Toyota blasts BoP-induced “two-class race” at Le Mans 24 Hours

Toyota Gazoo Racing technical director David Floury has blasted the FIA’s Balance of Performance – without naming it – for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Ferrari dominated the French classic, while the Japanese constructor faltered in fifth and 15th, suffering from a lack of competitiveness compared to the AF Corse-run machines – and others.

“Clearly, we haven’t reached our goal. The goal coming here was to win, so it’s not reached,” Floury matter-of-factly said after the race.

“We knew who was going to be on top. I had announced who was the favourite, I didn’t get it wrong. It’s no surprise, it’s the same thing every year.”

The Frenchman added: “We never really were in a position to fight. The #8 car had a solid race. As we made no mistakes, had perfect execution and made the most of everyone else’s mistakes, we managed to take the lead, but then…

“In the night, we ran softs and others were on mediums, so we did better then, but when day broke we had no chance at all.

“On pure performance, there was no way we could compete.”

The #8 car driven by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa briefly led the race shortly after its halfway point but realistically couldn’t have done better than fifth under the chequered flag – which the #50 Ferrari’s disqualification would have turned into fourth. It wasn’t meant to be, due to a technical failure on the front-left wheel following a late-morning pitstop, forcing Hirakawa to do almost an entire lap with a hobbled car.

“There was never any potential of performance,” Floury bitterly remarked. “It was a two-class race, one with the cars that had top speed and one with the cars that had no top speed.

“Unfortunately, we got the wrong ticket and we were in the second class with Cadillac and Aston Martin.”

Ferrari was fastest at the speed trap in the race with 349.0km/h, followed by Peugeot (346.7km/h), Porsche and Cadillac (345.6km/h), and BMW alongside Alpine (both 344.5km/h). Toyota and Aston Martin were slowest at only 342.3km/h.

Asked where the GR010 Hybrid was lacking, Floury mischievously enumerated: “Between Tertre Rouge and the first chicane, between the first chicane and the second chicane, between the second chicane and Mulsanne, between Mulsanne and Indianapolis, and between Arnage and Porsche [curves]. This is quite accurate!”

The Toyota tech chief also detailed the #7 car’s first-lap incident: “We wanted to stay out of trouble, but in Turn 1, we got sandwiched. We had damage on both sides of the car, on the bodywork, and it was too long to fix. So we had to race with it.”

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries still took the #7 entry to sixth on the finish line, before being promoted to fifth place post-race.