Kobayashi: Toyota May Struggle to Score Points in Qatar

Toyota Gazoo Racing could struggle to score points in this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship curtain-raiser in Qatar based on its performance in the Prologue, believes Kamui Kobayashi.

The two Toyota GR010 Hybrids proved off the pace in the two-day test at the Lusail International Circuit on Monday and Tuesday, with newcomer Nyck de Vries setting the Japanese marque’s best time of 1:41.783 in the third session aboard the No. 7 car.

That was 1.385 seconds off the benchmark time established by Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Frederic Makowiecki in the No. 5 Porsche 963.

The two Toyotas ended up 13th and 15th fastest of the 19 Hypercar entries in the test, beating only newcomers Alpine, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini.

Speaking on Tuesday evening after the final session of the Prologue, team principal Kobayashi expressed his shock at Toyota’s struggles, suggesting that the car’s Balance of Performance base weight of 1089 kg – the highest in the field – could be a factor.

“Honestly, we are really struggling,” Kobayashi said. “I almost can’t believe it, but with our current performance we would struggle to even score points.

“The weight affects us a lot at this circuit, and we’re getting graining with any tire we use, both the medium and hard. The tires aren’t working at all, and we haven’t been able to run properly these two days. We tried a lot of things, but we haven’t been able to solve it.

“I don’t know if it’s the weight, but when you compare us to the lighter cars, there’s a big difference in speed.

“We tested here last year, but this is the first time we’ve been running together with everyone and it feels like we’ve taken a step backwards. Even then it seemed like it could be tough, but now it looks even tougher.

“It’s not just on the long runs, even in terms of one-lap performance on new tires. Our car is relatively kind on its tires, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t affected by graining; we just can’t use the tires properly.

“I wasn’t there last year, but we didn’t have graining on the hard. This time we have it with the hard as well. I don’t know the exact reason.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury echoed Kobayashi’s sentiments about the weight of the Toyota, which under the current BoP is 41 kg heavier than the Porsche and 59 kg heavier than the lightest of the Hypercars, the Peugeot 9X8.

“I think generally, what we are seeing is the weight effect is kind of underestimated on this track,” said Floury. “It drives some working point on the tires that are not so easy to deal with. Clearly, the trend is the weight seems to have quite a big effect.

“We see things we have not seen last time, obviously. It’s not only the 9 kg, we’re talking about a big dispersion across all the cars.

“I think somehow, sometimes it’s probably not linear. We have to deal with it. It’s the working point we have for the weekend.”

Floury, however, dismissed the prospect of a BoP change between now and the start of the Qatar 1812km, saying: “It’s no time to discuss about BoP. It’s try to do the best with what you have.

“I don’t think it would be a good thing [to change the BoP mid-event]. Generally speaking, if you come here with a BoP, you have to stick with it. Changing now would not be in line with the process. We should stick to the process.”

Kobayashi added that Toyota hopes to use its traditional strengths in reliability and strategy to try and claw back some ground despite its lack of pace come race day, but believes that Porsche is in a strong position to break its WEC victory duck.

“However you look at it, Porsche is fast,” said Kobayashi. “They’re definitely the favorite, also because they have a lot of cars! It’s going to be very difficult to challenge them.

“I think if we can use our experience to execute a clean race without mistakes for the full 10 hours, we can score some points and show the strength of the team.

“We still have free practice to come, so we won’t give up and we’ll try to find something before the race.”

John Dagys contributed to this report