Toyota: COTA “One of the Worst Races We Have Ever Done”

Toyota has described Sunday’s rain-soaked Lone Star Le Mans as “one of the worst races we have ever done” in its long FIA World Endurance Championship history.

David Floury, the technical director of the Cologne-based Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe organization, made the remarks after the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids finished ninth and 14th amid a lack of pace and multiple off-track moments in the poor conditions.

The No. 8 Toyota shared by Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley salvaged two points for ninth, more than a minute down on the winning Porsche Penske Motorsport entry, while the sister No. 7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and injury stand-in Jose Maria Lopez ended up four laps off the pace.

It followed a Sao Paulo race in which neither Toyota scored points amid frustrations with the Balance of Performance, but Floury said the COTA result was harder to accept on account of the team’s poor performance being self-inflicted.

Floury told Sportscar365: “Somehow it was tougher than Brazil. In Brazil we know why we were not up there, but here we were struggling all race and making mistakes.

“Both races were disappointing, but this one even more so. It was one of the worst races we have ever done.

“We never found any grip; only during very short periods we were close, but otherwise there was quite a big gap and we were never in the fight.

“We had some rain last year at Le Mans and Imola, and we have the same tires we had then. On both occasions we were competitive. This time absolutely not.

“When you are struggling for grip you are just fighting to survive and it’s hard for the drivers to keep it in one piece. We still need to analyze what happened.

“The weather prediction was always more optimistic than it turned out, which probably drove us in a [set-up] direction that was probably not the best for these conditions.

“But this is not an excuse because the uncertainty regarding the weather was the same for everyone in the pit lane.

“Definitely Porsche and Ferrari were really strong and they both did a good job.”

Toyota elected to put its No. 7 car on slick tires towards the end of the race as the rain abated, with the car having already lost considerable ground after Lopez, filling in for an injured Mike Conway, spun and became stranded in the gravel.

Kobayashi, who was aboard for the closing stages, remained on the Medium tires until the finish even though the track wasn’t dry enough for the move to pay off.

“We saw that the [No. 15] BMW switched to slicks earlier, and came back on to wets maybe two laps later, but we thought we might be able to learn something for car No. 8,” explained Floury. “But it was still too early.

“We knew it was a risk but anyway we were two laps down. When we saw we couldn’t switch the tires on, we told him to pit for wets, but he said he wanted to stay out. He said, ‘I can manage’, so we agreed and maybe we can see the crossover point.”

Toyota heads to its home WEC race at Fuji Speedway next, but Floury admitted that the Japanese circuit is unlikely to provide a reprieve based on the marque’s recent form.

“Right now we are struggling,” said Floury. “We have to deal with it; we cannot expect any boost. We have to try and fight but it won’t be easy.

“At Fuji we would love to get a win or at least a podium, but we have to fight for it. We know it will be challenging, but we like challenges.”