Tandy promises to push Porsche to the limit in quest for Le Mans repeat
Briton admits he faces heat exhaustion as he tries to beat favourites Toyota in famous race
Nick Tandy has a lot on his mind. If the prospect of a marathon drive at speeds of up to 250mph were not enough, he is also contemplating doing it in temperatures of up to 32C in France this weekend. “It gets very tough,” he says, with more than a little understatement.
Then again, Tandy is used to such demands. The Briton has already won one Le Mans 24 Hours race – one of the most iconic events in motorsport – and, as he sits in a Porsche hospitality tent, he lays bare the physical demands of an event which can total 38 hours when preparation time and media commitments are taken into account, with the nonchalance of someone describing their weekly shop.
“We are regulated by the officials to have a maximum temperature that we can run at, of 32 degrees, although it could well be above that in the race,” Tandy explained. “Then our engineers want to control the air-conditioning system, but everything they use to control the atmosphere in the car for the driver takes away from the performance of the car, so it’s about finding balance and we are right on the limit of heat exhaustion.”
Heat is just one of Tandy’s headaches. The World Endurance Championship driver, who will race in a Porsche 919 hybrid, is more than aware that he and his team are facing their toughest challenge in recent years.
Toyota Gazoo Racing, a team who include former Formula One drivers Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi, want to take the title from the most successful manufacturers in the sport’s history, and the bookmakers are backing them to do so.
Porsche, who have won the race a record 18 times since their first entry in 1968, could be lucky to make the podium this time out.
It is a good job, then, that Tandy is able to switch off. The 32-yearold is a fan of calmer sports; most notably darts, golf and snooker, although he did admit that having two young children means that he cannot completely step away from energetic activities when he leaves the track.
“To be honest, I feel more sorry for the engineers that control the car, because they can’t sleep at all,” he said. “Yes, it’s difficult for us to drive for three to four hours at a time, but then you get six or eight hours off.
“I think the best preparation is race experience. I know that I need about an hour’s sleep throughout the race in order to not be tired the next morning while we’re still driving. I think the adrenalin takes over a lot.”
He was right to be cautious about the competition, with the Toyota car driven by another former F1 veteran, Kamui Kobayashi, taking pole with a time of 3min 14.791sec.
The Japanese driver will attempt to give Toyota their first win in the race, with Stéphane Sarrazin and Briton Mike Conway. The other Toyota team, of Davidson, Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, will start second, while Tandy will start the race in third alongside his teammates Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer.
This was hardly a surprise, but adds to the sense that Porsche – unusually – enter the race as underdogs. “We’ve got a target on our back and our competition knows what to aim at, so it’s difficult for us to know how hard to push the boundaries of performance versus reliability,” he said.
“It’s the same in any form of motorsport. If you know what you’re trying to beat then you can push yourself to a level of performance over that, and then worry about reliability after that.
“We are aware that our main competition, Toyota, is very strong. The thing is that cars that we bring to this race and this track are different to any other race in the World Endurance Championship. We do know it’s going to be a big fight.”