JOTA Sport in the world stage


It isn’t a secret that JOTA Sport is one of the main forces of the European Le Mans Series, always winning at least a race since 2013 in the competition. It looks like 2015 will be their golden year, as they lead the LMP2 standings, with the incredible feat of never being out of the podium in the past four races made. But, truth is, sometime a good team would move up to the world stage, and this time finally came for JOTA Sport.
It was finally announced that JOTA Sport will make the leap to the FIA World Endurance Championship for a full-season attack, instead of the partial schedule that covered only Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans. And the new FIA WEC commitment will have the addition of a new chassis for the British team, as they acquired a pair of ORECA 05 models, with one of them being a test car, while the other will be the competition car.

In fact, the FIA WEC program won’t mean the end of their activities in the ELMS, as their current Gibson 015S will still be used for the European competition. According to JOTA Sport’s Sam Hignett, the choice had the 2017 LMP2 chassis rule changes in mind, as a late call for a compliant machine would mean problems to receive it, and the win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the hands of the Hong Kong-based KCMG squad caught the attention of everyone there to help in the selection process. Also, with the new regulations, a closed cockpit car would become a must, meaning that they will have to leave the Gibson sooner or later.

Although being run by the same team, both FIA WEC and ELMS programs will be managed independently of each other, and there’s also the fact that JOTA Sport still needs to announce their drivers, as Simon Dolan would stick to ELMS.
PHOTO: ORECA, JOTA Sport

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