Le Mans awaits Toyota Gazoo Racing

Toyota Gazoo Racing will take on the greatest challenge in sportscar racing next week, seeking a sixth victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours, round four of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

The team are reigning world champions and have won five of the past six editions of the race. Drivers, engineers and mechanics are ready to harness their strong team spirit in what promises to be an epic battle for honours at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Two Toyota Gazoo Racing cars will feature among 23 Hypercar entries, the largest top-class field for the race this century. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, winners already this season at Imola, will drive the No7 GR010 Hybrid while Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, the reigning World Champions, compete with the No8 car.

Five of the team’s six drivers have stood on top of the Le Mans podium. Buemi has four victories to his credit and Hartley three. Conway, Kobayashi and Hirakawa are one-time winners, while de Vries is making his top-class debut in the race, having competed four times in the LMP2 category. Kobayashi holds the outright lap record and Conway the race lap record for the 8.5-mile circuit.

Toyota made its Le Mans debut in 1985, and has since achieved five victories, 17 podiums and eight pole positions, completing more than 16,000 racing laps, equivalent to more than five times around the earth.

Kazuki Nakajima, Vice Chairman of Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe and a winner of Le Mans in three consecutive years, is the Grand Marshal for this year’s event, an honour which includes leading the field away on the formation lap for the race on Saturday, 15 June, in front of an expected 300,000-strong crowd.

Since the first Le Mans 24 Hours in 1923, the race has been a showcase for the latest automotive technologies and pioneering road-relevant innovations. Toyota advances its technology at Le Mans and, since returning in 2012, has competed exclusively with a hybrid powertrain, emphasising its commitment to developing ever-better hybrid cars through endurance racing. The 2024-specification GR010 Hybrid features a 200kW (268bhp/272 DIN hp) hybrid motor on the front axle to deliver four-wheel drive, alongside a 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo engine, which runs on 100 per cent renewable biofuel.

Toyota Gazoo Racing will showcase their technology off the track as well with the return of Toyota’s vision for a potential future Le Mans hydrogen racer, the GR H2 Racing Concept. This year hydrogen is in the spotlight again with an exhibition at the Hydrogen Village, complemented by a Manufacturers Village display focusing on Toyota Gazoo Racing’s motorsport projects and philosophy.

Fans can take an up-close look at the cars this Saturday during the town centre scrutineering session followed by the traditional procession through Le Mans in the afternoon. An official test session is scheduled for Sunday.

Practice begins with two sessions on Wednesday 12 June either side of qualifying, when the fastest eight cars from each class progress to Hyperpole, at 8pm local time on Thursday. After Friday’s driver parade, the race begins on Saturday 15 June at 4pm.

Toyota Gazoo Racing are giving fans the opportunity to delve deeper into their Le Mans challenge, including information about the team and live onboard cameras from the two GR010 Hybrid cars, via a dedicated website at https://toyotagazooracing.com/wec/special/2024/24h-lemans/.

Team quotes

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car no7): “Everyone in the team – at Higashi-Fuji, Cologne, the wider Toyota family, and our partners – has been working flat-out for a year to be ready for Le Mans. We have an intense week ahead of us, against strong competition, and we must be on top of our game to challenge at the front. We need all our team spirit, experience, and effort to challenge for another Le Mans win but we are all determined to do that. It’s a special race with a unique atmosphere thanks to the fans from around the world who support us. From the scrutineering in the city until the podium, we feel their support and it drives us on. I can’t wait to be there again and be part of it.”

Mike Conway (driver, car No7): “Le Mans is always the big race of the year and the one we look forward to most. It’s what we build these cars for. The whole team wants to get a good result and we showed with our win at Imola that if we perform at our maximum, we can succeed. We know it will be hard because there is big competition out there, with some very fast cars. We have to do the best job and, because it’s Le Mans, you need a bit of luck on your side too. We go into the event with our heads held high, aiming for the best result possible. A lot is out of our control, but that’s how it is. We will do our best.”

Nyck de Vries (driver, car No7):“For everyone participating in WEC, this is the biggest race of the year and the one that everyone wants to win; that’s definitely the case for us. It’s my first Le Mans as a Toyota race driver and I am very excited about that. I was part of the team in 2022 as test driver and have raced there in LMP2, but now I will hopefully be fighting for overall victory. It’s an exciting era and it’s going to be a real fight with so many teams and manufacturers. I am looking forward to the marathon week when hopefully Le Mans will choose us.”

Sébastien Buemi (driver, car No8): “Le Mans is a special race and it’s one we work very hard for, with a lot of sacrifice from the whole team and their families. The event is a real journey together, and you have to push to the limit to win. More than 300,000 fans, over 60 cars on track and so many manufacturers involved in a race that has been taking place for 100 years make it a unique experience. On top of that, the track is amazing. It uses public roads, and we can only drive on it for one week a year, so it feels like the kind of old-school circuit which you don’t find often anymore.”

Brendon Hartley (driver, car No8): “Le Mans is what all our hard work is geared towards. It’s the race that arguably means more than the whole season put together. Even if we didn’t have the cleanest of starts to the season, I feel we are well prepared, and I will be giving everything together with my team-mates and every member of the team to fight for that famous top step of the podium. Last year the crowd was amazing, and I expect with even more competitors this year, we will again have a full house of fans and racing enthusiasts from all over the world. It’s a special race which brings a whole range of emotions. We are ready for it.”

Ryo Hirakawa (driver, car No8): “This will be my fifth Le Mans, my third for Toyota Gazoo Racing, and I cannot wait. There is no better feeling than standing on the top of the podium after 24 hours; it’s what every endurance driver dreams of and I was able to achieve that in 2022. Knowing how it feels to win makes me even more motivated to stand there again but we know it will not be easy. Racing flat-out for 24 hours, anything can happen, and we face strong competition in Hypercar. But the team have worked really hard to be ready, and we will do our best to get the result.”
ENDS