Kobayashi Amazed Toyota Salvaged Sixth in Qatar

Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Kamui Kobayashi admits he was amazed that the Japanese manufacturer was able to salvage a sixth-place finish after struggling for performance throughout the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener in Qatar.

Kobayashi and his co-drivers in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, came home a lap down on the winning Penske Porsche 963 to bank five points on a weekend to forget for the Japanese manufacturer.

The sister No. 8 Toyota shared by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa finish ninth on the road and were promoted to ninth following the disqualification of the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8.

While both Toyotas made it through the Qatar 1812km without significant delays, barring a slow stop for the No. 8 due to a problem with the rear-left wheel that cost it around 20 seconds, problems with tire graining proved a major headache for both crews.

Despite being surprised to finish as high as sixth, Kobayashi stressed that he feels Toyota has more it can do to try and improve its situation despite carrying the most weight – 1089 kg – in the Hypercar field under the Balance of Performance for Qatar.

“Any more than sixth was impossible,” said Kobayashi post-race. “That was our limit. In fact, we were so slow that it’s a mystery we were able to finish sixth, honestly speaking.

“But looking ahead to the next race, rather than just feel frustrated, I think we have to put the BoP to one side and think about what else we can do as a team in this situation.

“These are the regulations, so it’s not our problem. We have to still try and improve the car, so we’ll try and rescue things and we’ll work hard to create a car that allows us the drivers to run properly and feel good in the car.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury struggled to hide his feelings about Toyota’s performance in Qatar.

“It was what we had here,” he said. “I think we can be happy with the points we scored. But obviously, looking at the big picture, we are not really happy.

“The two cars were at a similar pace. It was a struggle all the time. It’s not easy with the weight we are running here.

“All weekend it’s been about managing this [graining] and it’s not been very nice. We tried many things, but we didn’t find any proper way to counteract this fact.”

Floury acknowledged that it’s inevitable that Toyota’s rivals will have closed the gap over the winter as their packages mature, but suggested the BoP had a major role to play in the marque’s Qatar struggles without saying so specifically.

“Everybody else is working [to catch up], but for the rest I will not comment,” he said when asked how Toyota’s fall from its previously dominant position can be explained.

“For sure we have to work on our side, but the picture we have here is not great in general.”

Looking ahead to Imola, he added: “I think it’s going to be difficult again if we are running the same weight. Hopefully we don’t see graining there, but we haven’t tested there.”