Toyota Gazoo Racing will contest the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season with an unchanged line-up in the Hypercar class. The team will attempt to defend its FIA WEC manufacturers’ title and claim its sixth Le Mans victory with Mike Conway, …
Toyota Gazoo Racing will contest the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season with an unchanged line-up in the Hypercar class.
The team will attempt to defend its FIA WEC manufacturers’ title and claim its sixth Le Mans victory with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries in the No. 7 GR010 HYBRID and Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in the No. 8.
The No. 7 trio look to build on their successes in the 2024 season which saw them claim a victory at Imola and fight for the drivers’ title all the way to the final round of the season in Bahrain.
“I am delighted to stay on car No. 7 with Mike and Kamui,” said de Vries, who is back for a second season with Toyota after transitioning from a Formula 1 drive to racing in Hypercar in 2024. “We have enjoyed a good first season together. Of course, we have had ups and downs but generally, it has been a great experience. I am looking forward to being part of this team in 2025, it is a true pleasure and honor.
“Toyota Gazoo Racing has a lot of history and a great track record in WEC, and we have a lot of ambitions in front of us. We are determined to keep fighting for wins and championships.”
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The No. 8 crew is looking to build on its impressive tally of two world titles and a Le Mans overall win in three seasons as teammates.
Buemi, the team’s longest-serving driver (who made his debut in its first race at Le Mans in 2012), says he is grateful for the chance to continue and add to his legacy within the team.
“This team is a big part of my family. I grew up around Toyota because my family has had a Toyota dealership for over 50 years, and I remember having my photo taken next to the GT-One at the Geneva Motor Show when I was a child,” he said.
“It is amazing to be part of the team since the first season in 2012, having achieved a lot of good results in that time. Thank you to everyone at Toyota Gazoo Racing for giving me the opportunity to go for another win at Le Mans and the World Championship.”
Kamui Kobayashi, who also acts as team principal, said in summary: “We have a top driver line-up in both cars, and I am happy to be part of it again in 2025.
“The team spirit and cooperation among all the drivers, and the team in general, grows with every race and every season. Thanks to the great support of everyone at Toyota, as well as our partners, we have enjoyed some good results this year, but we are determined to achieve more.
“Competing in the Hypercar category in WEC is a big challenge and we are fighting against very strong competition, but as a team we continuously push ourselves to perform even better at every event.
“I expect this to continue next season, with a consistent line-up of drivers who understand how to work together — as a driver crew, as team members and as part of the Toyota family — to succeed in endurance racing. I know the whole team is excited by the challenge in 2025.”
It feels fitting that after the closest, most dramatic FIA WEC season to date, the major honors were split across the top three Hypercar manufacturers, with Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari all taking a slice of the pie. Porsche’s No. 6 crew held on to …
It feels fitting that after the closest, most dramatic FIA WEC season to date, the major honors were split across the top three Hypercar manufacturers, with Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari all taking a slice of the pie.
Porsche’s No. 6 crew held on to claim the Hypercar drivers’ world championship despite finishing down the order in the finale. Toyota snatched the manufacturers’ crown in the final hour of the season with a spirited drive from Sebastien Buemi. And Ferrari, despite missing out on a title, will look back on the 2024 season fondly after claiming its second Le Mans victory in a row back in June.
It really was a remarkable campaign, one which had a bit of everything. It produced its fair share of thrills and spills on track and off, regular doses of drama and controversy and a number of historic milestones.
With the dust settled during the off season, there will be so much to unpack and reflect on before the WEC paddock reconvenes next year in Qatar for next season. Right now, though, it’s time to celebrate the newly crowned champions after the wild end to the season in Sakhir.
For Porsche Penske Motorsport, it was a truly memorable day, even if it wasn’t quite the fairytale ending that everyone within the organization dreamed of.
Having claimed a sweep of IMSA GTP titles, a GTD PRO championship with AO Racing and the FIA WEC LMGT3 and Hypercar World Cup honors with Pure Rxcing and HERTZ Team JOTA prior to Bahrain, completing the set in the Middle East with both Hypercar titles felt almost inevitable.
WEC season finales never fail to produce drama, and on this occasion, the wily old fox that is Toyota pulled off the upset, coming in and stealing the manufacturers’ title after a late-race showdown between Buemi and Matt Campbell.
The safety car periods and a full course yellow which bunched up the field and set up a nail-biting final hour played a huge role. They allowed the pole-sitting No. 8 Toyota to recover from its dramas earlier in the race by the time it emerged from the pit lane for the final time. All of a sudden, having looked down and out with three hours to go, Toyota’s outlook changed. Buemi was strapped in, held a tire advantage over Campbell ahead in the No. 5, and had a chance to cap off an amazing performance with one final overtake for the win.
A dream come true for Buemi and company, with post-race emotions and sheer exhaustion overflowing. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images
“When I jumped in towards the end I was like P10, and I knew how hard it was to make progress, so I didn’t think we could come back,” Buemi explained. “But what happened was, with my tire advantage I was able to make moves every lap or two and we managed to execute a shorter stop at the end, jumping the No. 6 Porsche, the Ferrari, and it meant all I had to do was to catch the No. 5.
“It was like a dream as suddenly I knew we could win. It felt like everything was going our way, unlike the rest of the whole season. It might be the best drive of my career.”
A truly special drive indeed, with so much at stake, to deliver Toyota a fourth consecutive Hypercar manufacturers’ title in a row and the only win from pole by a team in the class this season. It also helped take the sting out of the sister car’s torrid outing, as ultimately, with the No. 6 Porsche’s troubles, both sets of drivers’ title contenders from Toyota and Ferrari will rue the missed opportunity.
