Toyota was comfortably leading the 85th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans when a clutch failure handed what would have been its maiden victory at the event to rivals Porsche.
It turns out that a simple thumbs up from a rival driver and a misunderstanding during a pitstop for #7 driver Kamui Kobayashi was behind the clutch failing – and the end to Toyota's Le Mans dream for at least another year.
How did a thumbs up cause a clutch to fail? It turns out that Vincent Capillaire, of the Algarve Pro Racing team, wore a race suit very similar to that of a marshal – both are orange with a black stripe running across the stomach – and he rushed across to give Kobayashi an 'encouraging' thumbs up whilst the Japanese driver was stopped in the pitlane. [Watch the video here].
Kobayashi took that as permission to exit the pitlane, before being told by his team to stop. Some confusion ensued and Kobayashi ended up starting and stopping a couple of times. Of course that wouldn't be enough to burn out the clutch on a regular car, by Toyota's hybrid TS050 isn't a regular car.
The TS050 uses its electrical-power to get going, before the combustion engine kicks in. This reduces wear on the clutch – and reduces the size of the clutch, saving weight – but due to the confusion, Kobayashi was in the wrong mode and used the clutch and combustion engine to get going, which then caused the clutch to fail.
Speaking to SportsCar365, technical director Pascal Vasselon explained: "In this case he has seen a marshal telling him to go, [so] he went. From our side, we told him stop because the safety car queue was coming, and it was not possible [to exit].
"There has been, as you can imagine, some confusion. Start, stop, start, stop," added Vasselon.
"The clutch is not made at all to do that. The clutch is to start the combustion engine when the car is at speed; it’s not to start the complete car.
"So he had burned the clutch because he has been thrown into a situation which should not exist."
So that's how an innocent thumbs up led to Toyota's Le Mans hopes going up in smoke – Capillaire, the well-wisher, was later fined for his actions and issued the following statement.
"Saturday evening, during the race, I was waiting for my relay, helmet on [my] head at my box," he explained.
"I wanted to show my encouragement to the leader car [which was] stopped at a red light a few meters in front of my box.
"It was a spontaneous encouragement mark as it happens between pilots," he said, adding: "I was fined by Stewards for this gesture and I admit it was inopportune. I regret that."
