It seems fitting that after the most dramatic FIA WEC season to date, the major honours were split between the top three Hypercar manufacturers: Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari.
Porsche’s #6 crew held on to claim the Hypercar Drivers’ World Championship despite finishing 10th in the finale. Toyota snatched the Manufacturers’ crown in the final hour of the season with a spirited drive from Sebastien Buemi. And Ferrari, despite missing out on a title after a rough end to the year, will still look back on 2024 fondly after claiming a second consecutive Le Mans victory back in June.
In the aftermath of a year like this, there’s so much to unpick and reflect on. The 2024 season had a bit of everything and produced a number of historic milestones. So before the WEC paddock goes into hibernation, it’s time to recognise the champions crowned at the end of tonight’s wild eight hours.
For Porsche Penske Motorsport, it was a truly memorable night, even if it didn’t quite achieve the full fairytale ending to its truly remarkable season.
After claiming the full suite IMSA GTP titles, a GTD Pro championship with AO Racing and the FIA WEC LMGT3 and Hypercar World Cup honours with Pure Rxcing and HERTZ Team JOTA prior to Saturday, completing the set in Bahrain by clinching both Hypercar titles felt almost inevitable. But season finales in the WEC never fail to produce drama.
On this occasion, the wily old fox that is Toyota pulled off the upset, stealing the Manufacturers’ title after a late-race showdown between Sebastien Buemi and Matt Campbell.
The safety car periods and full course yellow which bunched up the field and set up a nail-biting final hour played a huge role. They allowed the pole-sitting #8 Toyota to recover from its hiccups earlier in the race by the time it emerged from the pit lane for the final time.
Having looked down and out with three hours to go, all of a sudden, Toyota’s outlook changed. Buemi was strapped in, held a tyre advantage over Campbell ahead in the #5, and had a chance to cap off an amazing performance with one final overtake for the win.
“When I jumped in towards the end I was like P10, and I knew how hard it was to make progress, so I didn’t think we could come back,” Buemi explained, “but what happened is with my tyre advantage I was able to make moves every lap or two. And we managed to execute a shorter stop at the end, jumping the #6 Porsche, the Ferrari and it meant all I had to do was to catch the #5.
“It was like a dream as suddenly I knew we could win. Against all the odds, with issues, penalties and bad luck it’s an amazing feeling for the team to win the World Championship. That was our target here and we’ve achieved it thanks to a brilliant effort from the team.”
It was a truly special drive, with so much at stake, to deliver Toyota a fourth consecutive Hypercar Manufacturers’ title in a row and the only win from pole in the class this season.
It also helped take the sting out of the sister car’s torrid outing. Ultimately, with the #6 Porsche eventually finishing way down the order, both sets of Drivers’ title contenders from Toyota and Ferrari will rue the missed opportunity.
The #7 GR010 retired with a fuel pump issue, which according to TGR’s team principal/driver Kamui Kobayashi, damaged the engine and severely blunted the car’s performance. The decision to park the car was a painful one to make, but it paid off in the end as it allowed the entire engineering staff to shift focus to the #8’s charge. That was just the fourth retirement of a GR010 in competition in 54 race starts for Toyota’s hypercar.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning #50 499P finished the race, but way down the order in 11th after struggling for outright pace throughout and losing valuable time to a puncture.
This all meant that the Drivers’ honours still went the way of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer, who coughed and spluttered their way to the finish line.
Nevertheless, the result in Bahrain does nothing to take the shine off their title win. All three drivers were exceptional this term and played their part, delivering a consistent run of results en route to being crowned Hypercar Drivers’ World Champions for the first time.
In a field this deep, racking up two wins and two second-place finishes in eight races is a truly impressive feat. It’s a title run that will be looked back on for a long time to come.
“When you see how competitive the field is, it’s special,” Lotterer, who departs Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Hypercar programme with his head held high, said in the post-race conference.
“Before in LMP1 Le Mans was what everyone wanted, and if you won the championship it was just ok. But now with so much competition the World Championship has great value. Today wasn’t the best day but we had the luxury to afford it. We will go home happy, target achieved.”
“There’s nothing better than seeing titles decided in the final race, it’s what you want to see,” Thomas Laudenbach (the vice president of Porsche Motorsport) added, in summary.
“And this is a World Championship that’s far more important than it was five or 10 years ago. I can’t remember greater competition than this. Of course, we have the one big race, which is Le Mans, but today we have that race and the championship. And now everyone really wants to win both.”
Images courtesy of Porsche & Toyota