The No. 7 retired with a fuel pump issue, which according to TGR’s team principal-driver Kamui Kobayashi, damaged the engine and severely blunted the car’s performance. The decision to park the car was a painful one to make, but it allowed the entire engineering staff to shift focus to the No. 8’s charge.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning No. 50 499P finished the race, but way down the order in 11th after struggling for outright pace throughout and losing valuable time to a puncture.
The season’s ups and downs gave us a split set of champions, much to the delight of Porsche’s leading crew of (from left to right) Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images
It all meant that the drivers’ honors went the way of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer, despite their struggles and first non-points finish of the season.
All three drivers played their part this season, delivering a consistent run of results en route to being crowned Hypercar drivers’ world champions for the first time. In a field this deep, racking up two wins and two second-place finishes in eight races was no easy feat. It’s a title run that will be looked back on for a long time to come.
“When you see how competitive the field is, it’s special,” Lotterer, who departs Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Hypercar program with his head held high, said in the post-race conference.
“Before in LMP1, Le Mans was what everyone wanted, and if you won the championship it was just OK. Now with so much competition, the world championship has great value. Today wasn’t the best day, but we had the luxury to afford it. We will go home happy, target achieved.”
“This year has been amazing,” added Vanthoor. “I’ve never worked with a group like this, with my teammates, engineers and mechanics. It hasn’t sunk in, but today is one I will never forget.”
Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID snatched the victory and the Hypercar manufacturers’ world championship from Porsche under the floodlights Saturday in the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain after a pair of safety cars and a full course yellow in the closing …
Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID snatched the victory and the Hypercar manufacturers’ world championship from Porsche under the floodlights Saturday in the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain after a pair of safety cars and a full course yellow in the closing hours created high drama.
With a relatively tame first half, the season finale came alive in the final three hours, as the string of yellows kept the field bunched up and set up a sprint finish. Battles raged up and down the order in both categories with time winding down and the ambient temperature falling, producing a number of surprise results — in the case of Hypercar, having championship implications.
As for the titles, the No. 8’s charge to the front in the final hour saw Toyota claim manufacturers’ honors out of nowhere. The pole-sitting car looked down and out when it was turned into a spin in the opening hour by a TF Sport Corvette, costing the 2023 champions valuable track position, but they never gave up, and through a combination of willpower and tire strategy, found a way back into contention.
When Sebastien Buemi was strapped in for the run to the flag, he was in the zone and on a mission. After the final round of pit stops, which saw the car climb to second, he found himself in a straight fight with Porsche’s No. 5 car for the championship.
Buemi then promptly caught and passed Matt Campbell with a bold move for the win with 39 minutes remaining. The Australian was unable to respond once Buemi found a way through and eventually crossed the line third.
Second place slipped away in heartbreaking fashion on the final lap, when Antonio Giovinazzi found a way past in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, which led the majority of the race but lost precious time to a longer final pit stop.
“That was maybe my best drive,” Buemi said. “The early contact put us on the back foot, but it’s always a long game and our strategy was to make sure we saved some great tires for the end of the race.
“When I jumped back into the car, we were down in 10th and I honestly thought we had no chance to come back, but with our tire advantage I was able to make some moves and I knew the No. 5 would begin struggling at some point. In the end, everything fell into place perfectly.”
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“We saved tires for the end and Seb delivered,” added teammate Brendon Hartley. “We wanted to spoil the Porsche party and we did. It feels good to get a win going into the winter break.”
Despite Toyota’s miraculous turnaround, all was not lost for Porsche. In the drivers title race, Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor clung on in the No. 6 963, despite finishing outside the top 10.
It was a roller coaster outing for the trio, who endured their worst result of the season after spending more than half the race recovering from a messy start.
Vanthoor, who was behind the wheel when the lights went out, dropped from sixth to dead last on lap one following contact with title rival Miguel Molina in the No. 50 Ferrari at Turn 4. A metronomic run for multiple hours put them back in podium contention, but their hard work was undone when a drive-through penalty for an FCY violation and two 5s time penalties for incidents dropped them to 11th.
Luckily, an equally disastrous outing for their title rivals in the No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari allowed them to seal it with a non-points finish.
The No. 7 retired with a recurring fuel pump issue which struck hard after Nyck de Vries took the lead in the fifth hour and the No. 50 limped home in 12th.
Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning 499P failed to feature, struggling for pace after the contact at Turn 1 forced Miguel Molina in for an early nose change, then suffered a puncture when it was hit by an Alpine in the penultimate hour.
“A horrible race — a really horrible one,” Vanthoor said after becoming a Hypercar world champion. “But we did the baseline for this throughout the season, with great strategy and a great car. That’s why we are world champions today.
“It has to sink in. It’s one of the best days of my life. Besides this race, we were flawless; we were the perfect group.”
For Peugeot, Saturday’s race didn’t produce a fairytale end to its tough season, but the No. 93 9X8 finishing fourth will serve as a confidence boost for the team ahead of winter. Mikkel Jensen pushed hard at the end and managed to beat the No. 35 Alpine home.
UPDATE: The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari lost its second-place finish to a post-race penalty for using too many tires during the race (28 instead of 26), and is now classified 14th after being handed a 4m55s time penalty for the infraction. Peugeot therefore took third and the No. 5 moves up to second.
Second win of the year for Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari in LMGT3. JEP/Motorsport Images
LMGT3 had high drama as well. Vista AF Corse’s No. 55 Ferrari held off TF Sport’s Corvettes to claim the Italian team’s second victory of the season and second in a row after the sister car won in Fuji.
