Toyota Racing heads to Monza for the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season having already secured the manufacturers’ championship in Barcelona. With the penultimate round confirming Toyota as the constructors’ champion, the focus now shifts entirely to the drivers’ title, which will be decided between the two Toyota crews: the #7 snd the #8 cars.
With no other manufacturer or crew mathematically in contention, Toyota is guaranteed to take the drivers’ crown. What remains undecided is which side of the garage will finish the season as world champions.
For Hartley, the situation is straightforward when arriving with a healthy points advantage: “It’s definitely not done yet, We have a healthy lead coming into the race. Myself, Seb and Ryo have been discussing a lot in the last weeks how we need to approach this without thinking about it.
“Full attack. We know anything can happen with these races. You just have to look at Fuji where we didn’t have the performance and we ended up winning the race.”
Nevertheless, the championship situation inevitably brings the sister car into the equation. “Maybe we have to be looking over the shoulder at the other car a little bit as well. Because, effectively, we’re just racing them for the Drivers’ Championship,” he added. Hartley also recognises that the psychological approach could differ between the two crews, with the #7 having less to lose. “Where we’ll be thinking a bit more about how we can secure the championship.”
From Toyota’s side, however, there will be no intervention in the battle. Technical director David Floury was clear that the team intends to give both crews the same opportunities, leaving the outcome entirely in the hands of the drivers.
“Obviously, there will be no team orders. There’s never any team order within our structure,” Floury stated. He further explained that, with the manufacturers’ title already secured and both cars fighting for the drivers’ championship, Toyota has no intention of favouring one side of the garage.
“As a team, we don’t want to interfere in the fight. We want to provide fair conditions to the two cars. Then the drivers make the decision on the track, not for us to interfere in this fight,” he said.
That also means both cars will be free to race each other, even if their respective championship positions call for different approaches. As Floury put it, “Obviously, they are battling against each other. It’s part of the battle.”
For Nyck de Vries, the points situation is a significant challenge, but the Dutchman is not approaching Monza with the intention of simply accepting the result. “There’s nothing we can do about the gap today. We approach the weekend like every other. We do our best. And it’s not impossible. So, you know, you never know. You can’t discard any situation,” he said.
De Vries believes the nature of the race could also play a role. With the gravel surrounding the circuit and the potential for safety car interventions, the six-hour event could offer opportunities for the #7 crew to make up ground. “I think here we could face a race with quite some interventions, FCYs, safety cars, because there’s a lot of gravel,” he explained.
The Dutchman is also keen to put the championship fight into the wider context of Toyota’s season. The team has shown significant improvement compared with previous campaigns, with its performance in Barcelona particularly impressive. “I think Barcelona was probably our most dominant win,” De Vries said. However, he was keen to point out that the team’s success has not simply come from having the fastest car.
“I think in many cases we’ve also been operating very strong as a team and making the difference on operation. They were one strongly on operation and execution and, yeah, the team deserved all the credits for that.”
Floury also admitted that the performance advantage in Barcelona had come as a surprise, particularly given how close the competition had appeared during practice. “I was not expecting to walk away from Barcelona with a manufacturer title in the pocket, with the guarantee that one of our two crews would be World Champion in the Drivers’ Championship,” he said.
He was also quick to point out that Toyota should not necessarily expect the same level of dominance at every circuit, highlighting the differences between track characteristics and conditions throughout the season. Now, at Monza, the team faces a different kind of challenge. The manufacturers’ championship is settled, but the drivers’ title remains open, and Toyota’s two cars will be competing for the same prize. With Floury confirming that both crews will receive equal treatment, there will be no team orders to determine the outcome in advance.
Discussion about this post