BREAKING A CURSE
TOYOTA'S 'SECOND' CREW They always get the bad luck but Lopez, Conway and Kobayashi are hoping for change
Is the bad luck of the #7 Toyota finally going to turn this year? Surely it has to some time: the Circuit de la Sarthe must owe you one.
Mike Conway I never feel like that event owes anyone – it’s one of those races. You just keep going and do your best. When we’ve been the people to beat at Le Mans, we’ve always felt good about our performance even if the result wasn’t what we were looking for. If we win because of luck, it will still be a win and I’m sure it will feel good.
Jose Maria Lopez As a racing driver, you’re never wishing for other cars to have problems. But if it happens, it’s the way it is. It will be a big race to win.
Are you changing the way you approach the race after the near-misses of the past?
MC We’ve always gone in with the same mentality. We always prepare as much as we can without, you might say, trying too hard. Nothing has changed for this year.
Kamui Kobayashi Except for the colour of my hair. I’ve got a bit more blond now.
JML You can’t say that what has happened in the years before was due to lack of preparation. We never leave any stone unturned. The only thing that is different this time is that the race is much more wide open. Over the past few years with the TS050 HYBRID we knew the car and knew we were going to have a good performance. With the new cars, our GR010 HYBRID and the Glickenhaus, it’s kind of a white page this time.
So you don’t think Le Mans this year is going to be a race between the two Toyotas?
JML No, because the car is so new. We don’t have the same level of confidence in the GR010 as we did in the TS050, and then you
look at last year’s race. Both our cars had problems even though the TS050 was so well-proven.
MC We had the hole in the exhaust, which we weren’t expecting. JML And the other car had the braking problem, but they were a bit lucky because they were able to fix it during a safety car.
MC They had bad luck, but so did we.
Your biggest misfortune, of course, was in 2019. How do you remember the last hour of that year’s race?
MC We had such good pace that year.
JML And time to have a problem. We had a slow puncture, so I was able to get back to the pits pretty much at full pace. It wasn’t a big deal. As I said, we had time to have a problem. It all started to go wrong, as we all know, after that.
When did you realise, Jose Maria, something was amiss after the wrong wheel and tyre was replaced?
JML It was quite hard to feel a puncture with the rideheight system we had on the TS050, but as I exited the pits I was watching the sensor and telling the team that it was still showing low pressure. They said wait for a couple of corners while it resets itself. But now the car was behaving like it had a puncture, because after stopping in the pits pressures had dropped. I knew I was going to have to do the full lap at 50 or 60km/h. The feeling was horrible. I knew the victory was gone.
And you cried in the cockpit?
JML Anyone in my place would have cried because we’d put so much effort into it and because of the history between us.
The only thing I’m glad for is that one of my team-mates didn’t have to experience what I did.
MC We experienced it with you, man.
JML The most annoying thing is that we had fresh tyres for the last couple of hours when I got back in the car, so the risk of a puncture should have been much less. We had such good pace in the night. I remember running an extra stint on the tyres so we could have a fresh set for the end.
MC Yeah, we were doing quadruples and you put in a quintuple.
Mike and Kamui, victory would have been there for the taking in 2017 for you when you were teamed with Stephane Sarrazin, but for the clutch issue after nine hours. What do you remember about the bizarre incident when you were waved out of the pits by the LMP2 driver Vincent Capillaire?
KK It was a very confusing situation. It was dark and you can’t see so much from inside the car. I saw this guy in an orange suit waving me out. I was sitting there for maybe 10s and he was still waving. I said to my engineer that I had to go; I was thinking the signal had broken. Then he told me to stop to let the safety car go past. I was telling the team that there was a problem with the clutch after I restarted, but we didn’t have a monitoring system and the team told me to do one more lap. If we’d come in straight away we could still have won because everyone else had problems. Changing the clutch is like 40 minutes. It was a big mess.
MC That’s the way Le Mans is.
Missing out on the victory that year followed the high of your record-breaking pole position lap, Kamui. Do you see that as one of your career highlights?
KK In terms of Youtube hits, yes!
MC And you still haven’t got the cheque through for all those views!
Was it the near-perfect lap?
KK Actually not.
JML I’m sure you missed the apex at the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight.
KK You’re right, but it was my first lap of the day and I had to prepare and jump into the car very quickly. I was sitting around having a cup of coffee when our engineer told me I had to get ready. When I look at the onboard now, I realise that I could have gone much quicker.
JML So you’re disappointed with that lap?
KK Yeah. I went into the first chicane a bit deep, I turned into Arnage a bit late and for the Porsche Curves I braked a bit. I didn’t need to, so I messed up. I shouldn’t have braked. I didn’t need to, but I’d just jumped into the car and I wasn’t on the limit.
This year, do you feel you have had an advantage over Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley in the sister car in the World Endurance Championship?
JML We definitely had an edge at Spa; at one point we had a gap of nearly 50 seconds. At Algarve, it was very close. And it should be that way. They are very good drivers as well, so it’s always going to be the little things and a little luck that make the difference.
MC And that’s even more true at Le Mans.