Alessio Rovera was masterful late in the race, surviving a lengthy duel with an emotionally charged Charlie Eastwood, racing this weekend in memory of his late father.
“We managed to do it. My teammates (Simon Mann and Francois Heriau) did an amazing job managing the tires early, because the key was the last three hours,” Rovera said.
“I had new tires at the end and the fight with the Corvette was really nice. It was fair because we didn’t touch. It’s a win we deserved because we were really close to podiums all season.”
Eastwood followed Rovera home in the No. 81, crossing the line 3s back, ahead of Daniel Juncadella in the No. 82. It wasn’t a win, but it was by far the most impressive outing from the new Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R in WEC competition yet.
“It kind of sums up our season again — a story of what could have been without the safety car,” Eastwood’s teammate Rui Andrade summarized. “We were ahead by about 40s beforehand. We were in a good rhythm and had good pace, but I was kind of in no man’s land because we didn’t take tires on my second stint.
“We were hoping the strategy would pay off, and Charlie would get new tires and back into the lead. Nevertheless, I’m really happy to finish the season with such strong races back-to-back-to-back. Since COTA, the car has been super-strong and the team has done a great job making it faster and faster.”
Off the podium, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini came from nowhere to take fourth and Morris Schuring steered Manthey EMA’s Porsche to fifth.
Further down the order, the two McLarens that locked out the front row in Qualifying fell away after a strong start to the race. The No. 59 ended up sixth and the No. 95 dropped to eighth. They finished ahead of the title-winning Pure Rxcing Porsche which could only muster ninth, and both the Iron Dames Lamborghini and Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
All three looked to be in the running for victory in the second half of the race due to the timing of the first safety car, which fell at the right time and enabled them to rise up the order. In the late-race melee, though, they faded and failed to retain top five positions.
Being able to run a testing program using an old Formula 1 car will allow Haas to add strength in depth with its personnel, team principal Ayao Komatsu says. Haas has entered into a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing where the American …
Being able to run a testing program using an old Formula 1 car will allow Haas to add strength in depth with its personnel, team principal Ayao Komatsu says.
Haas has entered into a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing where the American team will receive manufacturing support and include the establishment of a new simulator. Part of the agreement will also have Toyota personnel helping Haas run a Testing of Previous Car (TPC) program, that Komatsu says will have a big impact on the team as a whole.
“TPC is very important in terms of training personnel,” Komatsu said. “We have just over 300 people, we have no contingency in personnel, so if lets say one race engineer, one performance engineer decides to leave or has a program not to attend a race then we are really struggling.
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“We are on the limit all the time, and in order to improve the organization you cannot be at that kind of survival stage as a baseline. We’ve got to build up our organization, so through TPC we can start training our engineers, our mechanics, and having back-up people there.
“Of course the budget cap makes it more complicated in a way that we’re going to do it as a timesheet, so people dealing with heritage – i.e. TPC – is outside the cap, but many of those people have to cross over to the race team and beyond a certain percentage we have to include them in the budget cap.
“So that detail we need to do correctly, but in terms of building up an organization, having a contingency, having a capacity, younger people, for me TPC is the best environment.”
Toyota young drivers will be involved in driving during TPC running, but at this stage Komatsu does not envisage personnel from Toyota Gazoo Racing crossing over onto the race team itself.
“It’s not because we don’t want to. Whoever’s got the right personnel, we’ll put in the race team. You may or may not know certain senior recruitment (positions) in the race team have been really (difficult to fill). If say TGR have a person who fits that profile, I’d have taken him or her straight away. But at the moment they haven’t. So we are not taking any TGR personnel for the race team but that’s not because that’s the philosophy, we just take whoever’s the best fit for the job.
“As for TPC, again, to do it by ourselves takes a lot of investment. But TGR is supporting that hugely. They have a desire to develop their young drivers in the program to gain mileage. Their requirement and our requirement fits together.
“In the clear sense, if we wanted to do 20 days of TPC next year, we can. Whether we want to do 20 days or not is another matter. We have to be sustainable, we’ve got to move in a manner that is still efficient and focused. It’s not about number of days, never. We are going to come up with a proper program and scheduling and then do whatever we are required to do.
“To do a TPC program we are employing some people as Haas F1 Team personnel, but TGR will be providing some personnel as well. So it will be a completely collaborative mixture and effort, which is what we need.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi became the fifth car in five rounds to win an FIA WEC race this season in Sao Paulo. The trio took a commanding victory, Toyota’s second of the campaign, …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi became the fifth car in five rounds to win an FIA WEC race this season in Sao Paulo.
The trio took a commanding victory, Toyota’s second of the campaign, in a highly entertaining six-hour encounter at Interlagos which saw title contenders in both categories hit trouble.
The result for the No. 8 came after the sister car was forced to relinquish the lead while the pair were running in formation, first and second, in the second hour.
Mike Conway, on his return from injury, took the start in the No. 7 and was in firm control early, holding station from pole before the car dropped off the lead lap at its second pit stop with a fuel pressure monitor problem.
That made it an extremely tough afternoon for title challengers Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, who pushed hard to regain lost ground and eventually fought their way back to fourth, topped off by a late penalty for JOTA and a last-gasp lunge at Turn 1 from Kamui Kobayashi in the final hour.
As the No. 7 fought its way back through the field, the No. 8 gradually pulled away from the chasing pack. The winning GR010 had the edge on pace and tire wear during the race, creating a winning margin of over a minute when Buemi crossed the line after 236 laps of the technical, abrasive, anti-clockwise circuit.
