TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) announced its 2022 motorsport team setups during an online event at the Megaweb facility in Tokyo on 6 December. This includes their range of factory racing activities in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the Autobacs Super GT Series, as well as innovative racing vehicles showcasing new technology in the Super Taikyu Series.
FIA World Endurance Championship
Toyota Gazoo Racing will field two Toyota GR010 Hybrid prototypes in the premier Le Mans Hypercar class of WEC next season.
The lineup of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José María López will continue to drive the number 7 Toyota WEC entry, and Kobayashi will also take on a new role as both the ace driver and Team Principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC for 2022.
“The two-time World Champion and 2021 Le Mans winner will bring a driver’s perspective to team leadership with a specific focus on enhancing team for the Hypercar era,” Toyota said in their official press release.
Conway, Kobayashi, and López are the two-time reigning World Endurance Drivers’ Champions, and the reigning overall winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – a feat which they achieved in an emotional triumph this August.
The trio will be keen to add on to their pair of WEC titles and nine wins since joining forces at the start of the 2017 season.
Ryo Hirakawa, 27, will step up to a full-time drive for Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC, piloting the number 8 entry alongside three-time Le Mans winner/two-time World Champion Sébastien Buemi, and two-time Le Mans winner/2015 World Champion Brendon Hartley.
Hirakawa has made two previous starts at Le Mans as an LMP2 driver (2016-17). He will campaign in Super Formula alongside his WEC programme, but he will graduate from the Super GT Series after 58 starts between 2014-2021. During this span, Hirakawa won the 2017 GT500 Drivers’ Championship and finished runner-up in three consecutive seasons between 2018 and 2020. He has seven wins, 21 podiums, and 49 top ten finishes as a GT500 driver for Toyota.
Team Principal Kobayashi will be joined on the management side by new Project Director, Yuichiro Haruna.
- #7 – Mike Conway / Kamui Kobayashi / José María López
- #8 – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa
Super GT Series – GT500
Toyota Gazoo Racing will be represented in the Autobacs Super GT Series, GT500 class, by six Toyota GR Supra GT500s. In the second season for the fifth-generation GR Supra GT500, Toyota team TOM’s Racing won both the 2021 GT500 Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship by way of the number 36 au TOM’s GR Supra driven by Yuhi Sekiguchi and Sho Tsuboi.
For 2022, Sekiguchi will embark on a new challenge as he transfers within the Toyota fleet to TGR Team SARD. The 33-year-old reigning champion will pilot their number 39 entry alongside third-year GT500 driver Yuichi Nakayama.
26-year-old Tsuboi, the other half of the reigning champion duo, will stay at TGR Team au TOM’s. His new co-driver is GT500 rookie Giuliano Alesi, son of F1 legend Jean Alesi and actress Kumiko Goto. The 22-year-old French-Japanese driver steps up to the premier class after a single GT300 campaign.
As Ryo Hirakawa graduates to the WEC, French-Argentine driver Sacha Fenestraz – the only non-Japanese driver in the fleet – will be the first driver of the number 37 entry for TGR Team KeePer TOM’s. His new co-driver is 22-year-old Ritomo Miyata, who transfers from TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh after two seasons.
TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh has called upon 22-year-old Sena Sakaguchi to drive their number 19 entry, alongside veteran Yuji Kunimoto. Sakaguchi split time between GT300 with K-Tunes Racing, and GT500 at TGR Team KeePer TOM’s while Fenestraz was unable to race in Japan.
The two remaining lineups from 2021 remain intact. 2019 Champions Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita will again drive the number 14 Supra for TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE, and senior driver Yuji Tachikawa will embark on his record 24th consecutive season as a driver for TGR Team ZENT Cerumo – joined by Hiroaki Ishiura, who enters his eighth season with Cerumo.
Tsuboi, Alesi, Oshima, Yamashita, Kunimoto, Sakaguchi, Fenestraz, Miyata, and Sekiguchi will also represent Toyota in Super Formula next season.
- #14 – TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE – Kazuya Oshima / Kenta Yamashita
- #19 – TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh – Yuji Kunimoto / Sena Sakaguchi
- #36 – TGR Team au TOM’s – Sho Tsuboi / Giuliano Alesi
- #37 – TGR Team KeePer TOM’s – Sacha Fenestraz / Ritomo Miyata
- #38 – TGR Team ZENT Cerumo – Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura
- #39 – TGR Team SARD – Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuichi Nakayama
Super Taikyu Series
Toyota will be involved in the planning of three teams competing in the 2022 Super Taikyu Series powered by Hankook.
ORC ROOKIE Racing will operate two innovative ST-Q class entries, including the return of their Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept. The hydrogen-powered #32 Corolla will be driven by professionals Oshima and Naoya Gamou, Toyota heir Daisuke Toyoda, and Toyota employee and clubman racer Ryuta Ukai.
ROOKIE Racing’s second entry will be a new second-generation GR 86 sports car, powered by biomass-derived synthetic fuel. The #28 ROOKIE GR 86 ‘CNF Concept’ will be driven Toyota Motor Corporation President, Akio ‘Morizo’ Toyoda, with pro drivers Ishiura and Masahiro Sasaki, and Ogura Clutch President, Yasuhiro Ogura.
Former Toyota GT500 and Super Formula driver Tatsuya Kataoka will manage the two-car operation.
TOM’s Spirit will return to the series as a stand-alone team with a lineup comprising of Yamashita, and GT300 race winners Takamitsu Matsui and Shunsuke Kohno driving their new second-generation GR 86 sports car in the conventional ST-4 class.
- #28 – ORC Rookie Racing (Toyota GR 86 CNF Concept) – Masahiro Sasaki / Hiroaki Ishiura / Akio “Morizo” Toyoda / Yasuhiro Ogura
- #32 – ORC Rookie Racing (Toyota Corolla Sport H2 Concept) – Naoya Gamou / Daisuke Toyoda / Kazuya Oshima / Ryuta Ukai
- #86 TOM’s Spirit (Toyota GR 86) – Takamitsu Matsui / Kenta Yamashita / Shunsuke Kohno
There will be no TGR programme in this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hour race, due to conflicts with other major races in Japan. However, TGR will participate in select NLS endurance races overseas.
GT300 class entries for the 2022 Super GT Series will be announced at a later date.
