How glitches left Toyota 'worried' about losing unbeaten WEC streak

“Quite hectic and very entertaining.”  That was Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon’s take on Sunday’s Monza round of the World Endurance Championship as the Japanese manufacturer made it three wins from three starts with its new Le Mans Hypercar.

‘Hectic’ because both GR010 HYBRIDs ran into problems over the course of the six hours, and ‘entertaining’ because there were moments of the race, however fleeting, when Alpine and Glickenhaus looked like potential winners.

Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi ended up winning by the healthy margin of almost exactly a minute, but it was far from plain sailing for Toyota in the final round of the WEC before the Le Mans 24 Hours next month. The winning car spent a minute or so parked at the side of the track with an electronic glitch, while the sister car of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima was delayed in the pits for more than hour on the way to the chequered flag as the last classified finisher.

Toyota didn’t look like it was going to follow up on its wins at Spa in May and then the Algarve circuit last month when an error message on the dashboard forced Kobayashi to pull over onto the side of the track on the run between the Lesmo right-handers and the Ascari chicane right at the start of the penultimate hour. He needed to bring the car to a complete halt to undertake the necessary full reboot.

For the briefest of moments, Glickenhaus suddenly emerged as a contender for race honours in only its second WEC start. Romain Dumas swept past the stricken Toyota and into the lead. It stayed there for one sector of the 3.60-mile Autodromo Nazionale di Monza: the only one of the Pipo-engined 007 LMHs left in the race was on its in-lap.

The car that Dumas shared with Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux was experiencing higher than expected brake wear. The team had no choice but to undertake a change of pads and disc at the front. The eight minutes lost in the pits wiped out any chance of a Glickenhaus victory and meant the car could finish no better than fourth, four laps in arrears of the victorious Toyota and behind the LMP2 class winner.

Podium: race winners #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, second place #36 Alpine Elf Matmut Alpine 480 Gibson: Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere, third place #22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 - Gibson: Philip Hanson, Fabio Scherer, Filipe Albuquerque

Photo by: Alessio Morgese

The pitstop for the Glickenhaus put Kobayashi back in the lead, though he fell to second when he made an on-schedule pitstop five laps after having to play with all the buttons. He resumed 46 seconds behind the Alpine-Gibson A480 grandfathered LMP1 car shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao, which had made its fifth stop 12 laps previously.

Kobayashi, told to abandon any fuel-saving efforts, was able to take a second a lap out of Lapierre. By the time the Alpine made its final stop, the gap was just 7s, Vaxiviere in front of Conway. The Japanese car, unlike the French one, was able to pit for the final time during a virtual safety car or full-course yellow, which drew a line under the battle and allowed the #7 GR010 HYBRID to cross the line an unrepresentative 60s ahead.

Things could have been worse for Toyota, however. Kobayashi sustained a puncture after his on-track delay. A decrease in pressure was detected as he entered the Parabolica on his in-lap, and no time was lost.

"At the end it was a bit touch and go obviously with the problem that Kamui had and also the puncture, but it didn’t change the result – it just made it a bit more interesting" Mike Conway

There was then a scare for Toyota after its final time in the pits. Race control revealed that it was investigating the stop for a potential procedural infringement and eventually issued a warning. It turned out that the mechanic in charge of the right front, the only wheel to be changed, was holding it at an incline. The tyre was in contact with the ground behind the all-important white line, but the top was leaning out over it. Vasselon accepted that Toyota was at fault, but suggested it would have been harsh if the car had received a penalty.

Conway reckoned he was “really happy with the job we’ve done in our car”.

“I am happy with the pace we had; we were able to pull away when we had to,” he said. “At the end it was a bit touch and go obviously with the problem that Kamui had and also the puncture, but it didn’t change the result – it just made it a bit more interesting.”

The reigning WEC champions were finally able to chalk up a first victory in the GR010 after near misses at Spa in May and then the Portimao 8 Hours in June. They were undoubtedly the quicker of the Toyota crews at Monza. Conway was able to edge away from Buemi from the start into a lead that stood at just under 10s when they got out of their respective mounts after the second cycle of pitstops. Vasselon explained that #8 was affected by a “balance issue”.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The #8 Toyota also had the lion’s share of the team’s misfortune last week. Hartley was back in the pits straight away after taking over from Buemi when he lost power as the result of a fuel pressure problem. Four and a half minutes were lost with the car parked in the garage, without the team being able to identify the root cause of the problem. All it managed to do was create another one.

Somehow the left-front wheel had not been tightened correctly in all the drama. Hartley had multiple lock-ups and had returned to the back of the garage after five laps. A new front-left corner was required because the loose wheel had damaged the hub.

