The drive-through penalty against Kamui Kobayashi at the WEC in Austin causes astonishment at Toyota – reactions ranging from “surprise” to “bizarre ”
The 2024 Lone Star Le Mans almost ended with a Toyota victory. This was the first surprise for Gazoo Racing, who had only seen themselves as outsiders in the run-up to the race due to the worst hypercar classification by far. Even more surprising was the penalty for Kamui Kobayashi
“We did everything we could to win in terms of driving, strategy and pit stops. But the penalty was unfortunate and a big surprise for me, to be honest. To get a drive-through penalty for that is a bit surprising,” says Kobayashi as the affected driver, who also holds the position of team principal.
Team-mate Mike Conway is also not sparing with his criticism of the penalty: “I’ll have to look at it again, but it was a bit strange why we got the penalty. It seemed to be a single yellow flag for a car that had parked on the left-hand side. “
“And then to luff in the middle of the straight? That just seems bizarre to me. That cost us the win. Kamui gave everything he had to get the win back, and in the end he got as close as two seconds. But that was it.”
Nyck de Vries, who turned the 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid into a contender for victory with a strong stint in the middle of the race, put it diplomatically: “We all did a great job, but unfortunately the drive-through penalty cost us the win. We still have to investigate that, because we’re not quite sure yet.”
“Nevertheless, it’s a strong result for the team and the world championship, it’s just bitter-sweet to miss out on the win when it was already in the bag. “
Toyota 83 AF Corse is now leading the race!
Watch LIVE on https://t.co/IPZa0nvsLu or MAX in the United States. WEC 6HCota pic.twitter.com/avYumrIYin
– FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) September 1, 2024
Driving too fast under double yellow flags is a sore point with the FIA, as Jules Bianchi had his fatal accident at the 2014 Formula 1 race in Suzuka under such conditions. Full-course yellow was eventually switched for the recovery of the stranded Peugeot 94.
How Toyota became a candidate for victory in the first place
This brings us to the real surprise. In view of the classification and the (renewed) resurfacing of parts of the Circuit of the Americas, which had a positive effect on the durability of the tires and thus leveled or even reversed Toyota’s advantage, Toyota had not expected to fight for the podium, let alone for victory.
“Before the race, we really didn’t know where we would end up,” says Conway. “I thought a place in the top five would be good, maybe even a podium finish. But as the race went on, our pace got better and better because the track got grippier and grippier.”
He underlines the importance of the increasing grip due to tire degradation over the course of the 6-hour race with an anecdote from qualifying: “In qualifying, we only had one lap on the tires and got tire degradation, so we couldn’t push any longer. Others seemed to have it easier, they could do more laps, but not us. With more grip, tire management became easier and easier for us. “
@Mikeconway26 and @BrendonHartley wrap up the sixth round of the @FIAWEC at @COTA ToyotaGAZOORacing WEC GR010HYBRID 6HCOTA PushingTheLimitsForBetter pic. twitter.com/99FiEZmBRj
– TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WEC (@TGR_WEC) September 2, 2024
Using the hard tire, however, was out of the question for the Cologne team: “We tried the hard tire at the start of the weekend with the 8. It quickly became clear that it wouldn’t work for us. The medium tire worked well: good grip and good traction. We lost a bit of grip in traffic, but that was the case for everyone.”
Naturally, expectations rose with the performance in the race: “We were in the lead and I thought we should have won the race. It was just unfortunate that the yellow flag came out. Everyone did a good job, the pit crew, the drivers, the pit wall made good decisions. That’s what got us into the fight [for victory] in the first place. “
