Akio Toyoda (Toyota): “The idea of ​​kaizen was missing”

During his visit to Le Mans last year, Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, had witnessed a new defeat for his troops on the double clock, but then pushed the Gazoo Racing team to continue its efforts in order to reach this Holy Grail behind which Toyota had been racing for more than 30 years.

On his 20th attempt, and thanks to the trio Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi and Fernando Alonso, the Japanese firm has finally conquered its demons and tamed the 24 Hours of Le Mans, achieving the double with the second TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi - Mike conway – Jose Maria Lopez.

A long-awaited success which can only delight Akio Toyoda, who sent a message from Japan. “In our history we had never won Le Mans, just looked at the backs of our rivals' [cars], so we dedicated ourselves to developing new technologies, believing that if we made a car faster than theirs , we could win.

However, we were unable to win our 19th race last year. After the race I told the team: "We can't win Le Mans if we only care about making a fast car, what we don't have is strength, we're not not a strong team. »

They worked internally and ultimately concluded that what was missing was the idea of ​​kaizen, or continuous improvement. There are so many specific procedures for building and driving a car, and each person must consider how to prevent mistakes.

They spent the year working on improvement, trying to gain “strength”. Porsche, whom we did not beat, perhaps already had such strength. We haven't played each other again this year, but we would still like to take this opportunity to show them our sincere appreciation. »

Discover the full report and analysis of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, produced by our special correspondents in Sarthe, in issue 2170 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and from this Wednesday on newsstands.