History on repeat? Or is Toyota’s WEC rise different this time?

The FIA World Endurance Championship teams are back on track this weekend for Round 2 at Spa-Francorchamps and with Le Mans on the horizon, a tale from the past is seemingly being rewritten, as Toyota is once again the team to beat in Hypercar after its triumph at Bahrain to cap off 2025, followed by the win and double podium with its new TR010 to kick off the new campaign.

It was an exceptional result for the Japanese factory last time out, on home turf for the reigning Hypercar world champions at Ferrari AF Corse. But we can't assume that we're in for another two-horse race between Ferrari and Toyota, with the other factories left fighting for scraps. As we look ahead to the traditional Le Mans table setter in the Ardennes forest, Round 1 winner Brendon Hartley believes it’s a race that, unlike last year, will be tough to predict.

“It’s really difficult to say where we’ll be,” he tells RACER. “It’s a completely different track to Imola. We’ve been very good on tracks that are bumpy, with curb rides – these are some of our strong points – and the last few years have been tough for us at Spa.

“It’s hard to call who will have the upper hand. I think Cadillac showed big pace at Imola. Maybe Aston Martin will be a factor, as this is a completely different circuit type. I almost don’t want to single anyone out because coming here, it’s not clear who will be the favorite.

“That’s the ultimate truth. There were times last year when, before we arrived, we knew who the winner would be, if I’m perfectly honest with you, which was disappointing, but I feel now it’s not clear, and it seems more even, which is a really good step.

“If you asked me last year, I could have told you the winners of the first few races. It was obvious. Now it’s a different situation, it’s very tight, very competitive.”

The Toyota-vs-Ferrari battle swung Toyota's way in Imola, but Spa offers a significantly different challenge. Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI

Either way, this weekend is another key stop on the road to Le Mans, and like every manufacturer, Toyota has one eye on next month’s race. The days of top-class teams using this event to trial brand-new low-downforce aero packages for their cutting-edge LMP1 cars are in the rearview mirror, yet it remains a useful outing for the teams and drivers as they build towards the most important race of the season.

“Le Mans, as you’d imagine, is the top goal at the moment,” Hartley says. “With respect to our competitors, we believe we have a chance to be there, fighting for the top step. So we have to focus on ourselves. The double podium (at Imola) was great. We have a good feeling with the car, and we have confidence going into the next few races.

“A lot of the work has already been done before we got here. We’ve developed the car, refining every little thing, and we’ve done endurance testing. You can make adjustments to your car for a circuit like this one and Le Mans, but we don’t have low-downforce packages anymore. Teams have an adjustable element to reduce drag, but you’re running similar specs track to track these days.

“Still, this weekend is an important part of the preparation, working on our procedures and optimizing what we have. Also, looking back at Imola, the curb usage there can translate to Le Mans and the chicanes at the end of the lap; here, we have some high-speed corners that are more comparable to the Porsche Curves. You could say the combination of this compressed schedule, with Imola and Spa close to each other, is more of an overall dress rehearsal than just Spa.”

For a team like Toyota, which is among the favorites to win this weekend and then again next month at La Sarthe, the clear focus is on what lies directly ahead. But like at Imola, where the team celebrated its 100th WEC start, this week at Spa is another moment to reflect, this time on the first-ever Hypercar race back in 2021, which it won. And in a similar fashion to its performance last time out, there's extra motivation to be found in attempting to mark the occasion with another victory.

So much has changed in the past five years. That race at Spa, held under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic, featured just three entries in the top class, one of which was a grandfathered LMP1 car run by Alpine, and was won comfortably by Toyota and the then-brand-new GR010. It's an event that feels like a distant memory, as since the boom in 2023, we've all become used to the WEC's top class hosting a glittering array of manufacturers.

Nevertheless, Toyota deserves props for committing to the formula early, sticking by it, and waiting patiently for the cavalry to arrive. It has been through its ups and downs since that weekend when this extraordinary era began, winning four consecutive Hypercar manufacturers’ titles, but failing to win Le Mans since 2022 and missing out on the 2025 championship. Yet it's still here and gunning for more.

The team’s vice chairman, Kazuki Nakajima, who was part of the winning line-up in the class’s inaugural race, feels that no matter what happens this weekend, this season, or in the years to come, nobody should lose sight of the journey the WEC has been on.

“We had some difficult times after 2017, when Audi and Porsche had both left LMP1, and we were without high-profile competition,” he explains. “And honestly, back in 2012, I couldn’t have imagined that we’d still be here more than a decade later. We are lucky to still be here and to be able to enjoy such a fight with so many rivals now.

“There’s less development and technology, but the most important thing is competition. It was worth the wait.”