota LMP1 leader to leverage support internally to help fund the extra development and track time required for the record attempt.

Currently, Leupen stresses there's no plans in place to steal Porsche's record: "You need the budget and the strategy to do it and right now we don't have that yet."

Stealing the coveted Nordschleife record would be a fitting end to the outgoing TS050, which is in its final season of the World Endurance Championship before the LMP1 class is replaced by less complex, production-based hypercars.

So far, just Toyota and Aston Martin have committed to compete in the new category, with the latter already confirmed to enter a racer based on its forthcoming Valkyrie.