Kelvin van der Linde is running out of options in his fight for a factory contract: Why Toyota and Lexus have also closed and what hope remains now
There is still no news on where Kelvin van der Linde will be driving in 2025. After it initially looked like Abt and Lamborghini in the DTM, there have recently been increasing signs that the German team and the German-South African will part ways after four years together, and that the German-South African will not become a Lamborghini works driver.
Now the door at Toyota and Lexus should also be closed: On Wednesday, the Akkodis ASP team officially announced that they will rely on Ben Barnicoat instead of Kelvin van der Linde in the Lexus entry in the LMGT3 class in the World Endurance Championship WEC in 2025.
The 28-year-old Brit knows the Lexus RC F GT3 from the US IMSA series and is considered a fast man. The professional in the other car is Toyota factory driver Jose Maria Lopez, which means there is no more room for van der Linde. But what does this mean for the DTM runner-up?
Is BMW the last chance?
Kelvin van der Linde had originally tried to become part of the hypercar program through the Lexus involvement in the WEC, at least as a substitute driver. His departure from Abt and the fact that he was not in the Toyota GR010 Hybrid at the WEC rookie test in Bahrain indicate that there is no prospect for him with the Japanese team in 2025. And an IMSA engagement in the Lexus is not to be expected at the moment.
The 28-year-old, whose Abt contract expires at the end of the year and who is not currently part of a manufacturer’s squad, is expected to join Lexus/Toyota, Porsche or BMW next year.
Since it also did not look like Kelvin van der Linde would be signed by Porsche either, it could be that BMW will be his last chance. Especially since his manager Dennis Rostek already has two drivers in the works team of the Munich-based manufacturer, Rene Rast and Kelvin’s brother Sheldon van der Linde, who also field a hypercar.
Why the Lexus commitment was not so attractive
Even before the DTM weekend in Spielberg at the end of September, Kelvin van der Linde made it clear that a hypercar program is so interesting because “unfortunately, nothing other than pure professional motorsport no longer appeals to me”. This realization was reinforced during his Lexus run in the WEC, because in the LMGT3 class, professionals have to share the car with drivers in the FIA bronze and silver categories.
“You almost become a bit more selfish in the DTM because you constantly take care of yourself – your car, your mechanic, your engineer,” he says, referring to the one driver per car principle in the DTM, which is rare in GT racing. ‘Sometimes I have a hard time in the endurance races, in the WEC.’
Fight “like a beast”, but no reward?
In the WEC, as a professional, you have to “compromise” and put your own desires on the back burner because the amateur has different needs. That was “difficult for him to accept” because “I hadn’t had this Pro-Am constellation for a long time,” says van der Linde.
It is especially difficult when the result of the race suffers as a result. “Sometimes you drive a stint at Le Mans, you’ve really been fighting like a beast for two hours and you get out of the car, you’re completely exhausted. And within 20 minutes, you go from first place to eleventh. Then you look at the monitor and think: Was it really necessary for me to push so hard?”
This could also have played a role in his replacement by Barnicoat at Akkodis ASP.
