No excess confidence at Toyota Gazoo Racing

Toyota showed its strength all week during the various Free Practice sessions but also and above all during the Hyperpole where the 3:23.900 of Kamui Kobayashi panicked the clock. " We know Toyota always keeps a little bit and Kamui is super fast here on one lap. We expected to be less than a second, and we ended up at 1.6. The gap was a little too big in our eyes but we didn't have a perfect qualification either in terms of management. We are a little surprised but not far from what we expected”, declared the pilot Alpine Nicolas lapierre, former resident of the Japanese team. Even Pascal Vasselon, the technical director of Toyota Gazoo Racing, was surprised by such a trick: “ We didn't expect a 23.9 that's clear, the drivers beat the simulation. »

In terms of pace, the Japanese cars showed that they were clearly above the competition, even if the Japanese clan kept an eye on the Glickenhaus. “ Glickenhaus should not be eliminated, warns Pascal Vasselon. They are a little slower than we expected after Monza, but it is their first 24 Hours and Le Mans is quite specific for cars and for drivers. I think they can still improve for the race, like they did at Monza. We keep this weekend route in mind because their pace surprised us. At Le Mans we may have a similar surprise as they have the potential to be the fastest based on performance factors. »

Reliability in question

Ultimately, the only element that seems to be able to stop Toyota's progress could be reliability problems. At Monza, both cars encountered problems: “ On the 8, we had fuel contamination at Monza with grease and it was extremely difficult to see because the grease was not visible. And on the 7, it was an electronic problem », explains Vasselon. The slightest problem could thus benefit Alpine or Glickenhaus… or even an LM P2. “ The LM P2s should not interfere too much with the Hypercars racing in the sense that they should not be too difficult to pass on the straights. On the other hand, what is clear is that they are close, between two and three seconds, and we therefore do not have the right to spend half an hour in the box. For example, with what happened in 2014, where the winning Audi spent 25 minutes in the box, or in 2017 with the Porsche whoever wins spends an hour in the pit… If a Hypercar spends more than half an hour in the pits this year, the victory will be for an LM P2. We have no margin for a problem lasting several minutes”, explains the French engineer.

If all goes well for them, victory should be between the two Japanese crews. After three consecutive successes for number 8, will luck finally turn towards number 7 of the trio? Mike conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria López ? " All the drivers are in a particular state of mind when they approach Le Mans, perhaps this is even more the case in the 7 because Le Mans has escaped them several times with incredible bad luck for the drivers. Particularly last year because the bad exhaust, for which the team has its share of responsibility in checking the quality of its suppliers, was found on their car whereas it could have been found on the 8. The drivers are high-level athletes and they have this ability at a given moment to forget any notion of external pressure to concentrate on what they have to do without being disturbed by the past or the future. This is what makes top athletes. »