"This is not what we wanted from our home race" — Kobayashi on Toyota's Fuji struggles
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- 22 hours ago
- 7 min read
Toyota Gazoo Racing was hoping to finally see its fortunes change with its home race at the 6 Hours of Fuji, but it turns out the home crowd did little to alleviate its ongoing struggles.
"Difficult" qualifying sets the stage for a challenging race
On Saturday, Toyota began the first qualifying session with Nyck de Vries (No.7) and Ryō Hirakawa (No.8). The pressure was on for the team to put its cars as close to the front as possible.
Last year, it was the No.8 car that started on the front row, behind the No.2 Cadillac. Yesterday, Hirakawa was the man for the job for the No.8 car, his third consecutive qualifying session. For De Vries, it was his first qualifying session since Le Mans in June.
The Hypercar grid was very competitive, and both drivers needed to improve their lap times to make it to Hyperpole. Hirakawa put on a strong performance to get the No.8 car to the next stage of qualifying, while De Vries missed out on the Top 10 by only 0.103 seconds.
In Hyperpole, Hirakawa's best lap was his first flying lap as he was unable to improve in the subsequent runs due to traffic. The No.8 car was the team's best starting car in eighth. The Japanese driver could be seen shaking his head in disappointment as he returned to the pits.
Hirakawa said: "Obviously, it was a challenging qualifying, but we did our best.
"The gap to pole position is quite big, and that was a bit of a surprise. We need to compete with the package we have and do everything to execute a perfect race.
"I believe we can still get a good result, and I hope to fight for the podium. Anything can happen. We never give up, so we will keep pushing."
In No.7, De Vries lamented that the lack of pace and a fatal mistake contributed to his early exit.
"We knew going into qualifying that it was going to be difficult.
"We just don’t quite have the pace. I think we had the performance to get into the top 10, but unfortunately, I made a mistake in Turn 15, and the tyres only allow one quick flying lap.
"That ultimately cost us a top 10 position. Nevertheless, we will do our best in the race, and I hope we can count on a lot of support from our Japanese fans."
Toyota's Fuji race of struggle ends in another heartbreak
With one car starting eighth and the other in 14th, getting the struggling GR010 Hybrid to the podium was a monumental task in front of the home fans, especially with a 66,400 crowd in attendance.
Sébastien Buemi was the leading man for the No.8. He soon found trouble before the race fully settled. He was hit by the eventual race winner, the No.35 Alpine, forcing him to pit under full course (FCY), and dropping him down to 17th. Adding further salt to the wound, the race directors imposed a three-minute stop-go penalty for an infringement.
In the No.7 car, things were looking far more promising with Mike Conway having a clean 45 minutes of racing. De Vries took over during a virtual safety car (VSC) period and positioned his car well within the top 10 after overtaking the No.6 Porsche and the No.36 Alpine in a single corner.
As the race progressed, it soon became apparent that the No.7 car was the team's last hope to salvage solid points. Another timely VSC near the two-hour mark allowed De Vries to pit with minimum time lost, and the Dutchman returned to the track in third.
De Vries then moved into second after the halfway distance and took the overall lead during the next pit stop window. However, the team's hard work would be undone by an ill-timed safety car.
The No.7 car was already running on fumes at that point and was forced to pit during closed pit lane conditions. Due to the regulation violation, the team was required to make another stop when the pit lane was reopened
Its earlier advantage was lost as Kamui Kobayashi began his driving shift in 13th. The No.8 car was too far behind to make any impression from 16th. Brendon Hartley handed over to Hirakawa for the final two hours.
Kobayashi fought brilliantly in the penultimate hour; the team principal was determined to fight back and reclaim the top 10. He pitted for fuel at the final hour and made further progress at the end to cross the line in eighth. Hirakawa completed a clean but largely uneventful stint to finish 16th, the last of the running Hypercars.
Drivers reflect on Fuji
No.7
Kobayashi was understandably frustrated that the home fans were treated to a struggling show. From the start of the weekend, they had been struggling. He wanted to close the season with a podium in Bahrain to write off something positive about their difficult year.
"This is not what we wanted from our home race.
"We did our very best, but unfortunately, the safety car really hurt us. We were fighting at the front until that point. I tried to recover positions after that, and I think eighth was the best we could manage from there. As a team, we did everything we could, but it wasn’t enough.
"We have struggled this week in terms of performance, so we need to learn from this experience. The last race of the season is next, and I want to stand on the podium. I really hope we can win to give us a positive end to this difficult year. We will do our best to achieve that."
Conway said they were in a good position for a strong finish had it not been for the safety car. The Briton echoed his co-driver's comments about their struggles and linked it to the lack of pace.
"It was looking good for a while, but our luck ran out when the safety car came at exactly the wrong time.
"We were looking good and hanging in there at the front. A top-eight and some points is okay, but ultimately, we didn’t have enough pace.
"There were so many Toyota Gazoo Racing fans in the grandstand, as well as lots of Toyota employees and partners with their families. It was great to have their support, and we did everything to give them a good result. We’ll come back fighting next year."
De Vries said: "We fought very hard, and we did our best.
"At one stage, we were fighting for the podium, but the timing of the safety car was very unfortunate. That kind of ruined our race. It was a pity, but we fought hard, and it had been an exciting race for us up until then.
"Who knows what would have been possible because we were holding on well and ready for a big fight to the end."
No.8
Buemi explained how the puncture from the Alpine contact, combined with the penalty the car received after its pit stop, pretty much settled it for this side of the garage.
"It was a very difficult race with no points for us.
"I suffered a puncture after a few laps due to the contact. We had to do an emergency pit stop, and we made a mistake by not taking another stop when the pits opened again, so we got a big penalty.
"From there, it was impossible to get back into the points, so we used the rest of the race to try to learn something for Bahrain. Hopefully, we will have a bit more luck there, and we can fight at the front."
Hartley summed it perfectly that the No.8's race was truly over just 90 minutes into the six-hour test after they were two laps down. The New Zealander was hoping for a better turn of events for the sister car before it all came crashing down.
"It was a tough day in front of our home crowd.
"We really appreciate their support, and we gave it everything, but it was not the result we all wanted. The penalty put us two laps down, so the race was over for us after one and a half hours.
"I don’t think either car truly had the pace of the leading cars, but car No.7 looked promising at one stage before they ran into bad luck. Now we need to regroup for Bahrain."
Hirakawa noted that "a lot of things did not go their way," arguing that falling so far behind made it impossible to regain the lead lap. Nonetheless, the 31-year-old thanked the fans in attendance and is now banking on the No. 8's success at Bahrain last year to turn their fortunes around.
"It was a hard race, and a lot of things went against us.
"We suffered the puncture so early, and this cost us any chance of a positive result. We tried to fight back, but being so far behind, it was impossible to get back to the lead lap.
"It’s such a pity for our home race to end like this, but I really appreciate all the support we had from everyone here this week. The last race of the season is in Bahrain, where we were strong last year. I hope we can get a good result this time, too."
The upcoming 8 Hours of Bahrain in November will be the team's absolute last hope to finish on the podium. Sitting fourth, they were already mathematically out of the Hypercar Manufacturers' Championship hunt with 105 points, 99 points behind Ferrari.
