Toyota Drivers Hail “Massive Turnaround” After Early Title

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI

Toyota Racing’s drivers have paid tribute to the job done by the Japanese brand to revive its fortunes in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year after wrapping up the manufacturers’ title with a race to spare with a commanding 1-2 in Barcelona.

The No. 8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa led home a formation finish for the two TR010 Hybrids ahead of the sister No. 7 machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway in a race dominated by the team.

With nearest championship rival BMW suffering a race to forget, it was enough to put the manufacturers’ prize out of reach with only next month’s Monza season finale with a race to spare, while also guaranteeing one of the Toyota crews will win the drivers’ title.

Toyota’s strong form in 2026 with its upgraded car, which was won four races from seven, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, comes as a marked contrast from a challenging 2025 campaign that yielded a single win in the last race at Bahrain.

Both Buemi and Hartley were keen to pay tribute to the work done by the Cologne-based outfit to get back on top.

“It was difficult to know if we would be fast or not, as we didn’t do any laps in the wet all weekend, until lap one of the race,” said Buemi, who picked up a five-second time penalty at the very beginning of the race for a start infraction.

“I was quite good at avoiding the incidents into Turn 1 and Turn 5, the Genesis [drivers] were keen to brake late, so I am happy I kept it on the track and we had a lot of pace.

“The safety car reduced the gap we had, and we lost some time in one of the full-course yellows, so it was a bit tricky, and I am still mad at myself for the penalty.”

“It’s amazing the team managed to fight back after a very difficult last season. Congratulations to the team for an amazing year and now there’s one race to go, and the best crew wins the championship.”

Hartley took over from Buemi for the middle stint, and was able to catch and pass Conway to retake the lead after the No. 8 car temporarily dropped behind.

“We didn’t test here, so we were nervous coming here that we would be at a disadvantage, and in FP1 we didn’t look good,” recalled the Kiwi driver. “We were somehow surprised that we ended up with a dominant performance.

“Some of that came down to tire degradation — the track is very hard on tires and historically that has been one of our strongest points.

“Of course we have one eye on the drivers’ championship, but today is about the team.

“A massive turnaround from last year. We had quite a few tough times, some good times too, but to have such a turnaround, I’m really proud of everyone and it’s great to be part of this project.”

Hirakawa, who was at the wheel for the closing stint as he was for the No. 8 crew’s other victories this year at Imola and Fuji, also admitted to nerves owing to the fact he had spent the weekend up to that point preparing to qualify the car.

“I was really focused on qualifying in all the free practice sessions, so I wasn’t that prepared for the race,” said Hirakawa. “I can say now that I was really nervous about the race because I realized I had not done much to prepare.

“But all the engineers helped me before I jumped in the car and I had good confidence, and I could see the pace was good. I just did what I could, but the car was flying.

“The only tricky thing was that it was spitting [with rain] so I was looking at the sky and hoping for no rain, but otherwise it was under control.”

Team principal Kobayashi, part of the No. 7 crew that finished second, highlighted not only the arrival of the TR010 but also the change of team identity for the 2026 season with the rebranding from Toyota Gazoo Racing to simply Toyota Racing.

“This year we have been very strong in every race, very consistent,” he said. “We didn’t always have the best car, but we scored good points, so as a team we made a good step.

“We had a new car with the TR010, but also we have changed from GR [Gazoo Racing] to Toyota Racing this year, so we have a different organization. Somehow, all the team members have been smiling more this year because we have a good car.

“Now we can enjoy the last race at Monza and see who wins the drivers’ title. We won’t have any team orders, we will fight big-time in that race and see who goes to Shanghai for the weekend [to attend the FIA Gala in December].”

Source: Sports Car 365