Will Stevens: “Le Mans is the race I always look forward to the most”
On the back of his historic win at Spa-Francorchamps, Hertz Team JOTA’s Will Stevens sets his sights on a first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of the 2024 FIA WEC season.
Hertz Team JOTA entered FIA WEC’s history books by becoming the first-ever privateer squad to clinch an overall victory in the Hypercar era when Callum Ilott took the chequered flag at last month’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
This achievement was made all the more remarkable considering Ilott had only one teammate in the Porsche 963 No.12, Will Stevens.
“It was an awesome weekend for me, Callum, the team and everyone involved with it”, reflects Will to fiawec.com. “It’s crazy that it’s come around a year after we actually started with the car [the Hertz Team JOTA No. 38 challenger made the switch from the LMP2 category to the premier Hypercar class before the 2023 WEC Spa race]. It’s a nice reward for everyone in the team who has put in so much work and effort to get the programme to where it is now. We’ve shown good pace all year, even at the end of last year.”
Stevens’ victory in the Ardennes means that he has now won at least one WEC race ever since he first raced for JOTA back in 2016.
“The core group of people that we’ve had since the start are still there. We have a very good understanding of how each other works. I’m very thankful to Sam Hignett and David Clark (the team’s owners) for giving me the opportunities they did back in 2016. It’s a team I love to be in and the team that I’m the happiest in.”
One of Will’s fondest memories with JOTA is the 2022 season when he took home the LMP2 FIA WEC World title as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans class win, alongside Roberto González and António Felix da Costa. “We were super consistent and basically made no mistakes. We just executed a great year and we had a great time doing it.”
It was the second time Will had won Le Mans after his maiden win at La Sarthe, back in 2017, in the GTE Am category with Robert Smith and current BMW M Team WRT Hypercar No. 15 driver Dries Vanthoor.
Will the 2024 edition prove third time’s a charm? “An overall win is something that I’ve always wanted to get and hopefully this is the year we can tick that one off. Le Mans is a special race, the most important one of the year. It’s the one I always look forward to the most. As you go into the race, you always wish you had more time in practice.”
“It’s not just about driving fast”
Will, who will turn 33 on June 28, believes the toll involved in taking part in a race as gruelling as Le Mans is more psychological than physical. “To have that level of concentration for such a long time is super difficult.” That take is further emphasised by the level of concentration needed to extract the most performance from the ever-sophisticated Hypercars.
“There’s a lot of things we can do inside the cockpit, while we’re driving, to manipulate our balance and change a lot of systems in the car to help us as we go through a race”, underlines Will.
“The balance you have at the start, when you’re on new tyres, is completely different from the one you need at the end of a stint on older tyres. If you know how to use all the systems and tools we have, you end up doing a better job. It’s a big technical challenge for drivers. It’s not just about driving fast. You actually have to understand the car from an engineering perspective to get the most out of it.”
Since the start of the 2024 FIA WEC season, Will’s car, the Porsche 963, has proven the dominant Hypercar so far. After three races, seven out of the nine podium spots up for grabs have been occupied by Porsche-driving squads and there will be six 963 taking on Le Mans, where the German constructor reigns supreme with 19 overall wins.
“Credit must go to Porsche for building such a reliable and fast race car. More Porsches mean more people in the same car as us, but we want to beat everyone overall, and that means beating all the other Porsches. Obviously, we compare ourselves to them, but we have to focus on everybody.”
With 22 other Hypercars set to compete for the 92nd running of the world’s greatest endurance race, there will be plenty of cars to focus on for Will. The Brit has lauded the growth of the series and plans to be a part of it for many years to come.
“The depth and level of the drivers in the championship are incredibly high and we’ve got great cool-looking cars packed with modern technology. It’s a recipe for success. WEC races deserve the success and the viewership they’re getting, because it is a great championship. It’s a really exciting and cool period for endurance racing to be a part of.”
The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans will get underway next week (15-16 June).
