“We pushed like hell”: Schmid on the top five Le Mans fight
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- Jul 3
- 9 min read
Written by Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah, Edited by Sasha Macmillen
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, endurance racing’s most prestigious race, is always a special moment for all the teams competing. This year’s race certainly left an impression on Akkodis ASP’s No.87, Clemens Schmid, and the team.
Two weeks after the race, DIVEBOMB had the chance to talk to Schmid on his incredible journey to the Le Mans grid, the fight for the podium using old machinery, the supportive team behind him and what comes next.
The journey to the FIA World Endurance Championship
Born in Rum, a market town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, Clemens Schmid made a name for himself after racing Porsches and competing in various endurance races, such as the 2018 Gulf 12 Hours (where he stood on the podium) and the 24 Hours of Dubai.
In 2022, Schmid debuted in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) with GRT Grasser Racing Team and was among the Silver Cup-winning drivers of the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe.
Schmid made his debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with Akkodis ASP as a super sub, replacing full-time driver Timur Boguslavskiy in the No.78 Lexus, who withdrew from the 2024 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with illness.
Co-driver Arnold Robin said he did not know how quickly Schmid would get up to speed, considering how late the change was.
“Clemens is someone I don’t know”, Robin began. “He has good experience in GT3 and currently races in DTM with McLaren. But this is a very late change, we only found out this morning, and he is in the Red Bull Ring right now.”
Robin trusted the judgment of team owner Jérôme Policand and Toyota since that was their right, and Schmid was on their shortlist.
“But I trust Jérôme [Policand] and Toyota. He was on the shortlist, and it was their choice”, Robin concluded.
Schmid introduced himself to the WEC grid by going fastest in Free Practice 2 and would finish the race in the top 10. Schmid was due to drive in São Paulo, but the car was withdrawn from the race following a heavy crash in FP1. He took the Lexus to the points again in Austin.
In 2025, Schmid was announced as the full-time driver of the team’s No.87 car alongside two-time WEC Drivers' Champion and Le Mans winner, José María López and rookie Răzvan Petru Umbrărescu.
A special feeling
To race in Le Mans is always a dream of every driver, and Schmid felt honoured to be given the chance to do so with the team for the first time.
“It was a really impressive feeling to stand there”, Schmid began. “I've done a lot of races so far, but standing there, seeing all the spectators, the helicopter above you and everything, that was something really, really special.”
The 34-year-old admitted he was not expecting to be emotional after so many years in motorsports, for being able to stand among the LMGT3 drivers on the Le Mans grid and acknowledged the impressive feeling.
“I never thought that after so many years in motorsport, something would emotionally take me that much.”
“Being allowed to stand on this amazing grid and see all this, what's going around everywhere, it was a really impressive feeling, and how should I say, made you feel honoured to be allowed to do this sport.”
Getting as close to the front as possible
No.87’s Le Mans weekend started on a challenging note after the car failed to join sister car No.78 in Hyperpole and had to start from 14th. This meant the journey to the front was more of an uphill battle. Schmid recounted that there was an issue with the car during qualifying.
“We started so far back because we had some issue in qualifying with our bronze driver, Petru [Umbrărescu].”
Schmid was the starting driver for the No.87 and immediately went into attack mode, moving up from 14th to fifth in the span of just 17 laps. He knew the Lexus had the pace to fight for places.
“We knew we had the pace to run within the top five”, Schmid explained. “So it was more or less always the plan to get as close to the front of the grid as fast as possible.”
“We took the first two laps quite carefully. I think we lost two places, but from then on we were using the speed of our car to gain places, and yeah, it was quite a strong forward movement then.”
Keeping a consistent rhythm
Schmid would pass the controls to Umbrărescu in the early hours and had a quick exchange that the car had been suited to their liking and was comfortable to drive on the high-speed corners.
“I told him that the car was exactly like we wanted it to be from the setup. The car was really neutral with a tiny bit of understeer in the high-speed corners, so he feels comfortable.”
Schmid encouraged his teammate to push for positions to continue the strong momentum, and that the car was exactly what his Romanian teammate wanted. It would not take long before the pit stop was complete.
“I told him he can go in and push like he wants because the car is doing what he prefers. And then the pit stop was over already.”
“We don't have that much time, that big amount of time to talk [about] more details. I just told him that the car is exactly like we wanted it to be and that he can go in and push.”
Nighttime, where the real battle happens
As the sun set on the Circuit de la Sarthe and the drivers battled through darkness, the battle intensified. Schmid drove the first stint of the dark, and nothing was out of the ordinary for him.
“I have to say my first stint in the night was actually quite normal, I would say, because you're still not so tired and everything is like normal. You have your rhythm, you are good to push.”
Schmid said the most difficult part of nighttime driving was regaining focus and rhythm after resting, and the pressure to immediately hit the ground running again.
“Afterwards, when I had some sleep and then got awake again, that's quite hard to be right on the spot again on the outlap there because you don't get any time. You need to be on point directly.”
“I personally had some coffee and was putting some ice-cold water in the neck just to get properly awake before I got in the car.”
