Another Toyota FIA World Championship grand slam
The FIA World Championship prize giving had a distinctive Gazoo Racing white, red, and black feel about it once again, when the awards were distributed in Baku over the weekend. No less than three of the six Manufacturers’, and three of the six FIA World Driver’s Champions came from the Toyota Gazoo Racing stable, as Toyota once more dominated every FIA World Motor Racing Championship it entered, for the second year in a row.
Gazoo takes 7th FIA World endurance title
Starting on track, Toyota Gazoo Racing is yet again the FIA World Endurance Manufacturers’ Champion. Winners at Spa Francorchamps and in Bahrain, and second to the winning Ferrari at the Le Mans 24 Hour, number 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid drivers, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa’s took the World Drivers’ Championship despite winning less races then their teammates in the number 7 machine.
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López were victorious at Sebring in the US, Portimão Portugal, Monza Italy, and Fuji Japan. But their retirement at double-points Le Mans hampered their title bid. That was still good enough for second in the driver’s title for the trio, ahead of the rampant Ferraris. And a sixth World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship, no less than Gazoo Racing’s fifth on the trot with six wins in seven rounds.
Toyota’s seventh FIA World Rally Title
Moving onto the gravel, Toyota Gazoo Racing scored its seventh FIA World Rally Manufacturer’s Championship over three eras, and its seventh overall, and fifth Driver’s title on the trot, when Kalle Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen led Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin home to a Driver’s title 1-2. They and Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 teammates Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais won nine of the WRC rallies between them.
A little further off the beaten track, Toyota Gazoo Racing duo Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel powered their South African built Gazoo Racing Toyota DKR Hilux Ultimate to their second straight FIA World Rally Raid Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in 2023. The intrepid dup started with their second GR Hilux Dakar victory on the trot, before racing on to victory in the Mexican Sonora Rally and the Argentine Desafío Ruta.
Gazoo Dominates World Rally Raid Too
All of which meant that Gazoo Racing not only yet again totally dominated all three FIA World Championships in entered in 2023, but it also took three of the six FIA World titles on offer, alongside the Formula 1, World Rallycross and Formula E champions at the FIA’s glittering World Championship Prizegiving in Baku over the weekend….
