Still The One
It's getting hard for Toyota to hang onto the WEC manufacturers' crown. But not as hard as it is to take it away.
Sébastien Buemi's message was short and to the point.
"To confirm," he radioed, "if we finish second, we lose. If we pass him, we win."
Confirm, came the response.
With that, the final 45 minutes of the FIA WEC season had the ideal motorsport storyline: Buemi needed to put the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 in front of Matt Campbell's race-leading No. 5 Porsche Penske 963 to win the 2024 Hypercar manufacturers' title.
And not just any title, of course, but Toyota Gazoo's sixth straight championship and fourth of the increasingly competitive Hypercar era.
While it's a stretch to call a five-time defending champion a surprise contender, Toyota's path to a title shot heading into the 8 Hours of Bahrain season finale was hardly smooth. Porsche Penske was the more consistent team, factoring in all finishes. The No. 6 entry that won the drivers' title had five podiums through nine rounds, matching Toyota’s total. The No. 5 Porsche tallied four more.
But unlike the Formula 1 constructors’ title, where all results are tallied for each two-car team, the coveted WEC manufacturers' crown is based on the best finish in each round.
Toyota Gazoo picked its spots. It posted more wins than Porsche, 3-2. The Japanese juggernaut also avoided disastrous days for both cars in the same race.
The best example was at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), where the No. 8's 15th place finish was offset by the No. 7's second-place run. Combined with Porsche Penske's forgettable sixth and seventh place finishes--easily their worst combined run of the season--Toyota's effort put it atop the manufacturers' standings for the first time in 2024.
Then came the season's penultimate round at Fuji. Given Toyota's dominance at its home track--nine wins in 10 WEC races, including six in row--keeping the points lead heading to Bahrain seemed almost inevitable. But each Toyota faced an on-track battle with a Penske Porsche—and each lost. The No. 7 was knocked out and the No. 8 served a late-race drive-thru penalty for ignoring blue flags while being lapped.
An insane finale
Fuji's surprising results set the stage for Bahrain, which supplied a season's worth of chaos in eight hours.
Toyota swept the front row in qualifying.
When the racing started, Buemi jumped out in front with his No. 7 teammate close behind.
Mid-pack dicing quickly shuffled both Penske Porsches back from their sixth and seventh start positions. Laurens Vanthoor lost 10 spots in the drivers championship-leading No. 6 Porsche.
At the 17-minute mark, it was Buemi's turn. A bump from behind courtesy of an LMGT3 sent the race-leading Toyota around, costing Buemi valuable track position.
With the No. 6 Porsche adopting a conservative strategy to protect its sizable drivers' championship lead, the manufacturers' battle was left to the second Porsche, the two Toyotas, and two works Ferrari 499Ps with a long-shot chance.
The No. 7 Toyota co-driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries led at the half-way point. But a nagging fuel pressure issue knocked them out with two hours to go, leaving Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley to deliver a title-winning performance.
Two safety car periods helped the No. 8 wipe out a sizable gap to the leaders.
With just under two hours to go, Hirakawa gave way to Buemi. He left the pits in 13th, with both Porsches in the top five.
But Toyota's careful management of the 26 tires allotted each Hypecar for qualifying and the race gave Buemi an edge: two fresh tires for his penultimate stint, and four more--all the preferred medium compound--for the dash to the finish.
Bolstered by the new rubber, Buemi worked his way forward.
"With that little advantage on the tires, I was able to make some moves," Buemi told Sportscar365. "Every two laps, three laps, I was able to pass someone.”
Showdown time
When Buemi came to pit road for the final time with 57 minutes to go, he was third, trailing only the Porsches. He leapfrogged the No. 6 in the pits, setting the stage for a showdown with Campbell in the No. 5.
Campbell brought his Porsche in a lap later, getting the last three fresh tires left in the No. 5's allotment. But Buemi already had his four.
It took seven laps and one radio confirmation for Buemi to track Campbell down. With 40 minutes to go, Buemi put the No. 8 back in front.
But it wasn't quite over.
Buemi's dash under Campbell through Bahrain's slow turn 8 right-hander pushed the Porsche off track. With a title in the balance and a clear race-pace advantage, Toyota took the safe route. Buemi was told to give the position back and then re-take the lead.
So he did.
Then No. 8 Toyota rocketed away to a 27-second victory, snatching the manufacturers’ title by two points.
"It’s crazy to think we won the race considering how it was going at some point," Buemi said. "When our car was down in 10th, we were going to the back of the Hypercar field during the pit stops and I thought we were done. But my teammates did a good job hanging on with the old tires and that meant I had a tire advantage at the end."
Hypercar competition is on the rise.
Peugeot's belated Bahrain third-place classification following a post-race penalty to the second-place No. 51 Ferrari made the French team the sixth of eight manufacturers to score a 2024 podium. Porsche Penske's full-season consistency, underscored by the drivers' title captured by the No. 6 trio of Vanthoor, Kévin Estre and André Lotterer, gives it legitimate claim as the class of the Hypercar field. And the Ferrari 499P is undefeated at Le Mans.
Yet the final standings in the coveted Hypercar manufacturers’ title battle need no explanation.
The kings of the WEC mountain are being forced to make room. But Toyota isn't quite ready to surrender its view from the peak.
More from On Motorsport
References
"With that little advantage on the tires..."
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/charge-to-bahrain-victory-like-a-dream-for-buemi/
"It’s crazy to think we won..."
https://toyotagazooracing.com/wec/release/2024/rd08-race/