Five Questions ahead of the 2023 6 Hours of Fuji

1.Can Toyota rule at home for a record ninth time?

If there has one thing that has been consistent at the 6 Hours of Fuji over the years it is Toyota thrilling home fans and winning in their own backyard.

Eight wins in nine attempts at the Fuji Speedway is a sensational return. Indeed, only in 2015 were they beaten when Porsche’s Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley triumphed in the iconic Porsche 919 Hybrid.

It hasn’t always been easy but they have always stood on the top step bar that 2015 event. Sebastien Buemi will be going for his own personal record of a fifth victory after notching up wins in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2022. Should he do that next weekend then he would overturn the record in WEC set by Kazuki Nakajima who won in 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2019, the last two with Buemi in the No.8 car.

If all that were not enough in terms of good omens then consider that Toyota’s winning history in six hour events at Fuji stretches all the way back to the first ever race of its kind held there in 1967. That was when Yoshio Otsubo and Shihomi Hosoya triumphed in a Toyota 2000GT car.

2.Can No.7 Overcome No.8 for title push?

Post Le Mans when Kamui Kobayashi forlornly parked his damaged Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar at the side of the Mulsanne Straight it felt like a title challenge was over for him and his teammates Jose-Maria Lopez and Mike Conway this season.

A few on though, as they toasted their win in the 6 Hours of Monza, and the No.8 car took points for a fraught sixth place performance, the lock to a title challenge was re-opened.

Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez drove a superb race in Italy last month to not vanquish Ferrari but inject fresh hope in to reprising their 2019-20 and 2021 world championship successes.

Arriving at Fuji it is they that have some strong momentum. They can also take good memories from 2018 when they won on home turf (with Conway and Kobayashi also winning in 2016 but with Stephane Sarrazin in a memorable encounter).

With 23 points separating the Toyota cars it is still all to play for, especially with enhanced points up for grabs in the season finale BAPCO 8 Hours of Bahrain in November too.

But a warning to both! Also on 92 points, the same tally as Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez is James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Although it will be the first time the new Ferrari 499P will have visited Fuji and Bahrain, they are very much in the title hunt still.

3.Will Peugeot Build on Hard-Won Momentum?

Peugeot TotalEnergies driver Jean-Eric Vergne described the third place earned by himself and teammates Paul di Resta and Mikkel Jensen at Monza last time out as “a real reward for all our hard work.”

That was understatement from the Frenchman, who like all of the Peugeot TotalEnergies crew had been forced to dig deep in the last 12 months after a challenging birth for the unique Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar.

It would be fair to say that the whole paddock was pleased for Peugeot to make a first ever appearance on a WEC podium in Monza.

Perhaps the bigger question now is if it can sustain that form to offer a springboard in to 2024 in the final two races of the current season. That would give The Lions something to truly roar about, and the good news is that the No. 94 car showed very well in the opening hours of last season’s 6 Hours of Fuji where it ran third and looked set for a podium until an oil system problem intervened.

4.Can WRT Ease Title Pressure?

Robert Kubica, Rui Andrade and Louis Deletraz’s consistency has had all the hallmarks of a title challenge in 2023 since the first race of the season in Sebring.

There they finished a slightly disappointed fourth. But from Portimao onwards they have always been a threat with a third in Portugal preceding a brilliant home win for the WRT squad at Spa in late April.

Then came second placed points at Le Mans, followed by another third at Monza last month. That has all contributed to a 10-point lead over the Le Mans winning trio of Jakub Smiechowski, Fabio Scherer and Albert Costa with two races remaining.

It is a slender lead but the Kubica, Andrade and Deletraz axis has felt the strongest so far this season despite some frustrations with getting the tyres in to the right windows.

While the Inter Europol Competition team have proved they can sustain a title challenge so far, the United Autosports duo of Frederick Lubin and Phil Hanson are still in contention, 28 points the leading WRT trio.

United had a tough 2022 Fuji race finishing fifth and seventh, and after a frustrating Monza too they will be eager to make inroads in the title quest.

5.Can Corvette Set More Records?

After sewing up the LMGTE Am title at Monza, Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone and Nicky Catsburg will have eyes on a fourth victory of the season in Fuji to ensure they have the chance to equal the most winning season ever in the category.

That came in both the 2016 and 2018/19 seasons when the No.98 Aston Martin and No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche cars claimed five wins each. However, in 2016 there were nine FIA WEC rounds and with one fewer in the 2018-19 campaign, should Corvette Racing achieve five wins this season it would be the best ever winning LMGTE Am ratio since the WEC began in 2012.