Kelvin van der Linde has endured a difficult debut season in the World Endurance Championship this year.
The South African driver has enjoyed a successful career in sports car racing, winning the ADAC GT Masters in 2014 and 2019, as well as the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in 2017 and 2022.
Van der Linde has competed in the DTM championship since 2021, finishing third in his debut season. The 28-year-old currently leads the 2024 standings by seven points, having won two races so far.
The South African made his debut in Formula racing as he drove in three races for ABT in Formula E in 2022/23 at Diriyah and Hyderabad. He returned to the team for the Berlin double header last season, achieving a best finish of 11th.
And for 2024, Van der Linde is taking on his first season in WEC, competing in the LMGT3 class for Akkodis ASP Team.
Kelvin van der Linde believes Lexus struggle in LMGT3 with an older package
Driving alongside Arnold Robin and Clemens Schmid, Van der Line is piloting the No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3, where he is struggling to grab consistent results.
READ MORE: Mick Schumacher ‘truly doesn’t know’ next career step casting doubt over his WEC future
Across both of the Lexas cars, the French team have scored points four times as they sit 13th in the teams’ championship. Their most notable results was getting both cars in the top 10 in class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Van der Linde is 18th in the drivers’ standings with 18 points. Part of the reason for Akkodis’ struggles is that the RC F GT3 is considerably older than other machinery.
The Lexus is in its seventh year, and according to Van der Linde, this has limited the team’s progression compared to newer concepts like the Ford Mustang, Aston Martin Vantage and Chevrolet Corvette.
He told Sportscar365: “There’s progress, but with such an old car there, the scope of what is possible to achieve is obviously not as big as when you have a new car to develop.
“A lot of the hardware and stuff like that is pretty old now and you get to the point now where you’re exploring the limits of what the hardware is capable of doing.
“You have cool ideas, you have certain things that you want to implement but it’s just physically not possible with that the homologation of car.
“The ideas are there, the execution is difficult because like I said there’s just at some point you get to on the level of technology we’re able to use it’s not really compatible with a car we have at the moment.”
Porsche are dominating the WEC LMGT3 class in 2024
The WEC heads to the 6 Hours of Fuji this weekend in what is the penultimate round of the 2024 season.
The LMGT3 class has been largely dominated by Porsche and their two Manthey teams. The No. 92 911 GT3 R, piloted by Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm have finished one the podium all but once this season and won two races for the Lithuanian Manthey PureRxcing team as they lead both championships.
The Manthey EMA team have also won two races through Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin as the German manufacturer look set to walk away with both titles.
In the Hypercar class, Porsche also lead the drivers’ standings through Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor by 12 points over Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries as the championship heads to Japan.