Toyotas lead away from the start. JEP/Motorsport Images
“I’m really proud that we finally won our first race of the season,” said Buemi after the race. “Car No. 7 was extremely fast today and it’s a shame for them not to score more points, but now we have a win.
“The manufacturers’ championship is really important for us and we have a great chance to help fight for that. But it’s going to be difficult because the No. 6 Porsche has been consistent.
“We will try to help the No. 7 as much as we can from now and help them fight for the championship.”
The No. 7 wasn’t the only title challenger in Hypercar to hit trouble. The No. 6 Penske Porsche — which held a nine-point lead in the championship standings — dropped crucial time early after contact with the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche during the first hour as Laurens Vanthoor and Will Stevens battled for sixth.
The contact would see the No. 6 suffer a front-right puncture that forced the Belgian in for an unscheduled stop, dropping him down the order and at the time, off the lead lap. The pace was strong for the No. 6, though, and it recovered masterfully.
A superb drive from Andre Lotterer, Vanthoor and Kevin Estre, who ran off-sequence for almost the entire race, saw them climb the standings to second. As a result, the No. 6 trio have extended their lead in the championship to 19 points with three races to go.
“We impressed ourselves because when you have an incident like that in a competitive field you think it’s going to be a tough day and hard to recover,” Lotterer told RACER. “We didn’t give up, Laurens fought back immediately, then I got in and took us to P4, a full course yellow helped us and then Kevin got in and it all went smooth. It’s really good to score points like this because we aimed to hold the lead in the standings.”
Meanwhile, the aforementioned No. 12 JOTA Porsche finished 18th after multiple dramas, all but ending the team’s slim title chances. Stevens was found to be at fault for the contact with the No. 6 and was penalized, before Callum Ilott had an off into the barriers at Turn 4 in the final hour, ripping the rear wing off the car.
The final podium place was taken by the No. 5 sister Penske Porsche, which looked poised to finish second had it not lost time to a rear-clip change at a stop in the fifth hour. Michael Christensen revealed to RACER that the car took damage when it was rear-ended by a BMW.
Nevertheless, Matt Campbell, Fred Makowiecki and Michael Christensen will be satisfied with their third podium of the season, after retiring from the race at Spa and finishing outside the top three at Le Mans.
This was a race dictated — as predicted — by tire strategy. There was no rain, the temperature was higher than at any point during practice and qualifying and, as a result, the teams were forced to experiment on tire choice throughout.
As the field ventured down different avenues, it became a tricky race to read. Each round of stops saw teams switch between the Michelin Mediums and Hards or try combinations of both as the track evolved. It meant the running order was constantly shuffling as multi-car battles raged on, particularly towards the end of stints when grip began to fade fast for certain cars.
Off the podium, the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari bounced back nicely after being handed a drive-through for a full course yellow infringement in the second hour. It finished fifth behind the hard-charging No. 7 Toyota, but ahead of the Le Mans-winning No. 50 sister car which struggled for pace after an early off.
During what was an eventful final hour, the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche looked on course to finish fourth, but the car dropped to seventh after the team was handed a stop-go penalty for an FCY infringement with 10m remaining, adding to the British team’s disappointing day.
Further down the order in Hypercar, there were plenty of other performances to note. The No. 93 Peugeot scored valuable points in eighth in what was a stronger showing in the race for the French brand than the team expected after lacking pace in qualifying.
According to driver Mikkel Jensen, the hotter temperatures played into the team’s hands. Its drivers were able to switch on the hard tires effectively during the race and fight for positions in and around the top five.
Through the middle portion of the race Alpine also found itself in the hunt for strong points-paying positions, though the best-placed A424 ended up finishing 10th.
It was another tough outing for BMW, its M Hybrid V8s coming home ninth and 14th
Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R suffered through the race too. Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber — who started the race fourth — would finish outside the points in 13th, after an issue related to a “grinding noise” from the brakes that reared its ugly head in the first half of the race.
“We unfortunately had a problem on the pit stop where we had to come back in and reseat the right-front wheel and that took us out of contention for a good result today,” Lynn said. “That’s the margins in WEC. Any small error will cost you dearly, and unfortunately, that was us today.”
Pure Rxcing’s Porsche dominated in LMGT3. JEP/Motorsport Images
LMGT3 also saw a single team dominate. Pure Rxcing’s Porsche 911 LMGT3 R 992 crossed the line a long way up the road from the Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
Once Alex Malykhin snatched the lead from Sarah Bovy in the pole-sitting Iron Dames Lamborghini in the second hour, the victory felt inevitable. Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler managed the gap well and scored the Lithuanian-flagged outfit its second win of the season in fine style.
Toward the end of the race, the gap to second did close to around 10s as Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas found pace for Heart of Racing, but an FCY infringement penalty in the final minutes for the Vantage saw the gap swell to 34s by the end. Thankfully for the U.S.-flagged team, the gap to third was big enough to see them hold station and cross the line ahead of the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren.
With third- and fourth-place finishes for the two McLaren GT3 Evos, today’s race marked another step forward for United and its globetrotting effort. The No. 59 narrowly missed out on a podium but did manage to keep the No. 46 WRT BMW at arm’s length at the end.
In championship terms, this result sees the No. 92 trio claim the outright lead by 25 points after being tied with the No. 91 sister Manthey EMA Porsche post-Le Mans.
“It was the hardest race of the season for us,” Bachler said. “We gave everything and I am really proud that we lead the championship again after our technical issue during Le Mans. With three races to go, we are back in the lead and we will do everything to hold it until the last weekend.”
