The world’s premier endurance race and one of the events that form the “Triple Crown” of global motorsport, the 24 Hours of Le Mans will host its 94th edition on June 13 and 14, the 15th since it joined the World Endurance Championship calendar. And considering races since 2012, when the current World Endurance Championship was launched, no team has won the event more times than TOYOTA RACING, which boasts five victories since then.
The team made its WEC debut precisely in the 2012 edition, when it lined up two Toyota TS030 HYBRIDs. Over the years, the squad evolved, coming very close to victory in 2016 when an issue with six minutes left to the end of the race postponed the dream of the first triumph at Le Mans. The first victory arrived two years later, in 2018, with the trio of Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima triumphing aboard a Toyota TS050 HYBRID.
From the 2018 victory onward, TOYOTA RACING put together a series of wins in the world’s most important endurance race. Five in total. Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima would again win the event in 2019, while Brendon Hartley, who replaced the Spaniard in 2020, triumphed alongside the Swiss and the Japanese, sealing the team’s third consecutive triumph and the Toyota TS050 HYBRID, which was retired at the end of that championship.
In 2021, TOYOTA RACING began competing in the WEC with the Toyota GR010 HYBRID, a model that wins at Le Mans right on its debut. This time, the winning drivers were Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López. The fifth consecutive victory for the team was achieved in 2022, again with Buemi and Hartley, who were joined by the Japanese driver Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel of the car.
Beyond the victories, TOYOTA RACING has, in the Le Mans 24 Hours counted for the WEC, 15 podium finishes. More than that, Buemi is the active driver with the most victories at the world’s most famous long-duration race in this period, with four triumphs.
The Swiss driver returns to compete in this year’s race, once again sharing the cockpit with Hartley and Hirakawa, forming the same trio that won in 2022. The other TOYOTA RACING car at Le Mans will be piloted by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries. It will be the debut of the Toyota TR010 HYBRID model at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The event’s schedule for this year will open on June 10, with two free practice sessions and the first part of qualifying. The following day will feature two more practice runs and the Hyperpole, which will decide the pole position. The start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is set for June 13, Saturday, beginning at 11:00 a.m., Brasília time.
