The No. 7 Toyota prototype driven by Kamu Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nick de Vries emerged victorious after a long and dramatic 24 Hours of Le Mans. When it was all said and done, the red and white hypercar crossed the line 10.6 seconds ahead of the second-place No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8, while the No. 8 Toyota rounded out the podium. The gap between first and second marks the fourth smallest in the history of the race.
Toyota last won the famous race in 2022, officially ending the Japanese automaker’s five-year reign at the Circuit de la Sarthe. This year’s victory is the second for Kobayashi and Conway, while De Vries became the third Dutchman to win the overall category of the race. And while that may have looked impressive throughout the race, at least compared to Ferrari, which had won the previous three editions of the race, the No. 7 Toyota was not the favorite to win the race, and it had to fight its fair share of gremlins that plagued the crews throughout the race.
After the race, Toyota’s technical directorDavid Flory told motorsport.com The car was experiencing intermittent problems causing it to break into “Safe Mode.” As a result, the leading car was losing 8 km/h, or about 5 mph, to its follower. For a top-speed-heavy track like Le Mans, this is a huge deficit that grows lap by lap.
“The sensor wasn’t completely gone, but it was blowing and making noise,” Flory said. “Then, it messed up all the FIA measurements, so we had to, at some stage, go to default mode, and then the sensor came back. But when the sensor came back, we were still triggering too much, so we had to reduce power.”
Even before the sensor issue arose, Toyota had started the race in 14th place, and the No. 7 crew had to accept that its No. 8 teammate was heavily favored to win. After the start, the car suffered from tire problems, then punctures and later some ill-timed yellow flags and safety cars, which did not make the task any easier for the trio. The Cadillacs and BMWs were showing great pace throughout.
Kobayashi told the media after the race, “I think our week was very challenging, and even including the race, we weren’t comfortable enough. I mean, we had a puncture, we had a driveshaft sensor problem, so we had no power. It was very hard for us, but in the end we made it.” “Robin made it extremely stressful; I think Nick has been in his room with his eyes closed for the last hour, hiding from everyone.”
“I was walking around the drivers’ room, there were about 15 toilet breaks in the last 30 minutes! But we overcame it, and here we are – we did the job. I’m incredibly grateful and relieved, but also happy,” De Vries said.
“The race was relentless. A lot of challenges came our way but somehow, we always kept going. To be honest, there were many moments when I thought we were out of contention. But somehow… they say Le Mans picks you to win, and I think that’s what happened for us today. I’m so glad I got that monkey off my back and added that to my list,” Kobayashi said.
Ferrari’s endurance chief designer, Mauro Barbieri, told the outlet that the Scuderia suffered from “unbalanced” performance, though did not explicitly mention BOP; According to the rules, teams and drivers are prohibited from doing so. And while BOP data is confidential and therefore not disclosed to the public or media, there is probably a little (or a lot) of truth in Barbieri’s statement. It was the first time anyone saw Ferrari struggling since the program began in 2023.
“I think it was clear from the day of testing, maybe even earlier, that the field was unbalanced and we were not among the top performers,” Barbieri told the outlet.
Likewise, the Cadillacs were not able to take advantage of their good performance throughout the week, at least not when it mattered most. The No. 12 of Will Stevens, Louis Delétraz and Norman Nato showed promising pace throughout the race and, at times, it looked like they could fight for the win – although they would need a little luck. Unfortunately, that fate never came; Quite the contrary, when a full-course yellow threw them off their rhythm.
“It’s disappointing not to be on the podium,” Nato said. motorsport.com. “Obviously, we’ve been very unlucky with the full course yellow – the last course where we lost about 40 seconds. We had to do an emergency pit stop. From there, three hours before the finish, it was the worst time to have a full course yellow.
“When I entered the pits, they went back to green, so we lost about 40 seconds. It really compromised our race from there, because after that there were no full course yellows or safety cars or anything. So if we had to come back it’s basically like a pure pace, but we were about 20 seconds behind,” he said.
At the end of the day, the No. 7 Toyota crew showed the skill and grit needed to defeat the odds and all that came against them. Toyota’s first victory in four years shows that Le Mans is an endurance challenge lasting more than 24 hours; Sometimes this lasts for years. While races happen twice in twenty-four hours, it takes more than a day, more than 12 months and even more to build a team, develop a car and get all the processes and procedures right.
The fact that Toyota took the time, tears and repeated efforts to get back on the top step of the podium perfectly embraces the ethos of Le Mans. When it showed up, and it couldn’t win, the board didn’t pull the plug because of expense or heartbreak; No, it gave the team the right tools to come back to again and again until the job was done. If it were easy, everyone would be a 24 Hours of Le Mans champion.
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