In championship terms, the result sees the No. 92 trio claim the outright lead after they sat tied on points with the sister No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche after Le Mans.
On the other side of the Manthey Porsche garage, it was a total disaster for the No. 91 crew. In the first hour, Yasser Shahin was handed a drive-through penalty for contact at Turn 4 with the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette, then suffered heavy contact with the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari which forced the car into the garage.
The clash occurred at Turn 1, Shahin crunching into the rear of Thomas Flohr’s 296 in avoidance as they passed through the braking zone. The contact was front-right to rear-left, puncturing tires on both cars.
The Porsche ended up dropping multiple laps down as a consequence and would finish 12th, outside the points in what was a crushing blow for Shahin, Morris Shuring and Richard Lietz.
It was a bad day too for the No. 31 WRT BMW, which remains the only car other than a Manthey-operated Porsche 911 to win in LMGT3 this season. The crew led by local hero Augusto Farfus lost ground in the title race today after failing to recover from a drive-through penalty in the second hour. They came home multiple laps down in 10th.
The pole-sitting Iron Dames team, meanwhile, also suffered a bout of rotten luck, adding to its growing list of woes this season. The No. 85 Huracan suffered a major fluid leak during its fourth stop while running second before being retired.
It was yet another heartbreaking afternoon for the all-female crewed car, which started from pole for the second time this season, led for much of the opening two hours during Sarah Bovy’s stint and looked set for a podium finish before hitting trouble.
Next up on the calendar is Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 1.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has locked out the front row for the 2024 FIA WEC 6 Hours of São Paulo after a dominant performance in Hypercar Hyperpole from the pair of GR010 HYBRIDs. The quickest of the two was the No. 7, with Kamui Kobayashi scoring the …
Toyota Gazoo Racing has locked out the front row for the 2024 FIA WEC 6 Hours of São Paulo after a dominant performance in Hypercar Hyperpole from the pair of GR010 HYBRIDs.
The quickest of the two was the No. 7, with Kamui Kobayashi scoring the Japanese brand its first pole of the season with a 1m23.140s set with 3.5m remaining.
The other nine drivers in the final shootout pushed hard to better that lap on their final flyers but lost chunks of time in the tight, twisty second sector as the peak performance from the tires faded.
Sebastien Buemi would come close in the sister car, but the Swiss could only manage a 1m23.262s to claim second spot on the grid.
“We got the best possible result as a team,” Kobayashi said. “Me and Seb certainly enjoyed it today. We had an amazing car, and it was fun to drive, especially because Interlagos is such a great track. We have struggled a bit in qualifying at times this season because the competition is really strong, but finally we have a pole position which is a fantastic feeling. After Le Mans, the team made a big effort for this race.”
Row two for Sunday’s race will be occupied by the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 driven by Matt Campbell and the Cadillac V-Series.R steered by Alex Lynn.
The second factory Porsche — the championship leader — took fifth alongside the Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari that ended up 0.4s off pole with Antonio Fuoco at the controls.
Both JOTA Porsches will start seventh and eighth, while the No. 51 Ferrari will line up ninth in front of the No. 20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 that could only manage 10th.
It was a tough qualifying session for the French manufacturers. Neither Alpine nor Peugeot got a car into the top 10 during qualifying, with the No. 36 A424 coming closest, qualifying 11th after missing out by under 0.2s.
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari also didn’t get in and will start 15th behind the No. 15 WRT BMW that, unlike the sister car, was unable to sneak into the top 10.
JEP/Motorsport Images
LMGT3 saw Sarah Bovy and Iron Dames storm to pole position for the second time this season
The Belgian, who topped qualifying to set the Hyperpole field, set a blistering 1m34.413s in the final shootout to get the better of the two United McLarens and the Pure Rxcing Porsche which found themselves in contention for pole.
The time was just shy of 0.4s up on the Pure Rxcing 911, which will start alongside the No. 85 Lamborghini on the front row after multiple improvements during the Hyperpole session from Alex Malykhin.
“Taking pole at Sao Paulo feels different because it is a track synonymous with Ayrton Senna,” Bovy said. “I’m a bit emotional right now because this is very special. Thank you very much to the entire team for giving me a great car again and I can’t wait go racing tomorrow.”
Row two on the grid will be occupied by the two United McLaren GT3 Evos, with Josh Caygill putting the No. 95 third and James Cottingham putting the No. 59 fourth with times under 0.5s off pole.
Fifth was the Manthey EMA Porsche, which is joint top in the championship standings and is carrying the most success ballast this weekend.
The No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3, another car in contention for the title, will start sixth.
Only nine cars set times in the Hyperpole for the LMGT3 category, as Thomas Flohr in the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari was forced to park up early for causing a red flag.
Flohr had a spin at Turn 5 on cold tires at the start of the session, avoided the advertising boards on the apex, but ended up stranded on the apex, bringing the session to a halt with 8m remaining. The No. 54 will start 10th as a result.
Ahead of Hyperpole for the GT3 cars, a couple of key cars failed to make the cut in the first qualifying session. The No. 77 Proton Competition Mustang and No. 46 WRT BMW ended up 11th and 12th after Ryan Hardwick and Ahmad Al Harthy’s efforts respectively.
Christian Ried on his return to the cockpit ended up 17th in the No. 88 Proton Mustang.
Sunday’s race is set to start at 11:30 a.m. local time in Brazil.
