Toyota, managing to live with the weight of the past

Until then undefeated, the LMH experienced the bitter taste of defeat in Qatar. Especially Toyota, fell heavily from his pedestal after six victories in seven races last year. Even more telling, the absence of any crew wearing the suits of the team based in Cologne (Germany) in the top three of the general classification is a first for seven years! In August 2018, the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima et Mike conway, Kamui Kobayashi, José Maria Lopez had thought he would sign a third consecutive double this season at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, but were disqualified in the evening, shortly after 22 p.m. The reason: when the wooden pad located under the car was subjected to a force of 2500 Nm, it bent excessively.

Back in 2024. At the 1 km of Qatar, the opening round of this exercise, the Japanese prototypes did not experience a similar mishap. Above all, they have never been able to compete with the Porsche. The unease was palpable during the traditional press briefing after