Floury Fears Title Will Be Decided “Halfway Through Season”

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe WEC technical director David Floury fears the FIA World Endurance Championship title will be decided “halfway through the season” following Ferrari’s dominant start to the campaign.

The Japanese manufacturer, which recorded fifth and seventh place results in last weekend’s 6 Hours of Imola, was unable to challenge for the win for the second consecutive race, despite several setbacks for the pair of GR010 Hybrids.

“We were a bit unfortunate with the Full Course Yellow because we had to do an emergency stop with Car 7, which doesn’t cost much time but cost a lot of track position, which was a bit of a pain,” said Floury.

“We had this Full Course Yellow infringement, also with Brendon [Hartley], which cost us a lot. Still it cost quite a lot in a tight race like this.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think we did as clean of a race from this respect.

“We were never in contention for much more than what we achieved in the end.”

Toyota opted for a split strategy amid the Virtual Safety Car period, which saw the No. 8 entry of Sebastien Buemi go off-sequence to the leaders.

It, however, all came to blows in the final hour when Buemi and the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco had contact while fighting for what was believed to be a podium finish at the time.

Fuoco was handed a post-race time penalty equivalent to a drive-through for incident responsibility.

“It’s very difficult to overtake on this track,” said Floury. “I think in two years we have seen something between five and ten overtakes on track; it’s not a nice track for this kind of racing.

“At the end you have to try and find ways to make your way up on track. With the weight and power that we have, our raceability is even more difficult. Already to start with, it’s difficult but in our case it’s even more difficult.

“Unfortunately I think we could have achieved a bit more. We struggled with pace with Car 7 towards the end probably due to tire degs on the car.

“We could have achieved a bit more but not much more.

“Definitely, Ferrari were on a class of their own. It’s been the same in Qatar.

“There’s a very high risk that it continues for a good part of the season and the championship is quite decided halfway through the season.”

Ferrari left Imola with a sizable 29-point lead, over BMW, in the manufacturers’ world championship, with defending champions Toyota sitting third, a further ten points behind.

Floury said he doesn’t believe Toyota has been unable to fight for wins so far this season.

“As a team we go racing to compete for the win,” he said. “We were not put in a situation where we can achieve this. It’s not the picture.

“There’s a lot of frustration. At the end of the day we’re doing damage limitation for race after race trying to stay in the mix.

“Here, I think Ferrari scored 26 points. We scored 20, so I think if you had told me would have achieved this during the weekend, obviously I would have likely signed straight away.

“BMW are getting more points on, the same as Qatar.

“We do what we can do. But when you see the picture, for sure, last year we were fighting for the championship with Porsche. This year, we are both fighting between P7 and P14.

“The cars are the same; the tires are the same. The teams are the team. Everything is the same. That’s a fact.”