It all began in 1985 with the entry of two Toyota 85Cs by Toyota Tom’s Team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. One finished in 12th place overall, driven by Kaoru Hoshino, Masanori Sekiya (future winner in 1995 at the wheel of a McLaren F1 GTR) and Satoru Nakajima (Kazuki's dad)!
Since that first appearance, the Japanese marque has come extremely close to victory several times, to no avail. We all remember the enormous disappointment in 2016 as the Toyota TS050 Hybrid driven by Kazuki Nakajima came to a stop in the last lap just seconds away from the win. Galvanized by that failure, the entire TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team set out to right the wrong and claim the top step on the podium once and for all. And that it did in 2018 thanks to Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso. The triumph was further compounded by second place secured by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and José María López.
VIDEO – TOYOTA GAZOO Racing