Toyota GT3 likely for 2026 WEC season
Toyota has declared that its new GT3 racer will compete on track in the 2026 WEC season, in line with the release of the road-going version.
With the ending of the LMGTE category in the World Endurance Championship, next year’s new GT3 category entries will first be open to the top-class Hypercar manufacturers – with two GT3’s cars per manufacturer as an option – with other teams and manufacturers to then have the option.
Whilst Toyota unveiled the GR GT3 concept car in 2022, it was expected that it would compete as soon as 2025, which has now been pushed back a year by the Japanese manufacturer to coincide with the release of a road-going model, likely to be branded as a Lexus.
The new Toyota GT3 racer will replace the decade old Lexus RC F GT3, and will also most likely race under the Lexus branding, though that’s not yet a definite.
“Everybody knows we are developing a car, and this car will come to race in Europe in 2026,” Toyota’s WEC team director, Rob Leupen, told Motorpsort.com.
The Toyota GR GT3 concept car that was unveiled in 2022, will debut in the 2026 WEC season, most likely under the Lexus name.
“The date is in alignment with the road car side, which is following the philosophy of Toyota to have a motorsport-bred car on the road. This is moving forward at the moment.”
And in terms of it being branded as a Lexus, Leupen said that: “At the moment, it seems to be. It depends on how it develops within Toyota, but at the moment yes.”
The new GT3 era in the WEC will see a more varied return of the manufacturing giants to the field alongside the hypercars, with Ford and Corvette to also have their new GT3 Rs on track over the next few years.
With Lamborghini to also be joining the Hypercar field in 2024 alongside Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche, Alpine, Cadillac, Peugeot and perhaps BMW (who may join from IMSA), the options for the new WEC GT3 expansion – with entry options first given to the manufacturers running a hypercar – will lead to an exclusive world class series alongside the hypercar field.
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