De Vries Not Ready to Give Up on Drivers’ Title Hopes

Toyota driver Nyck de Vries says he is not ready to give up on he and Kamui Kobayashi’s slender chances of winning the FIA World Endurance Championship drivers’ title in next week’s season finale in Bahrain.

Both de Vries and Kobayashi remain in outside contention for the drivers’ title despite failing to finish in the most recent race at Fuji Speedway, facing a 37-point deficit to the No. 6 Penske Porsche crew of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer.

With 39 points on offer in Bahrain (including the bonus point for pole position), de Vries and Kobayashi must win the race in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid that they share with Mike Conway, and hope that Estre, Vanthoor and Lotterer fail to score.

If the No. 6 Porsche crew scores pole, it would eliminate de Vries and Kobayashi from the title fight as even a win would leave them equal on points with Estre, Vanthoor and Lotterer, but losing on countback due to having fewer second-place finishes.

De Vries told Sportscar365 he is bullish about rounding off the season with a win at Bahrain, and despite the long odds of success, doesn’t want to discount the possibility of a fairytale comeback in the battle for the drivers’ championship.

“It’s not done until it’s done,” de Vries said. “I’m confident we are going to Bahrain with a strong package. 

“If we would have finished the race here [at Fuji] we still could have been strongly in the title fight, but taking risks is part of racing. 

“We are going there with maximum motivation to bring home the manufacturers’ championship. But the drivers’ is not over. 

“I can see us winning [the race] and the Porsche hasn’t had any real issues yet. Time will tell, but we are heading there with confidence.”

The No. 7 Toyota crew suffered setbacks in the two races prior to Fuji, with a control unit issue robbing de Vries, Kobayashi and Conway of a probable victory at Sao Paulo, while a drive-through penalty handed to Kobayashi for ignoring yellow flags left the trio second at the Circuit of The Americas.

Kobayashi then made contact with the No. 5 Porsche of Matt Campbell while battling for minor points at Fuji in an incident that put both cars out of the race.

“I don’t want to blame anything on anyone else,” de Vries added. “We have to face our own shortcomings and do better as a team. 

“The season so far is what it is, and we have one race to go to show who we are.”

Toyota’s chances of winning the manufacturers’ championship are much stronger, as the Japanese marque trails Porsche by 10 points heading to Bahrain.

With the winner in Bahrain taking 38 points and the second-place car only 27, it creates a winner-takes-all situation as only one car from each manufacturer counts towards the manufacturers’ classification.

Looking ahead to the title showdown, Kobayashi said he feels winning the manufacturers’ prize would be fitting considering the succession of weight increase and power reductions handed to the GR010 Hybrid in the past three rounds.

“We’ll just try to win; that’s it,” Kobayashi told Sportscar365. “It’s the only way we can guarantee the manufacturers’ championship. It would be a great reward.

“When you look at the Balance of Performance we’ve paid quite a lot, but we have still been quite competitive and I’m proud of the way the guys have worked.

“When you have more weight, the car will not be as fast; that’s easy to understand. But the team has worked hard to develop the car and that’s given us a good basis.

“It’s been getting tougher, but it is how it is.”