Toyota and Alpine came to blows at 300 km/h at Monza: why the Japanese believe it wouldn’t have changed the result and why Alpine was so strong
Toyota vs Alpine, that was the battle for victory in the WEC race at Monza after the dominant Glickenhaus retired. And both teams fought on equal terms. Time and again, there were wheel-to-wheel duels – until finally Kamui Kobayashi and Matthieu Vaxiviere got in each other’s way on the start-finish line at 300 km/h.
The result was a puncture at the right rear and a badly damaged rear end on Kobayashi’s GR010 Hybrid. The Japanese driver managed to keep his Toyota under control with some difficulty. He was later found by race officials to have caused the collision and was given a 90-second stop-and-go penalty.
“In my stint I struggled a bit with the pace. I tried to keep our position and we made the strategic decision not to change tyres at my pit stop. This allowed us to maintain our position, but I started to lose pace,” reported the driving Toyota team principal.
“Then I had contact with the Alpine, which caused us damage, lost a lap and then got the penalty.” Accident rival Vaxiviere, on the other hand, got away scot-free. He took the lead in the scene and did not relinquish it until the finish. How did the Frenchman see the collision?
Alpine enjoys the duels in Monza
“I really enjoyed those battles. That’s what we want to see,” enthused the Alpine driver. “It was a great race and a great battle. We all did the same lap times, not in the same way, but I really enjoyed it. It was really nice to have all these hypercars together. “
One who didn’t really enjoy the duels with Alpine was Sebastien Buemi of the 8 Toyota. “We were racing against a car that is not made to compete with ours. They are fast in the corners and have no [tyre degradation], so they can do four stints on the tyres,” says the Swiss.
“On the straights they were a bit slower, but they were almost as fast as us. I feel like that doesn’t make sense, but that’s the way it is.” Buemi’s comments illustrate how difficult it is for the WEC rule-makers from the ACO to classify all the cars in the hypercar class in the best possible way.
Toyota questions BoP classification in the Hypercar class
At Le Mans, which Alpine was not allowed to win according to Kobayashi, the grandfathered LMP1 still had a top speed deficit of 11.5 km/h to Toyota. In Monza, Alpine was allowed to run with 15 hp more compared to the final Le Mans BoP, Toyota got eight hp and one kilogram of weight added. The top speed deficit was reduced to 2.7 km/h.
Contact at 300kph between the @SignatechAlpine No.36 and the @TGR_WEC No.7 . oh dear….WEC 6HMonza pic.twitter.com/2rRo7GRzD8
– FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) July 10, 2022
One more thing to consider: because of the Balance of Performance, the Alpine was on the road with 119 kilograms less than the Toyota. This is clearly noticeable in the tyre degradation, as mentioned by Buemi. And so, in retrospect, team-mate Kobayashi is sure: “We did our best, but it wasn’t enough today.”
“Two cars on the podium is the best we could achieve.” Because even without a collision with the Alpine, Kobayashi doesn’t think “it would have really changed our final position. We weren’t good enough today.” Toyota was also “really surprised” by the Alpine’s speed, Buemi said. “It is very difficult to read.”
Alpine, on the other hand, did everything right. “We just did a perfect job with the strategy and the pit stops. That was really clever. I’m more than happy with this race and it’s really a win for the whole team,” Vaxiviere cheered. For the Blues it was the second win of the season after Sebring.