Toyota held its own against an onslaught of new LMDh and LMH car makers in the WEC in 2023, winning six of the seven races and sweeping both drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles.
Its only defeat of the season came at the Le Mans 24 Hours, where it narrowly lost out to Ferrari following a controversial Balance of Performance change in the run-up to the centenary edition of the French endurance classic.
Some fractions of fans had previously put Toyota’s success entirely down to a lack of works opposition, without taking into consideration how strong an operation it is, but the 2023 season allayed any lingering doubts about the capabilities of the Japanese manufacturer.
Bamber, whose Cadillac team finished third at Le Mans this year, said he knew it was never going to be easy for new Hypercar manufacturers to be on the same level as Toyota in 2023, recalling how strong it was in 2017 during Porsche’s last season in LMP1.
“We need to work hard in the winter to make that jump to catch Toyota but, at the same time, my expectations would be that Toyota would be very strong,” said the Kiwi, who won the title on Porsche’s LMP1 farewell with Timo Bernhard and current Toyota driver Brendon Hartley.
“Because when [Porsche] left LMP1 in ‘17 they were already at a massively high level and they have kept the same group of people together, drivers and everything.
“If you expect that you can come in and beat them so easily it would be a little bit too easy because they are a great team.
“It's like coming in Formula 1. You are never going to catch Red Bull and Mercedes in Year 1.
“I think it's really nice that you've got such a high-level manufacturer and operation to aspire to. We are trying to catch them as fast as we can.”
Source: Autosport