Toyota denies it lacked "strong competition" in WEC title battle

Toyota clinched its fourth successive crown in the WEC's top tier with a dominant run in the season-closing Bahrain race to win the Hypercar class.

Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa took the title by finishing second behind the sister car shared by Jose Maria Lopez, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.

Alpine was Toyota's only real rival in the championship fight this year, with Glickenhaus missing the final two rounds of the season and Peugeot not joining the championship until Monza in July.

The two manufacturers went to the Bahrain decider level on points in the drivers' standings, but Toyota was never seriously threatened in the race as it romped to a 1-2 victory.

Alpine was allowed to race its previous generation LMP1 car against Toyota's LMH-spec contender in 2022 as part of a special dispensation of rules by the WEC, with their relative pace governed by the series' Balance of Performance system.

Asked if the process of performance balancing between LMP1 and LMH cars reached its desired goal, Toyota's technical director Pascal Vasselon said: "Yes, because the beauty of the BoP is that it brings everyone on the same level of competitiveness.

"When I hear that Toyota does not have strong competition, I struggle to hear this because the BoP is there and has meant that we had strong competition.

"The Alpine, which we were very happy to have, was a reliable car that was maybe easier to operate than ours.

"The performance was given by the BoP. We have had competitors all season long, until the last race. Definitely, the season has been competitive."

#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Vasselon also felt Peugeot was able to mix with the two Toyota cars in Bahrain, despite the technical problems that forced the #93 9X8 car to retire and cost the sister #94 car six laps to the leaders.

"Peugeot have been very competitive," he said. "OK, they were not able to do six or eight hours in a row. But clearly, in pure pace, they are there with us. The best lap is Peugeot. The best stint I think, by a very small margin, is Peugeot.

"Where we were pulling away from them is on tyre consistency. So the BoP makes the situation extremely competitive. In the first stint, we were fighting tenth-by-tenth to stay in the lead."

This was the last season an LMP1 car would be allowed to compete in the WEC, with all entrants in the Hypercar class from next year required to build new LMH or LMDh cars, with performance to be equalised under a separate convergence system.

The new LMH and LMDh rules have brought several manufacturers back to the pinnacle of sportscar racing for the 2023 season, with Porsche, Ferrari and Cadillac having already signed up for the category along with existing entrants Toyota and Peugeot. Glickenhaus and the ByKolles-run Vanwall team could also be on the grid next year.

Alpine will itself field an LMDh car in the WEC from 2024, the same year BMW and Lamborghini will also enter the championship.

Hartley and Hirakawa said they are looking forward to what has been touted as a new golden era for endurance racing and admit Toyota will face much stiffer opposition in the next few years from the influx of rivals.

"Alpine deserve a mention, they've done an amazing season and kept us on our toes right till the last race," said Hartley.

"Looks like they had a little bit less pace than us on Saturday, and it was comfortable [for us].

"I'm also really excited about the next years. They won't be as easy, not that this was easy, but they are going to get much harder and that really excites me. I can't wait."

Hirakawa added: "The experience was really good for me and I learned a lot. I'm looking forward to racing next year already.

"Next year is going to be even bigger. I have to be stronger."