2024 was the first outing at Le Mans for Lexus with the RC F GT3, the Toyota Motor Company’s representative in the then-new LMGT3 class. And if plans come to fruition, this year’s race will be the brand’s last outing at La Sarthe, at least for the foreseeable future.
The arrival of the new GR GT3 by Toyota into both the FIA WEC and IMSA competition – a car initially expected to be branded as a Lexus, until a revised branding decision some time into the car’s development created the new GR label – is expected to come in time for the 95th edition, but we still await a full launch for the car.
How close to being finalised is the plan? The DSC editor-in-chief spent time at Scrutineering chatting to Akkodis ASP owner Jerome Policand to find out more.
Is this the final year for the RC F GT3?
“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.
“The homologation timetable, though, meant that wasn’t possible.”
Have you tested with the new car yet?
“They have tested the new car quite a lot in Japan and in the USA.
“We will start a test process for the LMGT3 programme, 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 programme. 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.”
What is the length of your agreement with Toyota?
“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 endeavour. 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.”
When we spoke about the new car a while ago, you were very clear that the medium-term ambition was to go beyond WEC with this car. Where would you like Akkodis ASP to be with the new car in the future? And in what kind of timeframe?
“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’ programme 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.”
Realistically, how quickly could that happen – the expansion to GT World Challenge and GT Open?
“I hope we can get there for 2028.”
Images © Toyota, Akkodis ASP Team, SRO