Eighteen minutes were lost before another 48 went west while the fuel system was changed. The car was back on track in time to be able to complete the 75% distance required for Buemi, Hartley and Nakajima to score 12 points for fourth in the Hypercar class, enough to keep them in the lead of the championship.

The Alpine didn’t have the pace at Monza to resist the Toyota’s post-glitch charge. At Spa and then in Portugal, the ORECA design that started life as the Rebellion R-13 was more or less a match for its rivals. This time it wasn’t, and by design.

The French marque opted for a new strategy at Monza. At the opening two rounds of the season, it pushed flat-out and made additional pitstops courtesy of a fuel tank too small to take the full energy allocation allowed in the Hypercar class. This time, the drivers engaged in some serious fuel saving, lifting and coasting into Monza’s heavy braking zones, to try to stretch out the mileage.

The Alpine could manage three laps fewer than the LMHs, compared with a seven or eight-lap deficit at the admittedly shorter Algarve circuit. One real safety car and two of the virtual kind were enough to ensure the Alpine completed the race on the same number of stops as the #7 Toyota.

It was a different way to skin the cat, though the result was more or less the same. Monza gave the Signatech-run Alpine team its third podium of the year, and each time it has been about a minute behind the winning Toyota.

#36 Alpine Elf Matmut Alpine 480 Gibson: Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“We reduced our pace to go longer on the fuel,” said Lapierre. “We always knew it was going to be more efficient to do that here than in Portimao. We knew we weren’t going to beat Toyota, but it would have been closer but for the last FCY.”

Alpine may not have had enough in the tank – metaphorically and literally – to get on terms with Toyota, but there is evidence to suggest that Glickenhaus could have done so. The fourth-placed car was only 0.4s or so off the winning Toyota on average race pace and could run the same 30-lap stints.

There were times, most notably when Dumas was at the wheel in hour four, that the team’s #709 entry was the fastest car on the track. It wasn’t to be, although Monza proved beyond all doubt, in the words of the engineer who headed up the design of the 007, that “Glickenhaus is not a joke”.

"When I jumped in the car I pushed and was quicker than the Alpine and was able to hold the gap to the Toyota. I’m really happy with what I did out there" Romain Dumas

“It was a good race for us, a good weekend, in fact,” said Luca Ciancetti, technical director of the Podium Advanced Technologies organisation at the heart of Glickenhaus Racing. “We have proved the car is fast and we know there is more time to gain.”

Glickenhaus, running two cars for the first time, showed form in practice, qualifying when Pipo Derani got within 0.7s of Lopez’s pole time, and again in the race. Two-time Le Mans winner Dumas, who ended up with the fastest Glickenhaus race lap, was in buoyant mood afterwards.

“When I jumped in the car I pushed and was quicker than the Alpine and was able to hold the gap to the Toyota,” said the Frenchman. “I’m really happy with what I did out there.”

The Podium-led team, bolstered by Joest Racing, had learned the lessons from its debut one-car assault on the Portimao 8 Hours. Most significantly it worked out how to get more from its Michelin tyres, which had either blistered in double quick time in Portugal or failed to come into the operating window.

#709 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH: Ryan Briscoe, Romain Dumas, Richard Westbrook

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“We’re learning how to use the car as we gain more information,” said Ciancetti. “This track definitely helped us show more. The nature of the circuit is much closer to Le Mans than Portimao, which means it is more in line with the philosophy of the car.”

Ciancetti wasn’t too downbeat about the need to change brakes, insisting that the problem was not the result of a design flaw.

“It is something particular to the car here at Monza,” he explained. “It is probably an assembly issue or maybe a component issue. We don’t think it is a design problem.”

The second car, in which Derani was joined by Gustavo Menezes and Olivier Pla, was in trouble from the get-go. The Brazilian was struggling with a lack of power, was passed by Westbrook on lap two, and was in the garage after 17 laps for attention to the engine. It turned out that a spark plug had failed. The offending item was changed but the gearbox had been damaged, almost certainly as a result of the electrical issues affecting the gear cut, and the car never quite made it to the halfway mark.

Glickenhaus knows there is more to come before Le Mans, delayed by COVID until 21/22 August. It was upbeat about the work it has to do in the lead-up to the centrepiece race of the season. Toyota, less so, as it investigates the reliability issues that afflicted its cars in Italy.

“We are worried, but that’s business as usual for a racing team,” said Vasselon. “We know we have some work to do.”

