Toyota vows to ‘keep fighting’ at happy hunting-ground
Bahrain has been a happy hunting-ground for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and with the Hypercar Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ crowns still up for grabs in the 2024 season finale, the team has promised to ‘keep fighting’.
Those titles have consistently gone Toyota’s way over the past five campaigns, and while this year’s Drivers’ trophy looks to be slipping from its grasp – with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries now 37 points shy of the summit of the standings after retiring last time out at Fuji, and only 39 points left in play – the Manufacturers’ laurels remain much more realistic.
The Japanese outfit sits ten points adrift of Porsche at the top of that particular table, and its record in Bahrain certainly counts in the squad’s favour. Toyota boasts a 75 per cent win rate in the desert kingdom – including the last seven in a row – and the team’s GR010 HYBRID has never been beaten around the 5.412km circuit.
Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa prevailed in the most recent edition 12 months ago, and the #8 trio looked set to reach the rostrum in Toyota’s home race last month, only for a late drive-through penalty prompted by an incident with the leading #6 Porsche to drop the trio to tenth at the chequered flag.
“It was a bit of a disaster for us,” acknowledged Buemi, who achieved the first of his 25 WEC victories to-date in Bahrain ten years ago. “We had a solid start, considering we were a bit slower than our rivals and we came back into it, before getting unlucky with the safety car. Without the drive-through penalty we would have finished on the podium, which would have been an acceptable result, but we’ll come back stronger in Bahrain.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Hirakawa, the driver who picked up the penalty at Fuji almost within sight of the chequered flag after carrying the car into contention for a rostrum result, aided by strong previous stints from Buemi and Hartley as well as a smart tyre and fuel strategy.
“Obviously it was a really disappointing day,” the 30-year-old reflected. “We wanted to have a good race in front of our fans and partners, but it didn’t turn out that way. We tried everything and at one point it looked promising, but then things went against us. There is one race remaining, and hopefully we can finish on a high by winning the [Manufacturers’] championship – we are going to keep fighting!”