The Le Mans 24 Hours has finally settled into somewhat of a rhythm after the 11th hour. Up front, Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota has turned the wick up and found a way to pull away from Andre Lotterer’s No. 6 Porsche during the hour. The Swiss …
The Le Mans 24 Hours has finally settled into somewhat of a rhythm after the 11th hour.
Up front, Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota has turned the wick up and found a way to pull away from Andre Lotterer’s No. 6 Porsche during the hour.
The Swiss driver extended the gap from 8s to over 20s before pitting the car for a 15th time for full service.
Heading into the 12th hour, the gap is currently 16s, with Lotterer now closer with a quicker stop, taking no tires.
Third in the running is the No. 7 Toyota which lost time due to getting held into a slow zone. Kamui Kobayashi has been pushing hard but is 1m 41s off the lead now, slowly falling back.
Cadillac’s No. 2 and the No. 50 Ferrari complete the top five.
In LMP2, drama struck one of the front runners 45 minutes in.
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Just as Nielsen Racing had established itself as a contender for the class win, David Heinemeier Hansson made a clumsy error while trying to lap a slower car. The Dane, who was running second in class at the time, dived up the inside of the heavily delayed No. 77 Proton Competition Mustang at the Esses, hitting Zach Robichon into a spin, sending them both into the gravel.
The time it took to recover the ORECA saw it drop to ninth and off the lead lap. The team’s chances of glory are all but over now.
Nielsen’s misfortune promoted the No. 22 United ORECA to second, with Oliver Jarvis now 90s back from the leading No. 183 AF Corse example.
If the No. 22 drivers find a way to keep it clean, they are in strong position, as the car ahead is entered in Pro/Am and therefore needs to be driven by Bronze-rated Francois Perrodo in later in the race.
The No. 10 Vector Sport ORECA is third.
LMGT3’s running order still sees both Manthey-run Porsches occupying space in the top three through most of each hour, but the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche pitting late on saw it drop to fourth.
By the turn of the hour, the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren LMGT3 EVO had cycled through to the lead, holding a 7s advantage over the No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche, which is 6s back with Alex Malykhin in and edging closer to completing his six-hour drive time.
The next hour looks to be bringing yet more rain showers.
Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Mike Conway has been forced to withdraw from the Le Mans 24 Hours on short notice after suffering fractures to his ribs and collar bone in a cycling accident on Thursday. The double FIA World Endurance Championship’s …
Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Mike Conway has been forced to withdraw from the Le Mans 24 Hours on short notice after suffering fractures to his ribs and collar bone in a cycling accident on Thursday.
The double FIA World Endurance Championship’s driver’s champion and 2021 overall Le Mans winner will be replaced for the race by long-time teammate José María López, who has been drafted in on short notice. The Argentine’s driving duties will begin on Sunday where he will take part in the Test Day and share the No. 7 with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries.
Lopez was due to compete with AKKODIS ASP in its No. 87 Lexus RCF LMGT3, after stepping back from a full-time FIA WEC Hypercar seat with the Japanese brand at the end of the 2023 season. His move to LMGT3 with sister brand Lexus paved the way for de Vries to join the Toyota team after leaving Formula 1.
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“Toyota Gazoo Racing shares Mike’s heartfelt disappointment at this situation and will continue to give close support throughout his journey back to full fitness. All team members are looking forward to seeing Mike — part of the team family since 2014 — back in the cockpit at the earliest opportunity,” the team said in a statement.
AKKODIS ASP, meanwhile, confirmed to RACER that Jack Hawksworth will stand in for López at Le Mans. It will be the first Le Mans start for the Vasser Sullivan Lexus driver and former indyCar racer.
This marks the second straight race that the French team has been forced to tweak its lineup at the last minute, as last time out at Spa its No. 78 entry competed with Clemens Schmid and Ritomo Miyata alongside full-season driver Arnold Robin after Kelvin van der Linde was summoned to Formula E and Timur Boguslavskiy fell ill.
For Sunday’s Test Day, Miyata — the team’s nominated reserve driver — was listed on the entry list against both Toyota Hypercars. With López getting the call-up, the Japanese racer looks set to focus on the LMP2 class with COOL Racing.
* This story has been updated following confirmation that Jack Hawksworth would take over the AKKODIS ASP entry.
The No. 7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi scored an impressive victory in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Imola, fighting through rain showers in the final third of the race, creating an enthralling strategic battle between …
The No. 7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi scored an impressive victory in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Imola, fighting through rain showers in the final third of the race, creating an enthralling strategic battle between Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari.
After Conway climbed from sixth to third in the first stint, and De Vries steered the car to the lead with an opportunistic move on Miguel Molina, Kobayashi was tasked with taking the wheel for the run to the flag.
He would cross the line just ahead of Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche, who reeled him in during the final hour of the race but couldn’t find a way past him. Kobayashi, who was tasked with holding the lead and saving fuel, held his nerve in what became a gripping, tense finale on the drying circuit.
On the road, it was a tight finish, but the winning margin would grow to 7s after the No. 6 was handed a 5s time penalty after the race for overtaking under safety car. Estre knew he needed to pass the No. 7 and build a lead, but despite his efforts, he would come up just short.
“Nyck and Kamui did a stellar job, especially Kamui at the end as he was fuel saving massively. I don’t think we could have executed the strategy much better. It was really hard in the conditions to read what was going to happen, as it was raining on and off,” Conway said.
“I’m very happy and very thankful to be sharing the car with Mike and Kamui. We deserved this one,” de Vries, after scoring his first WEC overall win, added. “It’s great to be back on the top step, because my last win was the Formula E race in Berlin in 2022.”
