Jose Maria Lopez will probably be on standby at subsequent month’s Le Mans 24 Hours as a Toyota Hypercar reserve driver for the World Endurance Championship’s blue-riband occasion.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has formalised the function the 2021 Le Mans winner performed final yr when he changed the injured Mike Conway at brief discover forward of the check day.
Lopez, who since final season has been a part of Toyota sister marque Lexus’s LMGT3 programme within the WEC, took Conway’s place alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries regardless of not having pushed the GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar since his final race as a full-time staff member in Bahrain the earlier November.
The trio finally completed as runners-up with Lopez finishing the ultimate stint at Circuit de la Sarthe, through which he got here simply 14 seconds behind Nicklas Nielsen within the successful Ferrari 499P LMH.
This time, Lopez has been given a check outing at Paul Ricard over the winter, mentioned TGR Europe technical director David Floury, “to maintain him up to the mark” with the automotive in case he’s wanted for Le Mans on 14-15 June.
“Jose Maria is skilled and has been racing with us at Le Mans many instances,” defined Floury.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries, #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
“He’s the only option should you want somebody to leap within the automotive with not a lot preparation – we simply should go within the storage subsequent door.”
Lopez was referred to as up final yr when Conway was injured in a biking accident within the week forward of the check day rather than Ritomo Miyata, who was Toyota’s official check and reserve driver.
This yr, Toyota has not named a driver in that official place with earlier incumbents of the function together with Kobayashi and de Vries.
In 2025, Lopez has been sharing the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 with Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu within the WEC.
Floury defined that Toyota-contracted Yuichi Nakayama, who stood in for Ben Barnicoat within the sister #78 ASP entry on the Spa WEC spherical earlier this month, is on the checklist of potential replacements for Lopez at ASP ought to he be referred to as up for the Hypercar squad.
Learn Additionally:
On this article
Gary Watkins
Le Mans
WEC
Jose Maria Lopez
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