Our race for Le Mans this year began straight after last year's tragic end.

Achieving consecutive victories in the first two rounds of the season, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has been enjoying a good start leading up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Among the smiling drivers on the top step of the podium, there is one Japanese driver.
It is Kazuki Nakajima, who was driving the TS050 HYBRID when the car stopped just before the goal in last year's Le Mans race.

Last year, Nakajima was just minutes away from standing on the top step of the winner's podium, but he was suddenly put into the abyss of defeat.

It happened just three minutes before the race finished. Could there ever be such a tragic scenario?

As a driver who is now going to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans again, what is on Nakajima's mind right now?

When he was asked what went through in his mind at that moment when the machine stopped, the answer was surprisingly calm and objective.

“I think I put my feelings behind quickly. I was in the car and had just experienced what had happened, so that I think I was able to reset my mind probably quicker than those watching from the outside.”

Kamui Kobayashi, who was racing at Le Mans in the other Toyota car, recalls as follows.

At that moment, Kobayashi had already finished his stint and was watching Nakajima from the team garage.

“It was shocking. I was thinking like, 'How could something like this happen? “This is Le Mans, I guess.”

As Nakajima's car stopped just before the goal, the TS050 HYBRID car #6 that Kobayashi had been driving moved up to the 2nd-place.

For Kobayashi, it was his first podium finish at Le Mans. It was an accomplishment to be proud of, but given the circumstances, it had a bitter taste as well.

“I wasn't happy at all and was disappointed. It was a result that no one wanted, so it was simply disappointing.

Even though he was standing on the podium surrounded by thousands of fans, Kobayashi could only feel the bitterness of defeat.

If you don't win, if you aren't first, it is a defeat.
You want to win because you don't like to be defeated.

Even with two victories from the season's start, preparation towards Le Mans is never enough.

June 2016
The engineers had started full-fledged development efforts aiming toward Le Mans.

The engineers had begun development to overcome the previous year's incident with one thought in mind.

“Have we done everything we possibly can?”

The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team had almost completely dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2016.
But it turned out that the car was not strong enough in every single area. That is why trouble occurred with three minutes remaining.

Hisatake Murata, General Manager of Toyota's GR Development Division, said:
“Till last year, the engineers' goal was to build what needed to be built, and that was their job. Their commitment to watch the car finish and win the Le Mans race hadn't been strong enough.”

That is why the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team decided to “do everything we possibly can” and take on the Le Mans race again.

With this passion, every part of the 2017 model TS050 HYBRID except the monocoque that the drivers ride in was completely redesigned despite having the same name as the 2016 model. And the part that failed last year was completely countermeasured.

In addition, one more machine was added to the team to compete in Le Mans this year. The drivers for the third machine include newly added Japanese driver, Yuji Kunimoto.

With these cars, the team won both the opening round of the season at Silverstone and the second round at Spa-Francorchamps. The team has been gaining confidence for Le Mans.

The preparations were completed.

What Toyota has gained, besides that disappointment.

There is another man who is looking forward to this year's Le Mans.

It is Toyota's president, Akio Toyoda.

In fact, it was not only with disappointment that the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team came away from last year's Le Mans.

There were messages sent to the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team through SNS media from Porsche who won and Audi.

Here is the message Porsche sent via Twitter.

Competed together for 24 hours.

Head to head for 24 hours.

Gained our respect forever.

And it wasn't the only SNS message that Porsche sent.

Some days later, a letter reached Toyoda.

The sender of the letter was Dr. Wolfgang Porsche*.

Seeing the contents of the letter, Toyoda felt that it was perhaps the first time that Toyota had won the recognition by Europe's longstanding motorsport industry.

And it was Le Mans that had given Toyota such a precious encounter.

We want to express our appreciation by showing a wonderful battle again with Porsche.

*Wolfgang Porsche: Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche AG. Grandchild of the founder, Ferdinand Porsche, and son of Ferry Porsche, the father of the present Porsche as a sports car brand.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans race is approaching.

Kazuki Nakajima says, “I'm sure that the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team will be the winner this year.”

Representing TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team, smiling Nakajima spoke with the strong and cool conviction about his commitment for the upcoming Le Mans race.

“For the team and for me, this is the fifth race at Le Mans and I have never felt more well-prepared and confident like this year in the past. But, we might find that Porsche very fast in this year. We never know until the race actually begins.”

“I do my best to win with our car (#8). But if that possibility disappears somewhere along the way, we will still be giving all the support to make sure that one of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing cars wins. And Le Mans is a race where you can feel satisfaction and obtain a sense of achievement even doing so.”

“I hope that all the fans will be looking forward to our race performance at this year's Le Mans race. But, knowing what happened last year, it will surely be a tense competition all the way to the finish (laughs). For that very reason, we will be working as hard as we can through to the end. Each of your cheers give us the great strength to battle until the race finishes, I hope you will send your strong support for us at Le Mans.”

3:00 PM local time and 10:00 PM in Japan
June 18, 2017.

The team has worked hard around the clock for the past year to finish the race with brightest smiles at that moment.

We will witness together the result of all efforts at Le Mans.