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Originally Posted by TF110
It's not strange, it's the truth. Toyoda said that maybe the technology isn't ready to do such pace, and for 24hrs straight. He apologized for the drivers not being able to push flat out. I don't think many here would argue that they would take more hybrid or more electric over a simpler form of energy like more engine power. This is a slap in the face to the ACO's new rules imo. The thing is that it was mostly bad luck. The clutch issue was due to starting and restarting like Vasselon explained. That's one car down. Another car got hit by an lmp2 and the driver (close to what he did before) went too fast on a flat tire and ruined the rear end. That's two cars. The 8 car had an issue never seen before, the same issue that hit the winning Porsche. If Lapierre made it to the pits without further damaging the car, they win the race. If the #7 didn't follow directions from a 'fake' marshal, they win the race.
I think it's a little unfair to label Toyota as unreliable without noting that EVERY car in the hybrid class had reliability issues. It was definitely a race of attrition. And you can probably be sure that Toyota will work on serviceability of the front mgu without having to compromise the battery. That's what took them so much longer. They changed the battery which took another 30-45 minutes. That's at least 8 additional laps.
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Mostly bad luck? It seems that Toyota's problems are always bad luck. Just a few examples: in 2008 Marco Werner spun his R10 at the Ford Chicanes and broke his clutch when restarting the car. Guess what happened? He slowly lapped around the whole circuit and Audi fixed the clutch; 2014: Audi #1 stops during the night on the Mulsanne straight with injections issues. What happened? They brought the car back to the pits and fixed it. Then the same car stopped again with turbo failure. What happened? They managed to fix it again. The result? Audi 1-2 ; 2016: both Audis have several issues, one of them stopping on track and having to crawl slowly around the whole circuit. What happened? Both cars finished, one of them on the podium.
What happens when Toyota have problems? They either break down completely or spend two hours fixing it.
Yes, Toyota have always been unlucky. The others have always been lucky.