Ferrari ‘clearly faster’ than Toyota so far at Le Mans

Ferrari had the fastest car at the Le Mans 24 Hours test day with an advantage that may be difficult to overcome, Toyota drivers reckon.

Brendon Hartley gave Toyota the quickest time on Sunday with a 3m26.246s lap in the afternoon session, just over half a second faster than the #51 Ferrari then driven by James Calado.

Toyota promptly played down the significance of the result, with its drivers going a step further ahead of free practice by saying the Italian marque is a clear step ahead.

“The Ferrari is faster, clearly,” Sebastien Buemi said. “Especially the yellow one [#83 car], it’s incredible.

“We won’t be a second off, we may be three/four tenths away, which is too much already. 

“Maybe we’re not three/four tenths off, maybe we’re on the same level, or two tenths away, I don’t know.”

Hartley said his fastest time allowed him “to sleep a little bit better the next two nights, but ultimately it doesn’t mean that much”, adding he was “lucky enough” to get “a good peak out of the tyres”.

“The long runs I would still say Ferrari really did look the strongest,” the three-time Le Mans winner added.

“And then behind them we’re in a very tight group with more or less all the manufacturers, so I think it’s going to be really tight. I’m sure everyone’s doing their best to close that gap to Ferrari.

“They’ve clearly made some progress from last year.”

Buemi was particularly impressed by the #83 car’s pace on the test day, with Robert Kubica’s first lap a 3m30.463s before he topped the morning session by close to a full second.

“The yellow one, it did lap after lap after lap – many very fast laps, with great speed,” the Swiss driver insisted. “So Ferrari, for me, is faster.

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

“Often, this yellow car does amazing things at times. Then, when it matters, it generally doesn’t win. It tends to do crazy things at the beginning, on many tracks, then when it matters, it’s not as good.”

The car Kubica shares with Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson is the only Ferrari yet to grab pole position or win a race this season, having qualified second on two occasions and achieved just one podium finish. It retired due to an exhaust problem in the last race at Spa-Francorchamps.

However, it’s not all about Ferrari. “I don’t want to only speak about them; they’ve had some updates on the car, we haven’t,” Hartley pointed out. “I think we’ve done well, we’ve made small steps on set-up, understanding our car.”

Toyota has been trialling set-up changes that it previously experimented on other tracks in a bid to improve its car performance.

“We think we’re in the mix,” said Hartley. “Yeah, you’re probably hearing the same up and down the pitlane, it looks like Ferrari were ahead, but we never know everyone’s run plans and how things can evolve, and we think we’re in the fight.

“It’s not only about pace, it’s about executing and putting together a perfect Le Mans. Even the fastest car doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to stand on the top step.”