Written by Sharifah Zaqreeztrina, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Toyota’s 2024 season may not have been as consistent as the previous one. However, with the Hypercar Manufacturer’s Championship in their hands, this signalled they still had the pace to overcome adversities along the way and dominate the field.
Their championship-winning GR010 Hybrids returned to the grid for the fourth year. Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa piloted the No.8 Hypercar, competing as a trio for the third time.
Former reserve Nyck de Vries replaced José María López as part of the main driver line-up for the No.7 Hypercar, debuting in the category. His veteran teammate Mike Conway completed a decade of racing for the team. Kamui Kobayashi reprised his role as both Team Principal and driver, completing the trio piloting the No.7 hypercar.
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The season’s curtain-raiser was off to a good start for the Japanese marque as the No.7 qualified second. But unfortunately on race day, Mike Conway who was in the No.7 faced an issue with the oversteer into Turn 1 at the opening lap, forcing the car to go wide. Hence, they slipped into seventh.
At the same time, the No.8 of Sebastien Buemi struggled to enter the top ten, eventually ending up in 14th. The No.8 meanwhile, fared much better, finishing eighth at the flag.
Regardless, these valuable points placed them on a strong start to the season, with Toyota second place in the Manufacturers’ Championship, 16 points shy of Porsche.
Imola
The Cologne-based team returned to Europe for the second round of the championship. The No.7 qualified sixth, while No.8 was eighth in qualifying.
It was a chaotic start, as both Toyotas nearly found themselves caught up in a multi-car collision. Thankfully, the cars escaped and retained their respective positions on the field.
Rain gradually fell in droplets, while No.7 of Conway and No.6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor went head-to-head for 2nd place with nearly four hours remaining.
Conway maintained his position in the top three brilliantly towards the end of his stint. Around the two-hour mark, Nyck de Vries was behind the wheel of the No.7. A strong start to his stint. Halfway through the race, the No 7 Toyota sat in third, while No.8 was in 6th, with the Japanese manufacturer emerging as a threat to the leading Ferrari and Porsche.
Rain arrived and track temperatures grew colder, but that did not prevent de Vries from smoothly overtaking the No.50 Ferrari, taking up second. The safety car period triggered in the final 2 and a half hours, and the Dutchman was already in the lead at that time. The track became more and more damp as the race entered its final two-hour stretch.
Ferrari’s less-than-ideal timing of their tyre strategy provided a golden opportunity for Toyota, with both cars leaping into the top three after the Scuderia slid down the order.
The No. 8 of Brendon Hartley faced immense pressure from Sheldon van der Linde in the No.20 BMW as he tried to defend third on the road. The No.7 pitted for new slicks in the final hour, a bold strategy considering the wet weather conditions. Hartley, meanwhile, struggled to manage the mediums, momentarily sliding into the gravel before returning to the track.
Porsche looked to be the strong favourite to win with their domination for the first few hours, but the brilliant strategy around tyres and fuel was the main factor of Toyota’s deserved victory. The No.8 defended fourth, however with the machinery being low on energy, Hartley had to cede position to the chasing No. 50 of Antonio Fuoco on the final lap.
The No.7 car rose a stunning five places to claim their first victory of the season, thanks to Kobayashi’s impressive final stint. Their excellent tyre strategy in a rain-shower mid-race took it home. The sister car of No.8 rounded up the top five.
This narrowed the gap to Porsche with a nine-point deficit. 16 points behind the championship leaders, the No.7 squad stood second in the drivers’ standings.
Spa-Francorchamps
The No.8 finished sixth in qualifying, with the sister No.7 car settling for a spot outside the top 10, in a decent qualifying session.
Finding it difficult to catch up the field in the race, both cars fell outside the top ten. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was triggered as the track needed barrier repairs due to an incident. The Toyota duo leveraged this opportunity to move up the field to ninth and 10th on the road. With degradation high around Spa, the team considered tweaking their tyre strategy.
Approaching the fourth hour, de Vries in the No.7 was hit with a drive through penalty for VSC infringement, thus having been dropped to 14th.
Both cars improved their positions all the way through with less than two hours remaining, with the No.7 in eighth place, No.8 in seventh. However, a major collision between the No.31 BMW and No,2 Cadillac brought out the red flag, halting proceedings, .
The race eventually resumed behind a safety car. The No.7 climbed up to fifth, with No.8 following closely in sixth. Early pit stops from a few cars at the front aided Toyota’s ascent into the top five spots.
With an hour and a half left, the green flag returned. The No.8 headed to the pits for early refuelling, while No.7 remained on track.
A fierce battle then ensued, with Ferrari surrounding both Toyotas into the final stages. The No.8 defended its lead over the No.51 Ferrari, while No.7 attempted to snare third from the No.50 Ferrari. The series of overtaking battles continued for both Toyota drivers.
Despite upping the pace of their competitors and optimising strategy, neither Toyota broke into the top three. With sixth and seventh for No.8 and No.7 respectively, the streak of Toyota’s seven consecutive race wins ended here. Their fighting spirits continued into France, though.
24 Hours of Le Mans
After missing out on a Le Mans win in 2023, Toyota returned to the event, hoping to achieve the ultimate goal, even if it meant upstaging the ever-charging Ferrari. The Italian team had performed splendidly here, evident in their last year’s comeback of a win.
Mike Conway had to withdraw from the race due to a rib-related injury, replaced by José María López in the No.7 line-up.
Qualifying 11th and 23rd, it was a seemingly demotivating start for the Toyotas. Although, they overcame changing weather conditions and gradually climbed up the order. Under the rain showers, the No.8 engaged in a battle for the podium, while No.7 aimed upwards for the top six.
