Nyck de Vries on Toyota’s title fight, his WEC evolution and Mike Conway
As the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season approaches its conclusion, Nyck de Vries reflects on Toyota’s title fight, his own development in endurance racing and working alongside Mike Conway.
The Barcelona weekend has been a unique experience for the WEC field, with the iconic Spanish track hosting its first ever round of the championship. As events in the Middle East had already been cancelled due to the ongoing war, teams and drivers face this curveball test as the penultimate round, before bolting off to Monza for the grand finale.
Entering the seventh race of the 2026 campaign, Toyota Racing finds itself in a very strong position. Their two cars, the No.7 and No.8 sit atop the drivers standings, the latter leading by ten points, while they hold a 23-point lead over BMW in the race for the manufacturers championship.
On Thursday, before on-track running began, Nyck de Vries, driver of the No.7 TR010 Hybrid, spoke to DIVEBOMB's Marios Gantzoudis. The Dutchman enters Barcelona firmly in the title fight alongside fellow No.7 teammates Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.
''It's certainly a different challenge, but in terms of preparation, we have focused on our normal processes'', De Vries explains when discussing Toyota's preparations for Barcelona.
''Of course, we've looked at previous accessible data as much as we could, such as from the recent European Le Mans Series (ELMS) race. However, we haven't really ran at this track recently. Some of our competitors have. So, I would say that's a small disadvantage. But personally, I've been here quite a lot in my in my career and I like the track.''
De Vries' 2026 campaign alongside Conway and Kobayashi in the No.7 Toyota has been an interesting one to study, featuring both major triumph and misfortune. Their only victory so
far came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the No. 7 Toyota overcame a sensor issue that affected the car's power during the race.
Following that however, came a forgettable race in São Paulo, where Toyota's pace evaporated, with both cars outside the points. Then, came a painful missed win at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), where the No.7 Toyota looked destined to be victorious.
However, disaster struck 11 minutes from the end, when - with De Vries behind the wheel - a hydraulics issue forced the car into retirement, handing the win to the No.50 Ferrari. A tricky wet race at Fuji, Toyota's home event, meant an eighth place finish, but with the sister No.8 car ending up with the win after a strategic masterstroke, it was a happy one for Toyota.
When discussing the different experiences De Vries explained his mindset. ''The way I try to process both good and bad experiences is that there is always the next race. So regardless if you have a good or a bad race, there's always the next coming up soon. And regardless of what happened before, there is a new race to be won.
''So I think it's important to have consistent emotions. Of course, we are allowed to have emotions and be happy or disappointed. But ultimately, there is always a next and we are still very much in the title-fight, both as a manufacturer and as drivers.''
''Even though it feels different, it's not. So yeah, no difference in approach. Keep trusting the process and continue to do what you do and sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't go your way.
''It's also a little bit inherent to endurance racing. It never goes as planned because the race is very long. There are different categories on track. A lot of unexpected things can happen. So you will always have that element of adaptation and unexpected curveballs that can come your way during a season or during a race.''
One factor assisting Nyck with that mindset is his involvement in Formula E, where he famously won the 2020-21 championship driving for the Mercedes-EQ team. Now driving for Mahindra and already set for his fourth season with the team in 2026-27, De Vries said: ''I personally think it's helping me very much and I'm very happy to have that dual involvement''.
With only two rounds to go, things are still tight when it comes to the fight for the drivers crown. The No.8 Toyota, consisting of Ryo Hirakawa, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi, with the latter entering his landmark 100th WEC event, head the standings with 89 points.
De Vries, Kobayashi and Conway follow in the No.7 Toyota, having 79 points, with the BMW's Robin Frijns and Rene Rast driving the No.20 car are third with 75 points, six ahead of teammates Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello, who drive the No.15 BMW.
Despite the allure of a first WEC drivers title, the Dutchman specified that the team comes first.
