Tire damage denies JOTA the chance to fight for victory

Photo: Jürgen Tap/Porsche

Will Stevens believes a late tire failure has robbed Hertz Team JOTA of a chance to challenge Toyota for victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale in Bahrain, the team's final race with Porsche machinery.

The No. 12 JOTA Porsche 963 shared by Stevens, Callum Ilott and Norman Nato was in ninth place heading into the final 90 minutes of Saturday's eight-hour race, one place ahead of the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, who won the race, after the final safety car restart of two interventions in the second half.

This was until Stevens suffered a left-rear tire failure in Turn 1, which was the result of contact with a GT car, which eventually dropped the No. 12 car to 13th place.

Up to this point the British squad had tried to retain as much tire as possible for the later stages of the race, a strategy that paid off for Toyota when Sebastien Buemi took the lead in the final hour of the race.

Stevens believes that since he was ahead of Buemi at the time of the puncture, he would have had a chance to challenge for victory with his customer 963s in JOTA's final outing before JOTA becomes the Cadillac WEC factory team in 2025.

“We were in a good place,” Stevens told Sportscar365. “The whole strategy for the race was to save the tires for the end, which we did well. In the first half we used a lot fewer tires than the others.

“As I was about to get into the car, we had the virtual safety car at the worst possible time, but we had to pit to cover the number 8. We knew we still had a tire advantage at the end.

“On the restart I was coming down towards Turn 1 trying to get past four GT cars and I think one of them didn't see that I was on the right and he tried to jump up the inside of one of the GTs and that Hit the rear – left of me and caused me a puncture.

“We had to pit and in the end we were super strong in terms of pace. Obviously the Toyota was very strong at the end and we weren't a million miles away. And that for two [new] Tires – without the puncture we would have had three.”

Asked if he thought he could have stayed ahead of Buemi without the delay caused by the puncture, Stevens replied: “If you look at the times Buemi set, they were very fast. We were ahead of him at the restart, I think there were four or five GTs between us.

“There’s no question we would have come through just as strong as he did. I'm not saying we definitely would have won, but we would have been in the fight. I’m pretty confident we would have been at least in the top three.”

The puncture capped a frustrating second half of the season for the No. 12 JOTA crew, which took a breakthrough victory at Spa in May but managed only a top-five finish at Fuji after that, leaving Stevens and Ilott seventh in the drivers' standings Place landed.

“It’s just frustrating because the team deserved a good result,” said Stevens. “It's another race where we should have been at the front. This has happened several times this year.

“But as a team we can be proud that we were strong again. Now to bigger things.”

A bright spot for JOTA was that the No. 38 sister car of Jenson Button, Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson won the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams by finishing eighth on the road, which was after the No. 51 Ferrari's penalty only came seventh.

This means JOTA has achieved its pre-race goal of securing a one-two finish in the World Cup standings, beating competition from the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche.

“It was a difficult race but we managed to stay out of trouble the whole time,” said Button. “We just made a few decisions in the end that didn't work and I would say we were a bit unlucky with the safety cars too.

“In the end I was on old tires while everyone else was on new ones, so it was really just a fight to the rear.

“But in the end we came eighth and also won the FIA World Cup for Hypercar teams today. This is a nice result when you have to end the season with the Hertz Team JOTA.”

Jamie Klein is the Asian editor of Sportscar365. Japan-based Klein, who previously worked for Motorsport Network on the Motorsport.com and Autosport titles, covers the FIA World Endurance Championship and SUPER GT, among other areas.