Toyota has outlined its objectives for the 2026 World Endurance Championship, stating it wants to end its Le Mans 24 Hours victory drought and reduce operational errors.
Once the benchmark in the WEC’s top division, Toyota went the first seven rounds of the 2025 season without scoring a race win, before finally breaking through in the season finale in Bahrain.
It is now three years since the marque last won Le Mans and two since it claimed the drivers’ title, while 2025 marked the first time it didn’t win the manufacturers’ title in the Hypercar era.
But the Japanese manufacturer is aware of its shortcomings and has developed a heavily revised version of its Le Mans Hypercar, which was officially launched earlier this week under the TR010 Hybrid name.
It is the third major evolution of the car that originally debuted as the GR010 Hybrid in 2021, with a particular focus made on aerodynamics to maximise its speed under the Balance of Performance framework.
Toyota Racing vice-president Kazuki Nakajima admitted that the brand has been frustrated by its results at La Sarthe in recent years, but is confident the TR010 Hybrid can help reverse that trend.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“The biggest objective is clearly to win Le Mans,” Nakajima told Motorsport.com. “After three years of frustrating results in Le Mans, this is clearly the biggest target, as well as winning the championship, because we always look for these two big targets.
“But if I have to rate between two, I think Le Mans comes first priority.”
Toyota was long regarded as the strongest operational outfit in the WEC, often winning races through superior execution – even as competition intensified in the Hypercar era.
But the Cologne-based team’s usual clinical approach faltered on several occasions in 2025, as it tried to overcome what it felt was an unfavourable BoP at times.
The Lone Star Le Mans round proved particularly costly, with Toyota making a series of errors, including an ill-timed call to fit slick tyres on the #7 GR010 Hybrid while the track was still damp late in the race.
Nakajima admitted that the team hasn’t been on top of its game this year and has made addressing this weakness a priority for 2025.
“The team’s execution like strategy, pit stop, drivers’ performance, not making mistakes and things like that, these are a big part of the performance factor in the race,” he said. “We just need to focus on this part.
“We have to admit that we have not been at the level that we are aiming for in terms of team execution this year [2025].
“In some races, we really performed well as a team but in some [other] races, we made mistakes. So, as a team we still need to improve ourselves, and this is a clear target for next year.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
— The Motorsport.com Team
