WEC | López: “Lexus? I am aware that it will not be simple”

José María López's new challenge for the 2024 season is represented by the debut of the LMGT3 category of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship.

At Toyota they chose to sacrifice the Argentine to make room for Nyck De Vries on the GR010 Hybrid in the Hypercar Class, still keeping him under contract and diverting him to the wheel of the Lexus.

After 6 years on the prototypes, a success at Le Mans and two World titles, 'Pechito' will now climb into the RC F GT3 of Akkodis-ASP to share the wheel of the #87 car with Esteban Masson and Takeshi Kimura, while in the #78 will be Kelvin Van Der Linde, Timur Boguslavskiy and Arnold Robin.

“I have been in the Toyota family for a long time, so my main goal was to stay with them,” López says in the meeting with journalists attended by Motorsport.com.

“Of course I don't want to lie, so I admit that I would have liked to do a couple more years in Hypercar. But I'm not a kid anymore and I think this project is very interesting for me and also for everyone involved behind the scenes “.

Despite the great experience, for the South American it is still a new challenge to discover which takes him back to his past in the world of touring cars, recalling the domination of the 2014-2016 period in the WTCC with Citroen Racing.

“LMGT3 is fantastic and I'm very happy to be part of it. It's definitely a new experience, it won't be easy. If I look around, I have all guys who have raced in GT3, whose races are always very good.”

“Even when we were in Hypercar, we were looking at the monitors and being impressed by how close the fight was in GT and things that we probably weren't very used to in Hypercar. It won't be easy, but I'm very excited.”

The French team, fresh from adventures in the GT World Challenge with Mercedes, is now turning the page and has worked hard over the winter to discover the Lexus, carrying out test after test, also with the help of IMSA drivers, including Jack Hawksworth.

“The tests went well, but it's difficult to say how I feel compared to the others. I admit that I was impressed, I felt very comfortable in the car from the start. I tried it for the first time in Portimao, in occasion of the Goodyear tire test”.

“We had Jack with us, who toured for a while; it was important for us considering the experience he gained in the United States, he was a great help.”

“I have to say that I had good pace, although there are some things I have to get used to, such as the ABS and other aspects of driving, but I felt comfortable.”

“In Barcelona I drove the car for the second time and my teammate, Kelvin Van Der Linde, was already there. He also has good experience in GT3, so I was able to compare myself with him.”

“Finally I tested at Paul Ricard a couple of weeks ago, so I have no excuses now. I've driven the car and of course I can't wait to get out on track to see how I stack up compared to the other guys. Also, I want to see how it goes the car does compared to the other teams.”

#87 Akkodis ASP: Takeshi Kimura, Esteban Masson, Jose Maria Lopez

Photo by: AKKA-ASP

López did not hide a bit of concern about the fact that the RC F GT3 is the oldest car on the starting grid, and that he himself will have a lot to learn, but in recent months he has tried to get into the role as best as possible in order to compete all his papers.

“We are aware that it will not be easy, a very demanding challenge awaits us, with many cars in action, some new and others less so. But there is a BoP to balance the situation, it is up to us to get the best out of our car to be able fight.”

“The team is excellent and has already shown how strong it is in other series, we have a good package available and the crews are also strong, looking at my teammates.”

“Everyone is here to win, so I know it will be tough, but I hope to arrive in Qatar and have a good pace straight away, which would be ideal in a perfect world. But I'm trying to prepare as best I can with the awareness of how much It will be challenging, we'll see what happens.”