The team has won six consecutive manufacturers’ World Championships and begins the new season aiming to extend that run whilst also adding the drivers’ title and another Le Mans 24 Hours crown.

The annual Prologue test marked the first time for the 2025 grid, comprising 36 cars from 13 manufacturers, to appear on track together, and included 14 hours of running across two days.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing focused its energy throughout the two days on enhancing the performance and consistency of its two GR010 HYBRIDs, utilising a driver-first approach to set-up and strategy adjustments. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries in the #7 GR010 HYBRID, and Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 GR010 HYBRID, completed a combined 4,291 kilometres over 792 laps. They contributed insights and gathered data which will be used to maximise car and tyre performance for next week’s race.

The Prologue began on Friday at midday with a first session dedicated to establishing baseline settings and adjusting mechanical set-ups. All six drivers recorded their first laps of Lusail International Circuit since a pre-season test there in December. In the evening, the team’s focus switched to analysing the medium and hard Michelin tyre compounds available in Qatar.

The team put learnings from the opening day into practice on Saturday, which began at lunchtime with a three-hour test, extended by an hour due to a lengthy red flag period. Mechanical set-ups and tyre behaviour were assessed further, and these efforts continued in the evening session, with an increased focus on race preparation.

Engineers and drivers worked intensively together throughout the two days to refine car performance, while mechanics also practiced pit stops to optimise human performance for the race, when each Hypercar typically visits the pits around 10 times.

Mechanics will now rebuild the GR010 HYBRIDs while engineers and drivers analyse car performance to find improvements based on the information gained in the Prologue. Elsewhere in the coming days, drivers and team members will also support local Toyota initiatives in Qatar which bring the excitement of motorsports – as well as the iconic GR range of sportscars – to a wider audience.

Two 90-minute free practice sessions kick off the race week on Wednesday, including one which ends after sunset. The starting grid will be determined in qualifying and Hyperpole on Thursday (5.40pm local, 3.40pm CET) while the race starts at 2pm (midday CET) on Friday 28 February.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7):

“We tried to get the best out of these two days to prepare ourselves well for the race week. Generally, we had no problems through the two days and managed to complete a lot of laps on both cars. Obviously in terms of pace we seem to be lacking a bit at the moment. But we will work on that in the next few days and try to find more performance. There is a lot of work still to do so let’s see how it goes next week.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7):

“It’s been a busy two days here in Qatar. We ran through a pretty comprehensive programme of set-up comparisons and tyre work with no issues and that’s very positive. Over one lap our pace looked decent, but we still need to work on our performance on longer runs. We will continue to push hard and see what we can come up with next week.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):

“It’s nice to be back together with the team ahead of a new season. We completed a lot of laps over the two days and learned a lot. It’s hard to get an initial reading but it looks like it could be a challenging race for us. We will look into everything we tested and see what we can learn to help us optimise our package for the race.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):

“I’m happy to be back in Qatar, although this is not an easy track for us. We had two long days of running but, like last year, we seem to be struggling a little. We have a few days before free practice so we will work hard with the data that we gathered here and the experience of last year. The race is long, but it looks like it might not be easy. We will have to do a perfect job to maximise everything.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):

“It was beautiful to see all the cars on track for the first time this year. We had a smooth test, and we can be satisfied with our two days. We had no mechanical issues, and we worked well as a crew on both cars. We are not the fastest right now and I doubt we will be, but we are trying hard to extract all the car’s potential so we can score as many points as possible in the race.”

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8):

“We already knew this track is not the strongest for our car based on our performance last year. The whole team worked hard, and we did a lot of running without any problems so we have good data, which we will use to improve the car for next week. It could be a challenging event for us, but we are focused on getting the most out of it.”