Toyota looking for redemption after recent Le Mans near-misses

For the drivers of Toyota Gazoo Racing, the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours is their greatest opportunity to return to the top of the sports car racing mountain after two very difficult defeats in the last few years.

This year is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Toyota's first official Le Mans entry in 1985. A celebration of the Japanese manufacturer's ambitious challenges, its persistent spirit after several heartbreaking losses – each worse than the last, but none worse than the last-lap breakdown in 2016. And then, finally, Toyota broke the curse and took its first win in 2018, the first of five in a row through 2022.

Yet it could have been more: Had either 2023 or 2024 broken differently at one juncture or another, we could be talking about Toyota winning seven in a row and going for eight in 2025, instead of seeking redemption after losses to Ferrari.

Sebastien Buemi, Toyota's longest-tenured Hypercar driver, has been a Toyota man in some fashion for his entire life. His family owned a Toyota dealership in his native Switzerland. As a child, he stood beside the Toyota TS020 GT-One at the 1998 Geneva Motor Show, not knowing he'd one day drive its successors.

Buemi was with them through the return in 2012. He stood in the Toyota garage in stunned disbelief when his car stopped on the penultimate lap in 2016, and he was part of the cathartic breakthrough in 2018. He's won this race four times, and yet his motivation to win this year is even greater than it was when he and Toyota were still trying to win their first.

Buemi's first Le Mans triumph came in 2018. Getty Images

"You want to come back. You want to try again. Of course, it is not easy when you go close to winning...because the probability that you can be in such a position again is not very high," Buemi admitts.

"Even if two years ago, we finished second, last year was, for me, more difficult. Last year, we finished fifth, but we were leading for most of the race, and we got taken out by the (No. 51) Ferrari. Then we had a poor pit stop, and that just unfolded at the end...it cost us a lot.

"I'd say, this year, we want to win because it's the biggest grid ever," he says. "We know it's going to be difficult. We still won the Manufacturers' Championship last year, which was good. But this year we want to prove that we can win, so we feel very hungry for that."

A win for Toyota would also quiet the harsh chatter from critics who've attacked the credibility of their dynasty run as only a by-product of Audi and Porsche leaving the sport, and stand firm in their belief that Toyota's two losses to Ferrari recently have put them back in their place as perennial pretenders.

"You will always have people saying, 'Yeah, but you didn't have much competition when you won,' so it doesn't feel like a real win. So we really want to make sure we win in front of all those guys," Buemi remarks.

And if anybody is familiar with harsh critique, it's Buemi: A mercurial talent whose intensity and aggression behind the wheel, on the radio, or in the garage has painted him as a temperamental hothead in the eyes of his biggest detractors.

"It's annoying, but there's nothing I can do," he laments. "So, the only thing I can do is try to win this year and prove everyone wrong."

The desire to win is also shared by two of Buemi's Toyota stablemates: His No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID co-drivers Ryo Hirakawa, and Nyck de Vries in the No. 7 car, which carries a throwback livery inspired by the 1998 GT-One of Buemi's childhood.

They stand out as the two newest Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar drivers, but their appointments were met with some degree of criticism at the time, and at their lowest moments at Le Mans, that criticism grew ever louder.

2022 Le Mans winner Hirakawa has defied criticism. James Moy Photography/Getty Images

"I think the last two years have given me more motivation. Not only for me, but for the team," says Hirakawa, who won the race in 2022 in his first outing with the Toyota factory team at Le Mans, but has seemingly never shaken off the stigma of being the driver who locked up and crashed with two hours to go in 2023 while in pursuit of the leading Ferrari.

"We were so, so close to the win," he reflects. "Even last year, we were leading, at some point. But I think not only me, but everyone is very motivated after losing the win. There are more competitors. That's more challenges, disaster, but also more motivation – so we are ready to fight for the win."

Those unfamiliar with his rise as a Japanese racing prodigy a decade ago, who hadn't seen him win races and a championship in SUPER GT's highly-competitive GT500 class, felt that Toyota picked a driver that wasn't ready for the bright lights and only chosen in the first place to appease Toyota's Japanese shareholders after Kazuki Nakajima retired – not knowing Hirakawa's true talent.

Hirakawa's teammates, including Buemi, supported him after the gut-wrenching loss two years ago and have marveled at how he has developed in the time since he joined Toyota's WEC side, tempering his spectacular speed with maturity and poise, and he expressed gratitude for being able to have another chance to win alongside Buemi and Hartley.

"I'm in one of the best teams, one of the best manufacturers, fighting for victory," Hirakawa says. "Not many people have that opportunity – with the same team, same crew, same teammates. And after fighting again, losing twice, and now coming back for victory - I think it's pretty special.

"And hopefully we can get this one this weekend."

On the other side of the garage, de Vries joined Toyota last year after a bruising half-season of Formula 1 racing and an unkind re-appraisal of his prior single-seater career – even his championship successes in Formula 2 and Formula E were called into question.

de Vries is aiming to join Toyota's Le Mans winners. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images

The critics can't take away the fact that he was part of Toyota's run to the WEC Manufacturers Championship last year, sharing the No. 7 Toyota with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, but apart from his incredible LMP2 super-sub performance in 2022, de Vries is still looking for happier Le Mans memories than his Warm-Up crash before last year's race – or when he missed Hyperpole with a lackluster result in Wednesday's first Qualifying session.

"I'm very hungry to win my first here. Obviously, everyone else in the team has already won one," says the Dutch driver, who nearly came from the back of the Hypercar grid last year to win, before finishing second. "So arguably, you could say that my eagerness is higher than anyone.

"I think as a team, we are very clear with our objectives, and it's evident that we're here to compete for the victory. We respect and appreciate the strong competition, but we'll give it our best run this weekend, and hopefully we'll prevail."

"Winning is always difficult at any level, anywhere. So I don't think you can ever take that away from anyone." de Vries adds about the 'noise' around Toyota.

For de Vries, Hirakawa, Buemi, and everyone at Toyota, the hunger and the desire to win on this 40th anniversary of the first Le Mans entry have never been greater. The celebration of challenge, resilience, and triumph will become a full-blown party on Sunday if they can finally conquer the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, and silence the harsh noise from their critics, once and for all.