Toyota is by some margin the most decorated marque in FIA World Endurance Championship history, counting multiple Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ crowns to its credit. In recent years, Ryan Dingle has played a key part in engineering that success.
Dingle – who has spent much of his career in Japan – is race engineer on the #8 prototype, piloted by four-time world champions Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley alongside 2022 and 2023 title-winner, Ryō Hirakawa. He is also the primary focus of the penultimate instalment of the new FIA WEC YouTube docuseries, ‘Beyond the Track’, out today.
The episode joins Toyota at Fuji Speedway for the championship’s milestone 100th round last September. Heading into the weekend, the home heroes had won nine of the 11 races held at the circuit since FIA WEC’s inception back in 2012, leaving the team with a legacy to defend. With extra support comes extra pressure to perform. It is, acknowledges Dingle, ‘a big one for us’.
“Is earning points the best we can aim for?” ponders one of his colleagues, reflecting upon the brand’s struggles in 2025 with its ageing GR010 Hybrid Hypercar, and while Dingle talks hopefully of doing battle for the podium, a seventh-place finish for the #7 sister entry is ultimately the best it will get.
The Canadian describes himself as ‘a node in-between the various groups of the racing team’, and the main conduit between the feedback from the cockpit and the discussions on the pit wall. Clear communication is key, with Toyota stalwart Buemi quick to stress the significance of the relationship.
“It’s very important to have a strong bond with your engineer, because he knows just by listening to the tone of your voice how important the problem is or how much of a change you need,” observes the Swiss star, the winningest driver in FIA WEC, with 26 outright victories to his name.
So while Buemi is unquestionably a master magician on-track, it is the man on the other end of the radio whose calm, clear advice, innate sense of understanding and methodical manner equip him with the tools he needs to get the job done weekend-in, weekend-out...
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