WEC News: Toyota celebrates 10-Years of Winning

Two icons of endurance racing side by side, each representing a World Championship-winning chapter in Toyota’s illustrious motorsport heritage. A decade on from its 2014 title triumph, the TS040 HYBRID meets TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s latest world beater, the GR010 HYBRID, which earned the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) manufacturers’ crown.

Both cars tell a tale beyond sporting success, encompassing innovation towards a more sustainable future for motorsport.

As Toyota’s second hybrid-powered car for WEC, the TS040 HYBRID, with its 1,000PS and advanced four-wheel drive hybrid system, set new standards of hybrid performance and acted as a rolling test bed for future road car technologies.

More recently, as well as continuing to contribute to high-performance hybrid development, the GR010 HYBRID championed alternative fuels and became the first Le Mans 24 Hours winner and World Champion powered exclusively by 100% renewable biofuel.

Bringing the two prototype legends and technical innovators together evokes memories of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s journey to the top of the endurance world, and of its first title success, completed exactly 10 years ago on 30 November 2014, at the Autodromo José Carlos Pace, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Interlagos – as the track is better known – was the scene of Toyota’s first hybrid WEC victory, in 2012 when Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre won in just the TS030 HYBRID’s third race. But the circuit would go on to claim an even more significant place in Toyota’s motorsport history.

Back in 2014, the TS040 HYBRID had won five of seven races that season and, as Sébastien Buemi recalls: “In terms of pace we were dominating.” But victory at Interlagos was not the number one priority; that was the manufacturers’ World Championship. Going into the season finale, Toyota held a 40-point lead over Audi, with Porsche 92 points behind, and a solid finish would earn Toyota’s first circuit-racing world title.

An immense team effort from the technical centers in Higashi-Fuji and Cologne had already propelled Sébastien and Anthony Davidson to the 2014 drivers’ crown in Bahrain at the previous race. Six hours around the historic 4.309km Interlagos track, in the São Paulo suburbs, stood between the team and a title double, the first for a Japanese manufacturer in WEC.

“It was a really tight fight with Porsche at Interlagos. There were a lot of incidents, and the race finished under safety car. We didn’t win in the end, but we were close,” says Sébastien, whose second place alongside Anthony in the #8 TS040 HYBRID secured the crown. “It was a great achievement to win the title against Porsche and Audi.”

In the sister #7 TS040 HYBRID, Mike Conway experienced title-winning celebrations in only his third race for the team, finishing fourth alongside Alex Wurz and Stéphane Sarrazin. “The TS040 HYBRID was really awesome in 2014, and it was pretty special to be part of the first manufacturers’ world title for Toyota in WEC,” adds Mike. “I was test and reserve driver in 2014 but got to do a few races so I could help add to the points tally.”

A decade on and Interlagos played another crucial role in TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s latest World Championship, with the #8 GR010 HYBRID of Sébastien, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa earning one of the team’s three wins in 2024. The 26 points earned in Brazil proved critical in a season which ended with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing just two points clear of Porsche in the standings.

A highly competitive season, featuring nine Hypercar manufacturers, evolved into a three-way title battle between Ferrari, Porsche and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing. The GR010 HYBRID – powered by a 707PS 3.5-litre, V6 twin turbo engine and 272 PS RACING HYBRID system – already had three manufacturers’ titles to its name, but the team went into the season finale in Bahrain trailing Porsche by 10 points.

An incredible comeback drive, from 10th with just over an hour remaining in the race, saw Sébastien, alongside Brendon and Ryo, defeat the odds to earn victory and the title at the wheel of the #8 GR010 HYBRID.

“It’s always a beautiful feeling to win a World Championship,” adds Sébastien, the team’s longest-serving driver and the most successful in WEC history. “We still have a lot of colleagues who were part of the team in 2014 so it’s amazing to continue winning together 10 years later. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”

Having been part of the team taking on Audi and Porsche in 2014, Mike played a pivotal role in TOYOTA GAZOO Racing overcoming eight Hypercar manufacturers a decade later, winning the Six Hours of Imola alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries.

“It has been a cool experience to develop the cars and hybrid technology over the years,” says Mike. “A lot of drivers have been involved, along with engineers, mechanics and everyone else in the team. They all contribute so much to every success. It’s been a great team effort to win every title, especially this year when we were up against manufacturers with such a fantastic history in motorsport.”

Fans can get up close to TOYOTA’s history-making machines such as the TS040 HYBRID at the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe (TGR-E) Motorsport Museum. The collection, located in Cologne, Germany, beneath one of two high-tech wind tunnels, contains cars from the company’s three different eras. Toyota’s endurance racing heritage is represented by cars such as the TS010 Group C sportscar, the world’s only roadgoing GT-One or the mighty TS050 HYBRID, Toyota’s first Le Mans winner. In addition, it contains Toyota Formula 1 cars, from the TF101 test chassis of 2001 to the unraced TF110 from 2010, as well as highlights from Toyota’s World Rally Championship past, including rare models such as the Group B Celica Twincam Turbo, nicknamed “The Queen of Africa”.