Well, here is a sight nobody had on their bingo card. As Motorsport.com Italia reports, Toyota has just dragged itself through quite comfortably its worst-ever qualifying session, leaving the World Champions starting down in 15th and 16th on the grid for Sunday's 6 Hours of Monza, ahead of only the BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor.
Persistent rain wiped out meaningful practice running on Friday and Saturday morning, leaving teams with next to no data on slick tires. But that does not quite cover the sheer pace deficit of the machines. Ryo Hirakawa did not mince words about the situation, noting that guessing the setup on an un-tested circuit left the squad scrambling. Even in the wet, the pace simply evaporated.
We will change our approach compared to usual. We will give the drivers advice on what we think is best, but they will have more freedom than usual to choose one direction or another.
"On the wet, a bit everywhere, even on the straights, but I didn't really see the performance on the dry," Hirakawa admitted. When asked if aggressive strategy calls could drag them back into contention, the stark reality of the machinery came right back down. "In terms of pace, whatever strategy you take, our car is too slow. First of all, we need to tune the car to make it much faster."
Part of the nightmare appears tied to the newly resurfaced Monza asphalt from 2024, which left the track noticeably smoother and robbed the Japanese LMHs of the ability to drag heat into their tires. Warmer temperatures on Sunday might help, but the damage from qualifying is severe. Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi, and Brendon Hartley arrive with a 17-point lead in the drivers' standings, while the sister Toyota TR010 #7 crew of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries, and Kamui Kobayashi need a top-two finish to snatch the crown away.
While a disastrous showing from the team would hand the title straight to the #8 car, Hirakawa made it clear that backing into a championship while trailing at the back holds zero appeal. "I still want to have a good race. I don't want to finish last and then win the championship," he said.
Toyota technical director David Floury pointed both to the team's underperformance and the base speed of the chassis as the culprits behind the grid position. With the manufacturers' championship already safely in the bag, Floury confirmed that both crews will enjoy total freedom to run their own strategies without interference from the pit wall.
"Having already secured the constructors' championship, I don't have to interfere between the two cars," Floury explained. "We will change our approach compared to usual. We will give the drivers advice on what we think is best, but they will have more freedom than usual to choose one direction or another."
