Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota celebrated another 1-2 win in the World Endurance Championship, with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José María López claiming victory at the 8 Hours of Bahrain despite a success handicap worth a theoretical 0.54 seconds per lap.
That victory sealed the title for the drivers of the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid and extended the points gap for Toyota in the manufacturer’s championship, which it had already won.
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The race marked the end of a major era for the WEC. Next year, the motorsport’s top LMP1 class will be replaced by the Hypercar class — and while Toyota will continue to compete, its Le Mans-winning TS050 Hybrid race car will become a relic of the past, a legend of the LMP1 era.
Since joining the WEC in 2012, Toyota made a big impression on endurance racing. It won 29 of 64 races, took 26 pole positions, set 24 fastest laps, and won both the drivers’ and teams’ world championships in three of the eight seasons.
The TS050 Hybrid, introduced in 2016, won Le Mans three times and became not just the fastest Le Mans car of the LMP1 era but of all time, when Kamui Kobayashi took pole position with the quickest Le Mans lap in history.
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“It is an emotional moment to see the final race of the LMP1 era and the last for our TS050 Hybrid,” said Hisatake Murata, team president of Toyota Gazoo Racing. “We have so many memories of the last eight seasons; we remember exciting races, great competitors and fantastic cars. We are proud to have been part of this period of endurance racing and we look forward to entertaining the fans in the new Hypercar era.”
When Porsche bowed out of LMP1, it modified its 919 Hybrid race car into the 919 Hybrid Evo, the fastest possible version of the car without regulations to slow it down. That car then smashed the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record. As a final farewell to the legendary TS050 Hybrid, we would love to see Toyota do the same.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.