Lopez named as Toyota Hypercar reserve for WEC’s Le Mans 24 Hours

Jose Maria Lopez will be on standby at next month’s Le Mans 24 Hours as a Toyota Hypercar reserve driver for the World Endurance Championship’s blue-riband event. 

Toyota Gazoo Racing has formalised the role the 2021 Le Mans winner played last year when he replaced the injured Mike Conway at short notice ahead of the test day.

Lopez, who since last season has been part of Toyota sister marque Lexus’s LMGT3 programme in the WEC, took Conway’s place alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries despite not having driven the GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar since his last race as a full-time team member in Bahrain the previous November. 

The trio eventually finished as runners-up with Lopez completing the final stint at Circuit de la Sarthe, in which he came just 14s behind Nicklas Nielsen in the winning Ferrari 499P LMH.

This time, Lopez has been given a test outing at Paul Ricard over the winter, said TGR Europe technical director David Floury, “to keep him up to speed” with the car in case he is needed for Le Mans on 14-15 June. 

“Jose Maria is experienced and has been racing with us at Le Mans many times,” explained Floury.

“He is the best choice if you need someone to jump in the car with not much preparation – we just have to go in the garage next door.” 

Lopez was called up when Conway was injured in a cycling accident in the week ahead of the test day in preference to Ritomo Miyata, who was Toyota’s official test and reserve driver. 

This year, Toyota has not named a driver in that official position with previous incumbents of the role including Kobayashi and de Vries. 

In 2025, Lopez has been sharing the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 with Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu in the WEC this year. 

Floury explained that Toyota-contracted Yuichi Nakayama, who stood in for Ben Barnicoat in the sister #78 ASP entry at the Spa WEC round earlier this month, is on the list of potential replacements for Lopez at ASP should he be called up for the Hypercar squad.