It was a demonstration of power that was reminiscent of the boring years of the World Endurance Championship: Toyota dominated the 6-hour race in Sao Paulo at will. Four-time Le Mans winner Sebastien Buemi and his teammates Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa crossed the finish line after 236 laps with a gigantic lead of 1:08 minutes over the Penske-Porsche duo.
While the Japanese had to admit defeat to Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Toyota GR010 Hybrid really turned up the heat at the fifth race of the season in Interlagos. The race figures also show this: Mike Conway burned the best time of the day into the hot asphalt in the #7 Toyota on lap 2: 1:24.801 minutes, 0.8 seconds faster than the fastest Porsche and 1.4 seconds faster than the best Ferrari.
Toyota in its own league at WEC race in Sao Paulo
There was no doubt about the top speed either. Ryo Hirakawa from the victorious #8 Toyota brought his hypercar to a top speed of 282.6 km/h – around 4 km/h more than Porsche and 7 km/h better than the Ferrari. “We couldn’t get a hold of Toyota today,” admitted Porsche Motorsport Director Thomas Laudenbach, whose team is still leading the World Championship.
Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa drove in a league of their own to their first WEC victory of the season. It should have been a double triumph for Toyota, had a fuel flow problem not cost the #7 (Conway, Kobayashi, De Vries) almost three and a half minutes in the pits in addition to a drive-through penalty. Kamui Kobayashi’s insane comeback in the final laps from seventh to fourth place showed what the Japanese hypercars were really capable of.
Kamui Kobayashi rolls over Ferrari – Maranello flattened
The former Formula 1 driver practically rolled over the two factory Ferraris in his escape to the front, gaining more than a second per lap. The officials in Maranello were accordingly stunned. “At the end of a race like this, it is difficult to find the right words to express the team’s frustration and feeling of helplessness,” sports car boss Antonello Coletta was quoted as saying in the Ferrari press release.
Despite a flawless drive, it was impossible for Ferrari to achieve a better result than fifth and sixth place. In fact, only the #51 (Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi, Calado) was slowed down by a drive-through penalty, while the reigning Le Mans winners Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari were not at fault.
Ferrari hopes for “fair fight” at next WEC race
The only thing that was up for debate was the choice of tires: Ferrari strategists opted for a split tire strategy at the start of the race, with medium compounds on the left and hard compounds on the right. The two Toyotas, on the other hand, completed the entire race distance exclusively on Michelin’s medium tires. This mixture turned out to be the best – at least on the Toyota.
“We knew we couldn’t fight for the win and unfortunately what happened in the simulations was confirmed by what happened in the race,” said Ferrari’s Coletta. “We hope to have the chance to have a fair fight in Austin.” The gap to the competition was far too big to challenge for a podium place,” said Ferrari’s endurance boss Ferdinando Cannizzo.
Ferrari suffers World Championship setback despite technology update
After its second Le Mans victory in a row, Ferrari had to add 17 kilograms, the most extra weight of all nine hypercars. At 1,060 kilograms, the 499 P was just as heavy as the Toyota, which in turn had to add 7 kilograms for Sao Paulo. The Japanese GR010 Hybrid (-2 kW), however, lost 3 kW less power than the Ferrari (-5 kW) and drove with 506 kW (687 hp) to 503 kW.
The fifth of eight races of the season was not a good place for Ferrari, which had previously announced its intention to attack Porsche’s lead in the world championship. The Italians even brought their first technical update, consisting of new brake cooling, a revised underbody and aero flicks under the headlights. In fact, Ferrari (109 points) lost second place in the Manufacturers’ World Championship to Toyota (122 points). Porsche remains the leader with 126 points.
The Balance of Performance plays a crucial role in the WEC – but you are not allowed to talk about it. Toyota recently found out what happens when you talk about the BoP despite the FIA gag rule: