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Why Toyota can make up for its heartbreak in 2017

Last year Toyota lost the Le Mans 24 Hours in agonising fashion. Its response for 2017 has been to completely overhaul its LMP1 car in pursuit of 24-hour - and World Endurance Championship - glory

Toyota should have won the Le Mans 24 Hours last year and it somehow managed to take the battle for the World Endurance Championship drivers' title down to the wire in Bahrain.

Yet in reality it wasn't a consistent challenger for race victories in 2016. This year could be different in the post-Audi LMP1 era, as Toyota bids to prevent Porsche sweeping to a hat-trick of Le Mans victories and WEC titles.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.