Sebastien Buemi says that the #8 Toyota crew ‘needs to go all in’ in the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship if it were to have any chance of winning the world championship on Saturday.
Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley currently sit second in the Hypercar standings, fifteen points down on their team-mates with only the Eight Hours of Bahrain left to be contested.
With 38 points on offer in the final race of the season, the trio still has a mathemathical chance at the title, but the sister #7 Toyota would have to retire for that to happen, as a podium finish is enough for them to win the title.
Faced with such odds, Buemi says that the #8 will have to take an aggressive approach into the final race to have any hopes of winning the championship.
“I think for us, the only opportunity is to focus on pole position and winning the race and the rest will not really be in our hands,” he said.
“I think it is quite clear that we will do everything we can. We basically have nothing to lose. Even if we were to have a DNF, it’s not going to change the face of the world.
“We need to go all in and do the best we can, and that’s it. We will take risks and be aggressive, and if it rewards us, it’s amazing. If not, then we look forward to next year.”
Night race will be easier on tyres
The Swiss driver predicts that this Saturday’s race, which will largely take place under the cover of darkness, will be easier on tyres than last weekend’s six-hour event. Toyota struggled with tyre degradation, but Buemi will expect it to not be as bad this Saturday.
“One of the particularities of the new Hypercar is that we do struggle with more tyre degradation than we used to have with the LMP1, which was in some places close to zero deg. So clearly depending on what tracks we go, we suffer more. Clearly, here was not an easy one.
Buemi went on to explain that the track characteristics of the Sakhir venue lead to higher degradation: “It’s quite well known that in Bahrain we tend to have quite a lot of deg on the rear tyres because you have lots of stop-and-go corners.”
“Last week, we had a day race where it was really hot. If anything, I would say that it is going to be slightly easier in the second part of the race because the temperature is going to cool down. The first part is going to be quite similar.”
“On top of that, we have slightly more tyres for a eight-hour race in comparison to a six-hour race, so it should potentially be a bit easier from that point of view.”
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