''The bigger objective and the first priority for us as a team is to win the Manufacturer's Championship. That is very clear and obvious'', he says when asked about that balance between individual achievement and team success.
''We are always working together as a team and that won't be any different. And then whatever happens next for the other championship, I think the priority is that Toyota should win. I don't think we need to be making any specific decisions right now but as long as we have those priorities and objectives straight, then I think we're all professional enough to understand how to manage that''.
A first WEC driver's title would nevertheless mean a great deal to De Vries: ''It would mean very much to me because I feel like that is the highest priority for me right now''. He then went on to mention that joining his fellow teammates in becoming a WEC champion would be ''great and an honour''.
Of course the 2026 season marks De Vries' third in Endurance racing's ''pinnacle'' Hypercar class, after his short Formula One stint with Alpha Tauri, that only lasted ten races in 2023.
Toyota, already employing him as a reserve driver, chose him as a replacement for the departing Jose Maria Lopez. His arrival however coincided with the beginning of a downward trend for Toyota, as the GR010 Hybrid had started showing its age.
The Japanese manufacturer just held on to win the 2024 Constructors crown, but the drivers title went to Porsche's No.6 crew, with the No.50 Ferrari trio in second, just ahead of De Vries and Kobayashi in third.
2025 went worse, with the team enjoying a disappointing - for the most part - campaign, that was saved at the last minute. With a 1-2 finish at the season finale in Bahrain, the team scored more than a third of it total points tally for the year (65 out of 171), just ending up in second behind runaway champions Ferrari.
During these years, De Vries has gained valuable lessons and experience. ''I could say that experience is definitely noticeable in endurance racing'', he says. ''Although it sounds cliche, I think we are constantly learning.
''I can definitely feel that the experience and time with the team is making me a better driver all the time. So the more you spend with your team, with your car crew, with your teammates as well as in this championship, it just makes you over time a more complete driver.
''But that process never stops and it's an honour to be with Toyota and with the teammates I'm with.''
This evidently appears to pay off for De Vries, especially when taking a closer look at his performances in 2026, where he has been on average the fastest of the No.7's drivers on three occasions.
This includes the two most recent races at COTA and Fuji, based on The B-Pillar's analysis, which ranks drivers based on the pace of their fastest 50% of eligible laps, excluding pit-in and pit-out laps and the opening lap, and considering only laps within 110% of both the class's fastest lap and each driver's personal best.
One of Nyck's teammates, Mike Conway, recently announced his retirement from professional racing at the end of 2026. The 43-year old has been a Toyota staple ever since first joining them in 2014, driving at three races, in-between his final season in IndyCar.
From there onwards a very productive and extremely successful relationship was established, that lasted 13 seasons and brought Conway two WEC driver's titles, two Le Mans 24 Hours wins and 20 wins in total.
''I think Mike has been a very, very valuable and important part of our team for many years and apart from his skills and qualities on track, I think he is a very, very good person and a good guy. How much you learn from each other, it's hard to quantify'', De Vries said, when asked about his experience working alongside him.
''Because everybody has different strengths and weaknesses, you naturally learn from each other. By working together, by collectively building a weekend, you learn from each other all the time.''
''I'm wishing him all the best and I am very grateful that I had the chance to share the car with him. I'm also the youngest in the team and personally I really valued the chance to listen to all the stories from the racing experience that most of the guys have.''
''Mike raced in IndyCar, at the Indy 500, he raced against Lewis Hamilton, that's kind of his generation. I just love listening to the racing history that we have in the team and clearly we should respect and appreciate how much talent we have because everyone has achieved a lot in their career and done a lot and Mike is certainly one of them as well''.
Finally, when asked about how good of a ''parting gift'' would a championship be, De Vries responded wholeheartedly with ''winning the championship together would be the cherry on the cake'', also commenting that already having won the Le Mans 24 Hours beside him ''was something we were definitely dreaming of and to do it in Mike's last year was incredible, especially in a very hard-fought way.''
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