Kobayashi “Pushed Hard” for Toyota GT-One Tribute Livery

Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Kamui Kobayashi has said he personally “pushed hard” for the Japanese manufacturer’s special GT-One tribute livery that will run on the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid in next week’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The car that Kobayashi will share with his regular FIA World Endurance Championship teammates Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries will carry the famous red-and-white colors of the fondly-remembered Toyota GT-One at Le Mans in 1998 as a celebration of the marque’s 40th anniversary since it began competing in the French classic.

Revealed immediately after last month’s Spa round of the WEC, the design was seen on Saturday during scrutineering in the Place de la Republique (pictured top), with the crew of the No. 7 car also wearing specially-designed overalls.

Toyota’s No. 8 car will carry the regular full-season matte black livery, with the Cologne squad presenting the split design as a representation of ‘past and present’.

Discussing how Toyota’s first one-off Le Mans livery since the inception of the current WEC program in 2012 came about, Kobayashi said he had got behind the idea as he felt it was important to celebrate the milestone of 40 years at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

“It wasn’t my idea, the idea came from a girl who is working for Toyota, but I liked the idea and I pushed hard to make it happen,” Kobayashi said.

“Obviously now it’s quite popular to do a vintage or heritage-style car, and I wanted to have something a little bit different from usual. Normally Toyota doesn’t have this kind of special design or livery. That’s why I tried to make it happen.

“The Japanese style is not to do something too ‘shiny’, so that’s why it wasn’t easy to make it happen. It’s something we had never done before.

“But the reason why I pushed for it is simple: first thing and the most important, when people look at this livery, they say, ‘wow, this is cool’.

“The second part is the 40th year anniversary – we need to have an appreciation of all the people who worked on this project, the mechanics and engineers. That’s how we delivered the message. We have to appreciate everything that we achieved.”

Kobayashi joked that the design is known in Toyota’s Japanese headquarters as ‘wagyu’, meaning Japanese beef, “because the white streaks look like fat.”

Toyota comes to Le Mans having endured a tough start to the WEC season, with a best finish of fourth for the No. 8 car shared by Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley at Spa marking the high-water mark so far.

Its last win at La Sarthe came in 2022, which was followed by narrow defeats to Ferrari in each of the previous two editions.

“We always want to win here,” said Kobayashi when asked if he felt Toyota could prevail this season. “The last two years have been tough, both times we were second and not far away from winning. Hopefully this time we can make it happen.

“The most important thing is no mistakes in the 24 hours, but I trust that the teams and the drivers will do a great job and we can bring it home this time.”