Toyota putting its title back on the line
The serial-winning Japanese manufacturer has opted for continuity in its bid to reclaim FIA WEC’s world titles as the 2025 season kicks off this week with the Qatar 1812km (26-28 February).
For the seventh time in its glorious FIA WEC history, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will start the new campaign as Manufacturers’ world champions in endurance racing’s premier class. The Japanese brand’s hegemony in the series was challenged like never before during a thrilling 2024 season, which was concluded in style by the #8 GR010 HYBRID’s title-winning victory at the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Despite fierce competition from Ferrari, triumphant 24 Hours of Le Mans winners, and Porsche, with Laurens Vanthoor, Kévin Estre and André Lotterer bringing home the Drivers' title, the Manufacturers’ crown returned to the Japanese giants. As the most successful brand in FIA WEC history, Toyota will be aiming for nothing less than another world championship in 2025, while at the same time regaining the Drivers’ title and sealing a sixth success in the classic French enduro.
To achieve this, TGR will once again rely on an experienced team and a tried-and-tested package. Dressed with an elegant black livery since 2024, the GR010 HYBRID is set to contest a fifth consecutive campaign in the Hypercar category, of which it is the pioneer. Apart from the new LED display panels fitted on the side, the 2025 Toyota is nearly identical to its 2024 predecessor.
Never change a winning team
“We have some small upgrades on the car, but these are outside the scope of the Evo jokers,” explains David Floury, Toyota Gazoo Racing Technical Director. “We’re allowed to bring upgrades to improve reliability, which is what we did to correct some minor issues we encountered last year.”
Because the GR010’s homologation period started earlier than its rivals, Toyota has to be thrifty in continuously improving its Hypercar. As a result, no performance-related upgrade has been made. “We have to manage them in such a way that we don’t use up all our rounds straightaway,” adds David. “Given we’re among the top performers, it’s a little less easy to get those upgrades accepted.” Success comes with a price!
This stability policy is also reflected in the crew line-ups, which are unchanged from last year. Nyck de Vries is back for a second season alongside Mike Conway and TGR Team Principal Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. “My first season as a Toyota race driver was very enjoyable and successful. It’s nice to be back together with the team ahead of a new season,” says the Dutchman. “We have a very good team, with a lot of experience in FIA WEC, and I am confident we will be strong,” adds #8 driver Ryō Hirokawa, team-mate of Brendon Hartley and Sébastien Buemi.
According to David Floury, opting for continuity with experienced crews accustomed to the demands of elite-level endurance racing was a no-brainer. “This stability certainly helps us. We know each other well, and together we’ve built up automatisms and mutual trust. We have hardly any changes in the team members compared with last season. Stability is a key performance factor.”
“It’s not going to be an easy race”
Before racing resumes this Friday with the Qatar 1812km, the GR010 HYBRIDs took to the track again for the ‘Prologue’ at Lusail International Circuit. “We won the Prologue,” jokes David Floury. “Our cars finished first and second in the number of laps completed!” With 792 laps and 4,291 kilometres covered, Toyota’s Technical Director and his teams should have no shortage of data to analyse.
“We addressed several elements in terms of set-up, control and understanding how the tyres work,” David points out. "We didn’t encounter any major problems. Overall, the assessment is positive.” In the fourth and final test session, the #7 and #8 Toyotas placed eighth and tenth, respectively 0.578 secs and 1.157 secs adrift of the benchmark set by Robin Frijns’ #20 BMW M Hybrid V8.
“Over one lap, our pace looked decent,” assessed Conway, “but we still need to work on our performance on longer runs.” Buemi has admitted the Toyota drivers ‘seem to be struggling a little’ on Lusail’s ‘not easy’ track. David Floury has a similar analysis. “We’re using the experience we gained in last year’s race. But it’s not going to be much different. It’s not going to be an easy race for us.”
In 2024, the #7 and #8 Hypercars finished more than a lap behind the victorious Penske-run #6 Porsche 963. That didn’t prevent Toyota from claiming the Manufacturers’ crown eight months later. Will history repeat itself?
