Humility. That was a word oft on the lips of the newcomers to the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class as the much-vaunted golden era of sportscar racing began in earnest. They would stay humble, insisted Ferrari, Porsche et al as they took on Toyota, the acknowledged king of the series. Prescient words they were, because the Japanese manufacturer swept all before it, winning six out of seven rounds. The one exception, however, was the race that truly mattered.
Ferrari’s victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours was the story of the season. It wasn’t just that the most prestigious sportscar marque of them all triumphed in the centenary running of the French enduro on its comeback with a factory prototype after 50 years, nor that it was a thrilling race worthy of the occasion. Le Mans was a hinge in the narrative of the season.
The Balance of Performance, one of the essential building blocks of the top class of the WEC, underscored a plot line that went something like this. A new BoP system is introduced for 2023; it clearly favours an established player in the series and is then unilaterally changed for the important race in the summer because the powers that be aren’t happy that Toyota is dominating; Ferrari wins the Big One, and then gets pegged back straight afterwards and Toyota continues on its winning way.
“THAT DIDN’T STOP TOYOTA BIG BOSS AKIO TOYODA PROCLAIMING THAT ‘WE LOST TO POLITICS’”
That’s the simplified version. The end result was that Toyota waltzed to 1-2 in the points and a fifth straight drivers’ and manufacturers’ points double. Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won two races to the four of team-mates Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, yet retained their title by 27 points.
Toyota barely looked like losing victory at any of the regular six or eight-hour rounds. Margins of two laps at Sebring and one in the Algarve proved
