Toyota did it again after all: At the WEC finale, the 8h of Bahrain, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were crowned the 2022 endurance world champions. Second place was enough for the trio in the GR010 Hybrid #8 to fight for the title prevail against the Alpine #36 (Negrao/Lapierre/Vaxiviere).
Key to that was a conservative ride, as Hartley explains: “Our goal was from the start [der Titel]. Of course we still wanted to win the race. But we couldn’t afford to risk putting everything on the table to win a race. That [Risiko] we definitely had to manage.”
Technical director Pascal Vasselon also notes that risk management is “always important” when you have to make sure you become world champion. The driver’s title in particular was extremely important because we just had to go ahead [Alpine] get to the goal. It wasn’t just about finishing the race, so there was definitely some tension.”
Toyota #7 and #8 were not looking for the same thing
In the beginning, Buemi/Nakajima/Hartley were in the lead for a long time. Just before half-time, Toyota ordered the #7 car to swap places with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. Before that, the GR010 Hybrid #8 lost a bit of pace. A free fight did not take place in view of the title ambitions of the #8.
Vasselon commented: “Car #7 and #8 weren’t looking for the same things. Car #8 had to minimize all risks to finish ahead of Alpine, so there was no point. The worst thing we could have done , was that our two cars were fighting and car #8 made a mistake in traffic. We wanted to avoid that.”
But how did it come about that Mike Conway was able to catch up around six seconds on the sister car in his stint and was waved past after a few laps? “We had a lot of understeer in the middle of the race,” Hartley comments.
Sébastien Buemi: We got the maximum out of it
“We still have to analyze this, but car #7 had a speed advantage in the middle of the race and they deserved the win.” However, the loss of pace by the #8 Toyota was not enough for major drama, as Alpine’s grandfathered LMP1 was classified as too inferior. At the finish, the #36 was two laps behind.
Toyota can thus celebrate its fourth endurance world championship title in a row and its fifth WEC crown overall. But the battle remained exciting until the end this year, also because both Toyotas each managed a zero over the course of the season.
“I think we have [in dieser Saison] made the most of our opportunities. Unfortunately, what happened with our retirement at Spa was a heavy blow. Because in a championship with six races, it’s obviously very difficult to recover from a failure,” says Sébastien Buemi, looking back.
Brendon Hartley: Le Mans and Fuji as keys
And Hartley, like Buemi, champion for the third time, describes the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a decisive moment. “The step that Ryo made at Le Mans and the pressure. We talked about that before. He didn’t sleep on Friday, he was nervous, he put in an amazing performance and I think that was a big moment.”
Hartley sees another key in Fuji’s 6h: “In Fuji, Ryo’s home race, he was the teacher who showed us where the grip is. As a crew, I had the feeling that we delivered an almost perfect race in Fuji . I think that gave us confidence as a crew that we can fight for the title in the years to come.”
In any case, the competition for Toyota will be bigger and more powerful in the coming year. Peugeot is working on the speed and reliability of the 9X8 in winter, Glickenhaus is returning and Cadillac, Ferrari and Porsche are newcomers.