Lexus set for Le Mans swansong

With the new flagship GT racer from Toyota, the GR GT3, on course to be homologated and ready to race in time for the 2027 season, Akkodis ASP is gearing up to give the RC F LMGT3 a memorable Le Mans send-off this weekend, two years on from the Lexus brand’s debut in the French endurance classic.

A full launch of the GR GT3 (originally slated to carry Lexus branding before a mid-development strategic shift led to the creation of the GR identity) is still pending, but recent spy shots from testing have confirmed that the final stages of the car’s development are well underway. And speaking with RACER at Le Mans, Akkodis ASP owner Jerome Policand confirmed that the current campaign is expected to be the swansong for the RC F GT3 in the WEC.

"It should be the final year, finally! On one side, we were not disappointed; the current car is very good, but we were expecting maybe to run the new car this year,” he says. "The homologation timetable, though, meant that wasn't possible."

While Akkodis ASP has yet to begin its own testing program with the GR GT3, Policand revealed that significant mileage has already been accumulated elsewhere.

“They (Toyota) have tested the new car quite a lot in Japan and in the USA. We will start a test process for the LMGT3 program, I think in August or September on our side. So that means if the first race is in Qatar, as we expect, it will give us a few months to learn the car, choose the line-up, and train the drivers on the new car.

"I'm not worried about the testing program. The only thing is, as you know, when it's a brand new car, there is a lot to learn. But from what I heard from the previous test, it looked like the car is very reliable. The electronics are working well. So I hope it will be more of a case of fine-tuning than real, basic development testing, because reliability is an absolutely key point when you start a process. I'm optimistic that the car will be ready for us to be competitive very quickly."

The GR GT3 is set to debut next year. Image courtesy of Toyota

The arrival of the new car is also set to deepen what Policand hopes will become a long-standing relationship with Toyota. Akkodis ASP's move into the FIA World Endurance Championship represented a major milestone for the French team, one that was made possible with significant support from Toyota's European motorsport operations.

"I guess it will be a long-term partnership, because for us it was a very important step to be able to enter a car in a World Championship.

"The FIA WEC, for teams like Akkodis ASP is a huge endeavor. We have achieved that with some valuable support from Toyota Racing at Cologne. They helped a lot to bring us to this championship.

"So now my plan, as Jerome Policand, is to finish my motor racing career with Toyota. So I hope it will be a very long-term partnership. You never know in motor racing, but it looks like that now the relationship is very strong."

Beyond simply replacing the RC F GT3 in WEC, Policand sees the new program as the foundation for a much broader customer-racing effort. Having previously enjoyed success with Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG machinery, he believes Toyota's new GT3 contender must ultimately establish itself as a widely used customer car.

"The main goal now is to progress to the point where we can use this car as we did with the Ferrari and then the AMG.

"WEC is a peak of endurance motor racing, but of course we want to come back to GT World Challenge, and even to GT Open with Toyota.

"The main goal for the project is that this car must be a real customer car, like the AMG, Audi, Aston Martin. Of course there will be a 'Pro' program at the top with WEC, but then we are looking to come back to a customer programme with GT World Challenge and IGTC and European Le Mans series, and so on."

As for when that expansion might become reality, Policand already has a target in mind: “I hope we can get there for 2028.”

This week though, the team has a chance to get a result for Lexus on a track that has suited the old lady well in the past. The RC F LMGT3, which debuted in 2017, is at its best on low-deg tracks with long straights, making the Circuit de la Sarthe the ideal venue for the toughest race on the calendar and a signature result for the Lexus program.

“It’s performed well in the past here,” Lexus factory driver Jose Maria Lopez told RACER. “It’s been hard, but we had a clean race last year and ended up P5. So if we can take a step, we hope we can fight a bit more. Degradation is always tough, but here it isn’t as bad; last year we were good over a lap, but we lost time in the second and third stints during the race.

“This year it looks like we are no longer the quickest car on the straights, which could make it complicated. But we hope to fight.”