Toyota Focused on “Big Picture” as Title Chance Looms

Toyota Racing technical director David Floury says the team must remain focused on the “big picture” after losing out to Genesis Magma Racing in the fight for pole at Barcelona, ahead of a chance to wrap up the FIA World Endurance Championship title early.

After its victory at Fuji last month, the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Ryo Hirakawa, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley  has a 10-point lead in the drivers’ standings over the No. 7 crew, and a 14-point lead over BMW pair Rene Rast and Robin Frijns.

Hirakawa has put the No. 8 car in a position to potential put the title out of reach of Toyota’s rivals after qualifying second behind Genesis driver Mathys Jaubert on Saturday, with the two BMW M Hybrid V8s down in 14th and 16th on the grid.

While praising Genesis’s performance, Floury suggested that Toyota must put its championship ambitions ahead of any desire to beat the upstart Hypercar newcomer.

“It’s not a surprise,” Floury told reporters after qualifying when asked for his view on Genesis’s performance. “Their performance is getting stronger and stronger, there are reasons for that, but they are doing a good job for a first season.

“Even at Le Mans they did quite well, to be honest. It’s good to have many strong teams.

“But we are not fighting Genesis. We have to think about the big picture and not carried away by fights that are not our fights.”

When it was put to him by Sportscar365 that Hirakawa’s front-row effort has brought a potential early coronation into view, Floury replied: “For sure. But this is only qualifying.

“Tomorrow we might see a different picture in different conditions, so let’s not get overexcited. We have to deliver tomorrow. But for sure, if the situation [in qualifying] was to stay like that, it’s a good opportunity for both championships.

“In the top five of the championship, the three non-Toyotas are behind both our cars on the grid. But once again, tomorrow might be very different.”

Floury said in the run-up to the Barcelona race that a lack of pre-event testing could count against Toyota in its championship fight against BMW, which did test at the circuit along with Genesis and Cadillac in July.

Asked by Sportscar365 if he still held such a view, he said: “You can see it two ways. You can measure yourself against BMW, or against Genesis.

“If we had tested here, maybe we would be on pole. This [bonus] point can make the difference at the end of the year. You have to grab every opportunity you can.”

Floury Praises “Really Strong” Hirakawa After Unexpected Front Row

On Hirakawa’s qualifying performance, Floury said the Japanese driver’s performance was to thank for a grid position that was better than he anticipated.

“It’s better than we expected to be honest,” said Floury. “We managed to extract a bit more pace from qualifying from usual. We have been trying hard to improve this because it has been one of our weaknesses so far.

“Ryo has driven amazing laps. He is really strong at the moment. I did not expect such a delta to the free practice sessions. So all the credit goes to him.”

On the deficit between the two Toyotas, with Nyck de Vries only managing the ninth-best time in Hyperpole, 0.787 seconds off pole, Floury said that set-up differences explained the gap, as Toyota continued to experiment until the last moment.

“This track is almost new for us, so we take any opportunity to explore a bit, and there are some set-up differences between the cars,” he said. “So now we have to close the gap between the cars.”

For his part, Hirakawa said he believed a chance at pole was in the offing had he not been forced to back out of his second push lap when the No. 19 Genesis of Mathieu Jaminet, who qualified third, came to a halt at Turn 5.

“You can always say whatever you want but in Q2 on my second push lap, I did an improvement in sector one, and then there was a double-yellow at Turn 5, so I had to abort,” Hirakawa told Sportscar365. “Otherwise, I could have been quicker.

“It’s a shame, but we have to accept that. But I was happy with the car. We hadn’t tested here, so P2 is something big for the team.

“I had confidence after FP3. I didn’t have a clean lap in FP2 or FP3 but I had confidence with the car. But the team did a good job in qualifying, the car was flying.”

On his race prospects, Hirakawa added: “It’s always better to start at the front, especially if it rains tomorrow. We need to also make sure we finish the race, because it’s easy to end up in the gravel here. But so far we are doing a very nice job.

“So we’ll take it step by step and see what we can do.”