Comfortable Surroundings

Toyota has dominated its home World Endurance Championship race at Fuji for years. If that keeps up this time around, a sixth straight manufacturers' title will be theirs to lose.

Sep 11, 2024

Toyota Gazoo Racing's five-word social media post says it all: There's no place like home.

Home in this case is Fuji Speedway, where the World Endurance Championship (WEC) will be for Round 7, the second to last race of the season, Sept. 15. And Toyota owns it--literally and figuratively.

The automotive giant bought the circuit, located in Oyama in the foothills of Mt. Fuji, in 2000.

On-track, Toyota Gazoo Racing has won nine of the ten WEC events since the series started running there in 2012, including the last six.

A seventh straight win would be a major step towards Toyota Gazoo’s sixth consecutive WEC top-class manufacturers championship. The No. 7 team's second-place result in Austin Sept. 1--the best finish among the title contenders--sends the manufacturer to its home race with an 11-point lead over Porsche and 19-point gap over Ferrari.

None of the iron-fisted historical grip on its home track will help Toyota tighten its hold on the 2024 manufacturers' title race. But the legendary Japanese carmaker may not need history on its side.

On the heels of July's Round 5 win by No. 8 Toyota GR010 at 6 Hours of São Paulo at Interlagos, Toyota Gazoo seemed on its way to a Round 6 win at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas when No. 7 co-driver Kamui Kobayashi was penalized for not slowing down for yellow flags on course. Forced to serve a drive-through penalty with just 40 minutes to go, Kobayashi went from first place, 11 seconds ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, to second, 10 seconds back.

Kobayashi chased down the yellow Ferrari--supported by the factory operation but technically a customer entry that doesn't accumulate manufacturers' championship points--but ran out of time.

"They were the fastest car on track," Ferrari head of endurance cars Ferdiando Cannizzo acknowledged after Austin. "Our best competitors still have a lot of margin. We saw it at Interlagos and again today...This is something we need to fix for Fuji.”

Ferrari's top-finishing factory car, the No. 50 499P, came home third, while the No. 51 dropped out.

Porsche, which came to Austin atop the manufacturers' standings, saw its factory teams finish sixth and seventh--only the second time this season neither one has made the podium.

The No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 navigated a long road to a sixth-place finish. The result came after qualifying a disappointing 14th, committing its own yellow-flag infringement and surviving a dust-up with the No. 8 Toyota, which was penalized and came home 15th.

"It was a disappointing race, it was a tough weekend all along," said No. 6 co-driver Laurens Vanthoor. "We did come back quite a bit, but unfortunately we had a penalty which cost us a position. Our main title contenders gained some points on us, so not a great day.”

The No. 6 Porsche's so-so Sunday afternoon in Texas was good enough to keep it atop the drivers' championship.

Kévin Estre, André Lotterer, and Vanthoor head to Fuji with a 12-point lead over Nyck de Vries and Kobayashi in the Toyota Gazoo No. 7 and the Ferrari No. 50 trio of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. (Mike Conway, the Toyota No. 7's regular third driver, missed Le Mans with an injury, costing him second-place points that his co-drivers earned and by extension a shot at the drivers' title.)

Barring bad luck for multiple title contenders at Fuji, both championships will likely come down to Round 8's battle in Bahrain. The finale’s 8-hour race format means more points are up for grabs, with larger gaps between finishing positions.

The Porsches are the best bet to keep pace with the Toyotas at Fuji and set up a one-race battle for the manufacturers' title. The Estre-Lotterer-Vanthoor No. 6 trio took third in both qualifying and the race last year, trailing--who else?--the Toyotas.

Toyota Gazoo Racing is simply looking to keep its streaks going—both the home-track dominance and its late-season surge. The manufacturer heads to its most successful track having put one of its two cars on the podium in each of the last three rounds.

"After Le Mans, Fuji is the second most significant race of the season for us," Kobayashi said. "We have always been strong there and we have a fantastic record, with nine wins. Of course, we want to keep that successful run going."