Since BMW’s challengers René Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde failed to score in Spain, it will be a Toyota-exclusive duel to decide which trio scoops the drivers’ championship.
Whichever way the cards fall, Monza will also mark a final curtain for Conway, who at the age of 43 has announced his retirement as a full-time professional racer.
He has served Toyota admirably for more than a decade, and his status as a double Le Mans winner and two-time world champion has already elevated him to the illustrious roll-call of great British long-distance drivers.
For Toyota, on the back of another dominant season in the World Rally Championship, the WEC success caps what is arguably its greatest season in motorsport, in the context of the intense level of Hypercar competition.
The hanging question is: will the brand ever immerse itself fully once again into the cauldron of Formula 1?
It’s sort of half-in at the moment, through a technical association with the Haas team, but a full commitment in the manner of Audi and Cadillac is another story.
Toyota’s winless score from its eight underwhelming F1 campaigns of the 2000s can be easily forgotten all these years later, which is surely just how the company likes it.
Does it really need F1 and the high risk of failure that follows? I’m not sure it does.