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) April 21, 2024
The No. 5 Penske Porsche, meanwhile, made it a double podium for the German marque, adding to its strong start to the season which began with a historic 1-2-3 in Qatar back in March.
Ferrari, which dominated qualifying with its 499Ps, heads home with no trophies. A strategy gamble when the rain arrived cost all three 499Ps over a minute.
This was a race that started dry and quickly became all about fuel saving and tire strategy when almost the entire Hypercar field quickly changed to wets following a safety car restart in the fourth hour. Ferrari’s chances of winning quickly faded as strategists chose to keep all three cars out on slicks.
“The information we had on our side was wrong. We thought the weather would be temporary,” admitted Giuliano Salvi, the Ferrari sports car race and testing manager. “Here, at the moment, we need to revise our chain of communication for sure. It was a mistake. We cannot say it was a good race, because we based this on some scenarios that were wrong. But our strategy is not to finger-point.”
With the rain getting heavier and the conditions worsening, the two factory Ferraris sat 1-2 with a comfortable lead, but their advantage wouldn’t last as the team eventually made call to change all three cars to wets too late. This dropped them down the order and ultimately cost the team a famous result on home soil. Had the team split the strategy across its three 499Ps, it may have been a completely different story.
The No. 50 Ferrari came home fourth after polesitter Antonio Fuoco pressured Toyota’s Brendon Hartley into a mistake in the final minutes. Hartley would finish fifth in the No. 8 ahead of the No. 20 WRT BMW which briefly sniffed a podium before two trips to the gravel for Sheldon van der Linde.
AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari came home a disappointing seventh, 1.7s ahead of the No. 83 privately-entered 499P, which at least finished first of the privately-entered cars in the Hypercar World Cup. Both JOTA Porsches finished outside the top 10 and the Proton Porsche retired with a mechanical issue.
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In the first half of the race, prior to the rain showers, there were plenty of incidents, including a multi-car pileup at the start which saw three Hypercars end up off the lead lap and out of contention.
Contact at the back of the field into Turn 2, when Jean-Karl Vernay’s Isotta hit the rear of the No. 36 Alpine of Matthieu Vaxiviere, set off a chain reaction which saw the No. 15 BMW of Marco Wittmann and the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 end up turned around.
“I tried to warm the tires as much as I could, and was cautious as it’s impossible to overtake at the start here. I braked early, locked up everything and made contact with the car in front. I’m sorry about it. I tried to be safe and didn’t take risks,” Vernay, who wasn’t penalized but felt he was at least partially at fault, admitted after his stint.
Both spinning cars sustained significant damage, as did the Isotta, which continued with an Alpine tail light lodged into its front end.
The result was lengthy trips to the garage for the Nos. 15, 94 and 36, which then sustained further damage after an off at Turn 3 immediately after the Turn 2 incident.
Vaxiviere was unable to turn left due to steering damage and ended up running through the gravel and into the tires, collecting a Goodyear advertising board en route. He was later handed a one minute stop-go for causing the incident.
BMW’s No. 15, meanwhile, spent the longest time in the pit box, the car requiring significant repairs, finishing 42 laps off the lead.
In LMGT3, a decision by WRT to stay out on slick tires for the entire race made the difference. The Belgian team’s M4 LMGT3s finished 1-2, scoring BMW its first WEC class win in fine style.
The No. 31 of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung came home first, capturing their first win of the season after hours of fighting with their No. 46 sister car, which eventually dropped time from a drive-through penalty late in the race and finished 22s off the lead.
“It was a crazy race, difficult to read, difficult to make the decisions and really difficult to drive,” said Farfus.
“The team, though, was very calm making the big calls, and that changed the whole end result of the race. I was very confident about it, I felt extremely comfortable behind the wheel, so I could push and they could make some ground.
“BMW is my family,” he added when asked by RACER about the significance of the victory for the brand. “18 years with the company and all of the success I achieved was because I had the propeller on my chest. I’m so thankful for the trust they gave to me for the support in bringing this first victory for them. It’s something very special.”
Imola was about as up-and-down as it gets for WRT. Motorsport Images
The pole-sitting Pure Rxcing Porsche, which gambled and took wets, ended up third after controlling the first half of the race. Alex Malykhin was the class of the bronze driver pack in the early stages once again, but the team’s choice to switch to wet weather tires cost it significant time, with Klaus Bachler unable to catch the BMWs late in the race with the car back on slicks.
Off the podium, the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 came home fourth, after Alessio Rovera muscled past Alex Riberas in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage with 13 minutes to go.
It was a strong performance for the No. 55 throughout, after a particularly impressive drive from Francois Heriau at the start when all the Bronze drivers were strapped in. A podium was possible had the team not had to serve a drive-through penalty for track limits.
Heart of Racing, meanwhile, looked capable of challenging at the sharp end but was never really in contention for victory. Its Vantage dropped down the order at the start and spent much of the race battling back and fighting for a top-five finish.
United Autosports’ best-placed McLarenn GT3 EVO, the No. 95 of Josh Caygill, Nico Pino and Marino Sato, was another car that didn’t switch to wet tires. But for the Anglo-American squad, the decision to stay on the Medium Goodyears didn’t prove to be as advantageous as it did for WRT.
Nevertheless, sixth place represents an encouraging points finish for the team, which is still getting up to speed with the McLaren.
The two TF Corvettes failed to feature at the front, coming home seventh and eighth, a lap ahead of the No. 77 Proton Competition Mustang and D’station Aston.
Further down the classification, it was a tough day for Manthey’s second Porsche, which ended up in the barriers as the race started after contact with Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Lamborghini. The damage forced Yasser Shahin into the garage for a lengthy spell to replace the front splitter and fenders.
