Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Sébastien Buemi feels that winning the Le Mans 24 Hours has become more important than ever before in 2023, for both the Japanese marque and the staff working on its sportscar programme.
This may seem obvious. It’s the centenary race and Toyota will have to beat more factory cars than ever before to secure its sixth win in a row and retain a 100 per cent record in Hypercar.
However, it’s clear that the level of ambition goes beyond this. Members of the team crave respect and feel they have a point to prove at this year’s race, as many fans and members of the media have been dismissive of Toyota’s success since 2018 – when both Porsche and Audi were no longer competing.
Throughout the opening rounds of the current FIA WEC season, Toyota’s drivers and team members have sent a clear message to the wider motorsport world by handily beating Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot at Sebring, Portimao and Spa. But the real plaudits won’t come until this team beats everyone at La Sarthe, with the world watching.
In the past, Toyota suffered from a long-standing reputation for being luckless, after so many near misses and heartbreaking moments. But Buemi, and for that matter everyone involved, insists things are different now.
This current group will be extremely difficult for anyone else in the Hypercar class to beat. The GR010 HYBRID, with its 2023 upgrades is a force. When pushed to its limits it has both single lap pace, long stint pace and durability good enough to handily beat all the other cars in the field. There are no weak points.
Operationally, the team is at the top of its game too. The team members on the pit wall concocting race strategy and the mechanics in the garage working on the car before, during and after each race work with military precision.
All of this will be on display for all to see at Le Mans, when the sellout crowd on-site and the huge TV audience watching from afar put the spotlight on the event. There, Buemi hopes the team shows everyone what it is capable of.
“If we can win Le Mans this year, we will gain respect from everyone,” he told DSC. “People think we won just because we had only a little bit of competition. We are desperate to prove that even with a lot of competition we can win.”
“Winning is a priority. We feel like we have suffered from a lack of respect. We want to show people that despite the competition, we have always operated at a very high level. It feels really important to win this year, more than ever before.”
The biggest surprise of DSC’s sit down with the four-time Le Mans winner over breakfast earlier this season, was Buemi’s level of humility, ahead of what he hopes will be his fifth win in the race.
It became clear very quickly that the Swiss, known for his eccentricity and outspokenness on the team radio and in the back of the garage, is humble at heart.
For many drivers who make it all the way to F1 but have to switch disciplines before winning a title, or even a single Grand Prix, it can be really tough. Buemi, and others within the Toyota programme over the past decade like Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima, and Kamui Kobayashi, have all had to transition into sportscar racing, knowing that their F1 dreams were likely over.
Learning a new craft, staying focused and settling into sportscar racing, especially at the WEC level, can be as challenging as it can be dispiriting. But Buemi hasn’t his lack of success in F1 stop him from racking up a lengthy list of achievements that includes three FIA WEC titles in addition to his four outright Le Mans wins.
“My grandfather did Le Mans in 1960, but I grew up watching Formula 1,” he admitted when asked how aware of sportscar racing he was growing up. “We have a Toyota dealership, and Toyota was entering Le Mans at the end of the 90s, so I was watching it a bit, but I was focused on single-seaters.”
“In Formula One I was in touch with Toyota to potentially join them in 2010. This was a discussion and I had a meeting with Pascal (Vasselon), but then the news came that I wasn’t going to continue in Torro Rosso in 2012, so I got back in touch because that was when they were making their Le Mans comeback.”
“It was a great opportunity because I knew they would have a strong team, especially as a reserve driver in F1. I wanted to keep racing and we started slowly. And since then I have been part of the team.”
Looking back on that move, which was a real sliding doors moment for him in his career, he said he feels lucky to have signed with Toyota.
“I was in touch with a few other teams, but it was a great move to join Toyota for a long-term project. We are still here more than a decade later, something few teams can say.”
“Maybe I could have done IndyCar? Something else. But right now I am really happy with what I have done. The fact that I have been in Formula E and doing sim work with Red Bull is a good compromise.”
So what about Le Mans? DSC asked Buemi about his place in a very small elite group of drivers that have more than three overall wins at Le Mans.
Rather than agree with the opinion that he is one of the very best to compete in the race, he quickly shifted the conversation to the challenge the event presents and the difference in his approach now compared to his debut back 11 years ago.
What stands out about Le Mans, he said, is that it has taught him so much. Like everyone who tackles the race with a factory programme, it can be crushingly exhausting. It’s a gruelling week-long event that is as much about energy management as it is about pure speed and talent.
“It’s tough,” he explained. “You need experience. You need to save your energy. I am much better prepared now than I was when I started. I am not necessarily faster than I used to be, but I have a much better vision of the race, what matters, and what doesn’t.”
“Winning is so hard. We were close in 2014, very very close in 2016.”
“2016 was hard to swallow. We were leading in Spa, broke the engine, and had an extremely tough 2015 season where we were uncompetitive. We came with the 8 megajule rule and the new turbo engine and I still feel it would have been a nice story to win that race. We were fast and had a perfect race until the end.”
“I remember taking the lead in the morning, having a big fight with Porsche, but we had that issue in the last lap which is a defining moment. We would have won against Audi and Porsche. I still find it hard to take.”
“Yet, despite those experiences, somehow I look forward to it every year.”
“The hardest part is managing your stress. I used to be so involved when I first raced there. I didn’t trust everyone. I was checking everything. I was staring at timing screens, monitoring each sector time. I was mentally done before the race.”
“I have now learned how to manage my energy better, but it hasn’t become any easier. Every year is different, the cars, the competition, the weather. You learn how to adapt the more you do it.”
“The difference is I don’t feel uncomfortable if a session doesn’t go well now. In the past I felt like I needed laps, so many laps, I didn’t feel ready unless I did the most laps of everyone in the team. Now I am not too stressed.”
Part of his experience has been working alongside some outstanding teammates past and present. This year he will share the #8 with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, but he will bring the spirit of his former co-drivers along for the ride.
“One teammate in particular that stands out is (Stephane) Sarrazin,” he said “He deserved to win so much, it’s so sad he didn’t. He and Anthony Davidson taught me everything I know. In the first few years, even though we joined the programme at the same time, they taught me so much, I am so thankful to them. I wouldn’t be the driver I am without these teachers.”
If Buemi wins this year, he will further cement his legacy with his fifth victory – tying Derek Bell, Frank Biela, and Emanuele Pirro, and leaving only Tom Kristensen and Jacky Ickx ahead of him. One day, sportscar fans will look back at this era, and his CV will stand out. In his home country too, even if he never wins Le Mans again, he is already the most successful driver from Switzerland in the overall wins tally.
“I won’t think about my career too much until I am done with racing. I just feel like every year it’s so hard to win that I don’t think about my place in history,” he admitted. “I turn up, I am happy, I feel fortunate to be involved during this era, at this point in my career. I was there for LMP1 with multiple manufacturers, now I am here for a golden era with lots of new teams. I feel lucky. I am trying to enjoy this. I want to win, but I also want to enjoy the moment.”
It’s easy to f*** it up so we must be humble, respect the opposition and try to improve.
“I feel like I have a good opportunity with this team. Toyota is fully committed. I am in a strong position. It’s easy to f*** it up so we must be humble, respect the opposition and try to improve.”
“I thought I’d never win Le Mans even once, now I have won the race four times. But it’s important for us to win this year in particular because we want to gain credibility.”
“If we can win this year, we will gain respect from everyone. People think we only won because we only had a little bit of competition. We are desperate to prove them wrong.”
