Toyota's Five Straight Le Mans Wins Still Tell an Incomplete Story

As expected, last weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans ended exactly like the four before it. Toyota, facing no competition from other major factories for the fifth straight year, was able to take its fifth straight overall win without any meaningful resistance. It is a strange achievement, one that will look much better in the history books than it did in any of those races. It is nonetheless a significant one.

The number is staggering. Five wins puts Toyota ahead of every historic factory effort but Bentley, Jaguar, Ferrari, Audi, and Porsche. Five straight wins puts it in a tier with only Porsche, Ferrari, and Audi, although Audi accomplished the feat on two separate occasions. Out of context, it is the sort of thing that cements Toyota's current era as a legend of the race. However, a complete lack of factory competition in those wins means that it is not entirely clear that Toyota has ever been better at Le Mans than any factory they have actually raced.

That makes celebrating the program, either the team or the cars, more difficult. Was the final form of the TS050 any better than the Porsche 919 Hybrid and Audi R18 that had retired from competition by 2018? Is the GR010 any better than the Aston Martin Valkyrie-based Hypercar that was canceled before it could have debuted last season? Without that context, we don't really know anything about this winning incarnation of Gazoo Racing other than how soundly it can beat privateers. To really celebrate the magnitude of Toyota's achievement, we need to see the team and its current car framed in a new context.