Kobayashi: Age Main Factor in Toyota Lineup Change

Kamui Kobayashi says that age was the main consideration for the change to Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 lineup for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Last month, Toyota revealed that Nyck de Vries would replace Jose Maria Lopez alongside team principal Kobayashi and Mike Conway in the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid.

De Vries, 28, returns to the Toyota fold after a spell as the Japanese marque’s reserve driver from mid-2020 to 2022, after which he joined the AlphaTauri Formula 1 team.

The Dutch driver had been expected to join Toyota for the 2023 season before his call-up to F1, which only lasted ten races before he was dropped in favor of Daniel Ricciardo.

Giving his opinion on the change, Kobayashi said that Toyota had to capitalize on the chance to sign de Vries considering the need to bring younger drivers into the team, despite the strong performance that the existing No. 7 crew showed in 2023.

“For sure [de Vries] is talented and fast,” Kobayashi told Sportscar365. “But if you look at this year, we won four times [in the No. 7 car], which is quite a lot in seven races.

“Honestly what I can say is we performed really well this year. Maybe someone would question why we would change but I think we don’t get such talented drivers [becoming available] every year, and we needed to choose a younger driver. 

“This is the point about why we changed drivers. When you look at our age, we are two 40-year-olds [Lopez and Conway] and myself, 37… we don’t want to change two drivers in the same year, so that’s why we had to change something.

“[De Vries] is not super young but he is at a really good level, and he is at a good age for endurance racing, to start building his experience and make the team stronger.”

The sister No. 8 Toyota, which won this year’s title, will continue to be piloted by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in 2024.

Kobayashi: Toyota won’t stop Miyata pursuing F1 ambitions

Toyota will have a new reserve driver next year in the form of Ritomo Miyata, who will also be racing in the European Le Mans Series next year with LMP2 squad Cool Racing.

However, the Japanese youngster will combine his ELMS program with a season racing in Formula 2 with Carlin, an opportunity that arose after his Super Formula title win.

Asked about the possibility of Miyata joining the Toyota Hypercar stable in the future, Kobayashi admitted that it is possible the Japanese youngster could increasingly focus on his single-seater career, especially if he attracts interest from F1 teams.

“I think if Ritomo is successful [in F2], maybe he’s not going to do endurance racing,” said Kobayashi. “But if there’s a Formula 1 team that wants him, we would not refuse. 

“We would be happy to support him to go into F1. This is obvious for us. We want to help our drivers to achieve something good, and if he has the opportunity, he should take it.”