The race reached the halfway mark, and the No.8 crew led the field over Porsche under the heavy rain. This undeniably triggered incidents on track, bringing out the safety car for the second time.
Despite the growing rain, Hartley delivered stunning performances in the No.8. He was leading with two hours to go before being spun over by the No.51 Ferrari, then sadly slipped downwards to sixth place. He regained a place up to fifth at the end of 24 hours of racing.
A Toyota Le Mans victory seemed attainable for the No.7. Although, they displayed a great recovery drive after two previous punctures, the race pace wasn’t enough for a sensational comeback to the top of the rostrum. They may not have added to their five Le Mans wins,. But runner-up in an utterly competitive field was quite the feat for the crew.
São Paulo
The Toyotas conquered the front row at Interlagos for Hyperpole, with the No.7 leading the timesheets, followed by the No.8.
Conway managed to form a 11-second lead over Hartley in the early stages of the race. However, the race grew challenging as it breached the 90-minute mark. Despite being set for victory, the No.7 was slapped with a drive-through penalty for a full course yellow infringement, hence putting an disadvantage for the crew.
A fuel pressure sensor issue by the third hour just rubbed salt into the wound for the No.7. Therefore, a lengthy repair on the control unit was required, which inevitably cost them the lead. De Vries would commence his stint down in 18th.
The fight for victory then passed over to Hirakawa. The No.8 driver widened the gap with the rest of the field by over 40 seconds, all the while managing degradation and maintaining tyre temperatures.
De Vries stunned the Brazilian crowd as he brought the No.7 back into the points, before handing the wheel to Kobayashi. The veteran Japanese racer remained steadfast, and fought through the field in typical Toyota fashion, clinching a well-earned fourth place.
It was Buemi’s turn in the No.8 at the final hour. He spared no effort and went on to seal the No.8’s first race win of the year, Sure enough, this would’ve been a Toyota 1-2 if it weren’t for the mechanical issue in the No.7.
With two race wins under the belt, Toyota reduced the gap further to Porsche to just four points in the Manufacturers’ Championship standings. This once again reminded the field of their consistency and ability to deliver great performances, a defining trait of their title-winning years.
Texas (COTA)
Both Toyotas once again reached a low point in the season, as they had to endure a difficult qualifying in the North American track. Starting ninth does come with a sprinkle of luck however, as Conway survived the opening lap fiasco in the No. 7. This included making a two-car overtake in one swift move to take sixth place.
As for the No.8 crew, Hartley had to start his race further back from 12th, working extra hard to make his way to the top.
De Vries’ brilliant stint in the No. 7 led the team to second. Towards the end, Kobayshi helped retain the position, and were on course for victory under the heat of Texas. However, a late penalty for a yellow flag incident pushed them back to second.
It was a major setback for the Japanese outfit, more so Buemi in the No.8. Initially on course for a top six finish, he suffered a puncture at the penultimate hour. Making contact with the No.6 Porsche meant he was handed a 30-second stop-go penalty. The Swiss veteran received yet another penalty for not adhering to blue flags, thus settling for 15th.
Nevertheless, the points haul catapulted Toyota to the lead of the Manufacturers’ Championship standings by 11 points ahead of Porsche, just in time for their home race.
Fuji Speedway
Buemi managed to move up to fourth on race day, while Conway followed behind in fifth. The No.7 had to pit earlier than planned due to a tyre degradation. De Vries too started his stint at the same time.
The Dutch driver eventually made progress and did a double overtake on No.15 BMW and No.50 Ferrari, in the successful chase for the lead. Meanwhile, Hartley’s No.8 picked up the pace as well and overtook the Ferraris, before passing the baton to Hirakawa.
Kobayashi took over the No.7 for the final few hours. Both Toyotas were in much stronger positions compared to their competitors on fuel and tyres. But, fortune did not favour them this time, due to a virtual Safety Car period by the fifth hour.
In an intense battle for eighth, the No.7 Toyota and No.5 Porsche made contact with nearly an hour remaining. With substantial damage to the bodywork and suspension and a short timeframe left to return to the track, the No. 7 pulled into the garage to retire.
This motivated Hirakawa further to race for the podium, climbing up to third following a penalty for the No.35 Alpine. In the final 15 minutes, the No.8 suffered its own penalty due to an incident with the No.6 Porsche. HIrakawa took home one point for the team.
Another race-winning streak ended for Toyota, despite the massive effort and strategy being put into the race. A weekend to forget, but all eyes were set on the final destination: Bahrain.
Bahrain
Bahrain saw a thrilling comeback from the team, as they took up front row spots for qualifying. Hartley put the No.8 car on pole followed by de Vries in the No.7 just a few seconds behind.
This set the tone for an exciting season finale. Buemi in the No.8 led the field from pole. But within less than 20 minutes, a GT car made contact from behind and spun the No.8 down to seventh. Fortunately, Buemi made a swift recovery to fifth before passing the No.8 to Hartley.
Two Safety Car periods interspersed the second half of the race. allowing the field to close up further, increasing the intensity of the final WEC round. Despite looking to be the favourites to win, a fuel pump issue in the fifth hour unfortunately forced the No.7 to retire from the race, shredding any title hopes for them.
Buemi returned into the No.8, this time down in 10th. With an hour to go, he remained determined, charging for the lead despite being 15 seconds behind. Another timely pit stop saw him overtake championship rival Porsche for the lead in the final 30 minutes.
He firmly grasped the lead all the way to the chequered flag by approximately 28 seconds ahead. The No.8 crew took home their second race victory, thus securing their overall deserved honour as the 2024 Hypercar Manufacturer Champions.
The title win, a culmination of three victories and five podiums, wrapped up a truly remarkable season for the Japanese giant.
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