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

United scores again in LMP2

The United Autosports ORECA was the fastest LMP2 car through the Monza 6 Hours and finished 57 seconds up the road from its nearest competitor. It would be hard to argue that Phil Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque and

Fabio Scherer weren’t deserving class winners, but they had a massive slice of luck along the way. Series newcomer WRT could have won and would have done so but for a mid-race tactical gaffe.

The WRT ORECA-Gibson 07 shared by Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi had pitted out of the lead just before the only full safety car of the race right at the beginning of hour three. The rest of the sharp end of the LMP2 pack hadn’t stopped – but needed to — when the yellows flew. That meant they had to make so-called emergency stops, in which they could take on a 5s splash of fuel and then stop again when the pits opened as the race went green.

The WRT ORECA was definitely a competitive proposition at Monza. There was little to chose between it and the winning United example on pace, as just 0.1s separated them on the averages

The WRT ORECA, with Habsburg at the wheel, should have been able to take advantage of the drive-around to gain the better part of a lap. The Belgian team, new in the WEC this season, failed to exploit the rule and came out of the safety car period down in fifth in class.

“The safety car should have helped us, but we made a mistake,” said WRT team boss Vincent Vosse. “We are still on a learning curve and we learned a lot today: you can be sure that we will not make this mistake again.”

Vosse insisted that he was still happy at the end of a weekend in which the team notched up its maiden WEC podium and a first series pole, claimed by 20-year-old Milesi.

“All three drivers performed well, it’s our first season, so I cannot be disappointed,” he said.

#22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 - Gibson: Philip Hanson, Fabio Scherer, Filipe Albuquerque

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The WRT ORECA was definitely a competitive proposition at Monza. There was little to chose between it and the winning United example on pace, as just 0.1s separated them on the averages.

That WRT was in the lead in hour two resulted from bad luck on United’s part. Hanson had nipped past Frijns at the first chicane on the opening lap and led through his opening stint, but a wheel gun failure when he handed over to Albuquerque cost the car 12s and the lead.

A sixth WEC class win in 11 races since United joined the series full time in 2019-20 has moved reigning champion Hanson back into the points lead ahead of Portimao 8 Hours winners Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez. They were unclassified after an electronic problem cost their Jota ORECA over an hour in the pits. First the problem had to be chased, then the loom had to be replaced.

Third in LMP2, and the pro-am sub-class winner, was the Racing Team Nederland ORECA in which Frits van Eerd was partnered by former team-mate Nyck de Vries and Paul-Loup Chatin. They stepped in after Job van Uitert and then Giedo van der Garde were independently ruled out after receiving positive COVID tests.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani,

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Porsche outduels Ferrari for GTE honours

The final results of the Monza 6 Hours show that Kevin Estre and Neel Jani gave Porsche a 30-second GTE Pro victory over the Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado. The margin of victory reveals nothing about a close-fought race in which these two cars were more often than not separated by a couple of seconds.

That the margin went out to half a minute resulted from a late gamble by the AF Corse Ferrari squad. Porsche brought the leading 911 RSR with Estre at the wheel in for its sixth pitstop during the late full-course yellow. AF left Pier Guidi out in the best of the 488 GTE Evos in one last roll of the dice.

Ferrari’s strategy got Pier Guidi back on Estre’s tail after he’d slipped all of 7-8s back prior to the yellows. The Italian was shaping up to make a move before ducking into the pits with two laps left. There would be no repeat of the Portimao win for the drivers of the #51 Ferrari.

"Early on I think the Ferrari was a bit quicker than us, but when there was a bit of cloud cover that helped us to make the tyres last, especially the left rear" Neel Jani

Estre and Jani, class winners of the Spa series opener back in May, led the majority of the way, 173 of the 190 laps, though seldom with much in the way of a margin. Calado overtook Jani for the lead at the first chicane in the third hour, but quick work by the Manthey-run Porsche factory squad got the Swiss out in front at the following round of stops. The 911 then edged away from the Ferrari for the first time in the race into a lead of 6s, which Estre could maintain and slightly extend prior to Ferrari’s late-race gamble.

“That was a proper race,” said Jani. “Early on I think the Ferrari was a bit quicker than us, but when there was a bit of cloud cover that helped us to make the tyres last, especially the left rear.”

Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz finished third in the second Porsche, 50s behind their team-mates. A different tyre strategy, described as more aggressive, didn’t pay dividends, while they also lost time in the pits courtesy of the absence of some regular members of their crew as a result of the flooding in Germany.

Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra were once again no match for their AF Ferrari team-mates on the way to fourth and last in class. They lacked consistency, while also complaining of a down-on-power engine.

#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado

Photo by: Paolo Belletti