Emil Frey Racing has announced that it will take on a European-based programme with the new Lexus RC F GT3 in 2017, with the GT Open’s first round at Estoril the only confirmed race thus far.

Despite the car racing and winning in the VLN last season with Farnbacher Racing, the Swiss team has revealed that it will not race in the Nurburgring-based series.

For its programme Emil Frey Lexus Racing will run a single Lexus RC F GT3 with a new driver pairing. Lorenz Frey will remain behind the wheel of the GT3 machine. However, he will take turns at the races with fellow Swiss racing driver and the team´s new entry Philipp Frommenwiler. Frommenwiler has vexperience in long-distance races, such as 24h Nürburgring and 12h Sebring, in which he once narrowly missed the podium.

Spaniard Albert Costa Balboa, who previously ran with the team’s Jaguar program, will share the car in 2017 too.

“We are very excited to take the Lexus project to a new level and purely focus on the progress of the RC F GT3,” said Lorenz Frey, team principal and driver at Emil Frey Lexus Racing.

“We learned a lot last year and now we can put all what we have experienced, our efforts and strength into making this race machine even better. There will be no pressure on results and we can simply take each race as a testing ground. But at the same time, it would be great to set one or two milestones.”

In addition to Emil Frey’s 2017 commitments, Farnbacher Racing will complete Lexus’ European programme, running a second RC F GT3 in a European Championship.

The Lexus´ first race in Europe will take place on the weekend of the 29-30 April in Estoril, Portugal.