Iron Dames’ tough day continued after. Electrical issues on the car forced the team to work on the Huracan in the pits twice, dropping it more than 20 laps off the lead before retiring it.
“The start was really strange,” Bovy said. “I would like to talk with the other drivers. It was like we started the race and stopped it three times. The guys behind had momentum and the Porsche couldn’t avoid me.
“The car felt OK to drive after, but we started to have electronic issues with the power management. I did a few power cycles but that was not enough.”
Next on the FIA WEC calendar is the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 11.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has some tough decisions to make regarding the future of its Hypercar program, as the FIA World Endurance Championship’s future ruleset to accommodate hydrogen-powered prototypes takes shape. Speaking with RACER in Qatar, Toyota …
Toyota Gazoo Racing has some tough decisions to make regarding the future of its Hypercar program, as the FIA World Endurance Championship’s future ruleset to accommodate hydrogen-powered prototypes takes shape.
Speaking with RACER in Qatar, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s chassis leader John Litjens explained that the Japanese manufacturer remains undecided on its strategy for life after the GR010. It has the choice of continuing to upgrade its current car until the hydrogen regulations debut or developing a brand-new one for the interim seasons after the GR010’s mandatory five-year homologation period ends.
This is a dilemma for Toyota, which is interested in racing a hydrogen-powered prototype but cannot make a final decision on a program because the timeline for the introduction of the regulations is not yet set. Currently, the ACO and FIA’s target is 2027 for the debut of the regulations — which are expected to accommodate both fuel cell and combustion technology — ahead of a planned shift to an all-hydrogen FIA WEC top class in 2030.
Is this realistic? Litjens is positive and feels the technology “should be” ready for use in top-class racing in time to meet the target. “Our colleagues in Japan are already running the Corolla on hydrogen and learning a lot there,” he said. “But it depends on how quickly the FIA comes up with the new regulations.”
It’s getting a little deep in the development cycle for Toyota’s GR010 HYBRID. Motorsport Images
The GR010 — now in its fourth season of competition — was heavily developed ahead of the 2023 WEC campaign, in which it won all but one of the races. As a result, the car has seen only minor updates ahead of the 2024 season. When asked about its plans for further upgrades to the GR010 for 2025 and development work on the next car, Litjens confirmed that work is being undertaken on both.
“We are looking at both, but we are discussing with the FIA about hydrogen regulations,” he said. “We have to keep our mind there. Yes at the moment we are at the top of the (performance) window, but if others make progress it could be too late.”
Assuming the WEC’s leap into hydrogen-powered racing is taken close to the proposed target date, the most likely scenario appears to be that Toyota would continue to race the GR010 until the new ruleset arrives.
“If the ruleset is not delayed too much we would hold on to the GR010, because if you do a full new car now and develop a hydrogen car in parallel, it would be too much,” Litjens explained. “For (the hydrogen rules to be introduced in) 2027 I think it should be OK, but if it gets 2029 or 2030 I think we have to do something in between.”
Progress, Litjens said, is being made on the regulations via a technical working group and that “the FIA are working hard” on it. He didn’t go into any detail but he did confirm that there is still more than one OEM seriously considering building a car for the new ruleset.
Is the other key player here Hyundai? The Korean manufacturer, which operates as a factory in the World Rally Championship, is known to be looking at sporting options to run parallel with its hydrogen roadmap for consumer vehicles.
Whatever happens, there are major hurdles for everyone involved to overcome. Leaving the timeframe for the ruleset’s debut aside, questions surrounding performance balancing, the maturity of the technology, the level of interest among current OEMs, the future of the current Hypercar ruleset, performance targets and proposed budgets all need answering.
Ideally, Litjens said, a hydrogen-powered Toyota would be able to race against cars competing in the LMH and LMDh ruleset, to ensure a healthy level of competition. However, he recognizes the complexity that would come with balancing LMH, LMDh and first-gen hydrogen-powered prototypes.
“If you see how long it took to get a bigger field (in Hypercar), I think the hydrogen we may have a few manufacturers that can come, but only with one or two cars because everything is new. I really think that the best first season to run is running Hypercar together with hydrogen cars, and then at a certain point switch.
“The most challenging aspect will be the weight of these cars,” he concluded. “I think it’s doable, but we can only judge it when we have more information.”
Toyota revealed its GR H2 Racing Concept last year at Le Mans.
The FIA released a bulletin concerning hydrogen technology following the latest World Motor Sport Council meeting. It puts a spotlight on liquid hydrogen technology as a potential solution for motorsport applications.
While it doesn’t directly reference the forthcoming hydrogen category for the FIA WEC, it is clearly relevant for the OEMs helping shape the future of the championship and represents another small step towards clarity on the direction of the forthcoming regulations.
“As part of the FIA’s energy transition road map, which defines the gradual introduction of sustainable power sources in motorsport, the FIA continues development of hydrogen-fueled power units across different disciplines and competitions,” the statement read. “As the next phase, the FIA will focus its efforts on contribution to the development and promotion of solutions based on hydrogen stored in liquid form (LH2).
“Given the tank’s characteristics, lower volume and weight compared to compressed gas tanks (CGH2), liquid storage form is better suited to the demanding environment of motorsport competitions, where optimization is key. This also allows the powertrain layout to remain closer to the one of a conventional combustion-powered car compared with vehicles accommodating compressed gas tanks.
“Solutions utilizing compressed gas storage type will be considered as interim solutions, provided minimum safety and technical requirements are met.”