As the night went by, the more comfortable each driver became with their cars, especially those who had been driving for longer. Drivers began to take more risks before sunrise. Three o’clock in the morning is where the action starts to become more serious, according to Schmid.
“The longer the night goes, the more comfortable everybody is getting in the cars, especially people who are already longer in the car. You start to take more risks [since] the sun is soon out and you want to squeeze everything out.”
“I would say three o'clock in the morning [is where] the race starts to get more serious. Everybody's starting to fight for their position a little bit harder than before.”
Bouncing back from penalties and pushing like crazy
With eight hours left on the clock, the grid was filled with thrilling exchanges for position. However, the No.87’s journey to the podium was halted by two drive-through penalties, one for contact with the Iron Dames car and the other for Full-course Yellow violations.
“I got the drive-through penalty for the contact with the Iron Dames car. It was an unlucky situation. I exited the pits with a new set of tyres, and we knew that Porsche is really hard to overtake in a straight line. They were a tiny bit faster than us on the straight line.”
Contact was inevitable when the car tried to stay in front. After the race director informed them of the penalty, nobody considered that a setback and everyone regrouped to push on.
“I tried to stay in front of them and yeah, unfortunately had some small contact, but it's racing, it happens”, Schmid admitted.
“You just try to get everything out of it, and I think nobody really saw it as a setback. They all were like, “Okay, circumstances changed, now we adapt to the new thing and we continue to push on.””
The No.87 became the sole Lexus competing after the No.78 retired due to a broken left side and suspension. While the car managed to return to the garage, the damage was deemed too severe to continue.
Schmid and José María López shared the final stints and pushed “like hell”, knowing their dream of a podium finish was still possible. It soon became a battle of wits between the No.87 and the leading Porsche.
“We were pushing like crazy! One time, after the pit stop exited exactly behind the leading Porsche, so more or less at this stage, we knew that the driver in the Porsche was close to his track limit.”
“So the [race] engineer told me to go as fast as I can and try to push him into a mistake. I was squeezing everything out, and I still [had] some track limits to use. I would call it this way.”
“I went all-in and tried to force the Porsche into a mistake, but you know, ‘till the last lap, you always believe you still can reach the podium. We were all pushing like hell to make the dream come true.”
A top-five finish shows the old car has still got it
Compared to its younger LMGT3 peers, the Lexus RC F is the oldest car on the grid. The RC series was sold on the market in 2015 before being officially homologated for GT3 racing in 2017. The car did not feature the “Evo” updates that its rivals had. The team was proud of achieving a fifth-place finish in Le Mans with older machinery.
For additional context, Lexus discontinued the RC series after 2025. Despite using the oldest car, Akkodis ASP gradually made big progress in just their sophomore season in the series.
“The Lexus is now in its last year, and the car is already 10 years old with no big updates.”
“I think everybody was really proud of what we achieved, especially when you see where last year the team was coming through, where they struggled to get a top 10 in qualifying. Everybody [now] saw it as a big relief that we finished the race, and we went into the top five.”
The team was hoping for more due to the strong pace of the car, but the car gradually struggled with the tyre wear and pace on the same set of tyres.
“With the pace we had on a fresh set of tyres, we were hoping for more, and we were aiming for more. But unfortunately, in the third stint on the same set of tyres, what do you have to do to make it over the distance?”
“We struggled a little bit with tyre wear and pace. But I think overall the whole team was happy and proud that we finished in the top five.”
The humans behind-the-scenes
Le Mans is not only a demanding race for the cars, but also for the drivers, both mentally and physically. Staying focused and composed is among the keys to success.
“We had an amazing physio team, and I have to say they took good care of us by providing special drinks with electrolytes. When we got out of the car, we went to a massage straightaway.”
“They organised for us the food exactly what we wanted and what we needed, especially at night and in the morning hours, jumping out of the car, getting a massage, which calms you down. You can then directly go to have some sleep.”
Schmid gave a shout-out to his team boss, Jérôme Policand, who was a driver himself and made sure all of the team’s needs were fulfilled.
“This was really amazing, how they took care of us. Therefore, I have to say big thanks to Jérôme, the team boss, for knowing this stuff as he was a driver himself and making the right steps to prepare us drivers perfectly with the team he had there.”
What’s next for the team?
The Akkodis ASP Team will return to action for the 6 Hours of São Paulo on 13 July. The team will compete using the new Goodyear hard compound, and Schmid thinks this will help the car a lot.
“In São Paulo, [it] will be a bit new for everybody. We get a different tyre compound. For the first time, we are running on the Goodyear hard compound. I think it will help our car quite a lot.”
Schmid and the team remain optimistic about their chances to get on the LMGT3 overall podium in the championship, and there is still to play for with four rounds remaining, including Lexus’ home race, the 6 Hours of Fuji in September.
“With the pace we had this year, we finally want to get on the podium, doing a race without any mistakes. I think in the championship, it's still possible to get on the overall podium, and now we will push for that”, Schmid concluded.
Comments