THE LAST-MINUTE DARK HORSE

“It’s not often that you’ll ever be able to put a deal together this late for Le Mans,” says Oliver Jarvis. And he’s not wrong. The former Audi LMP1 driver, now a staple of Mazda’s IMSA line-up, returns to the prototype ranks at Le Mans for the first time since he won LMP2 in 2017 as part of a car crew that must be counted as a dark horse for class honours, despite the paperwork only being signed around three weeks before the race.

“It’s certainly been a last-minute thing to come together,” says Jarvis, who will share an Algarve Pro Racing-run G-drive ORECA with 2015 outright winner Nick Tandy and 2019 Daytona 24 Hours LMP2 class winner Ryan Cullen.

“For Nick the results speak for themselves, he’s a winner at Le Mans and he’s won pretty much everything in a GT car, and Ryan is exceptionally fast.”

Without the title pressures facing United Autosports – a team Jarvis knows well after standing in for Paul di Resta at Fuji – Jarvis says his squad can head to Le Mans free from the weight of expectation that’s on the shoulders of 2020’s pre-eminent LMP2 squad.

“They’re definitely the favourites heading into the week,” Jarvis says of United Autosports. “Everybody is going to be gunning for them so they’re probably the ones with the most pressure on them, whereas for us it’s a different mentality.

“We’re certainly going there with the aim to win, but we’re last-minute, definitely the underdogs in that respect, so we can go out and push without having to worry about the championship in the back of our minds.”

Jarvis is hopeful that the car crew’s experience of what is required for success in 24-hour races – “Winning teaches you just to stay calm and let the race come to you” – will count in its favour, even considering its limited preparation and experience of working together. For in a field featuring 20 ORECAS, three Ligiers and one Dallara, any slip-up will prove costly.

As Jarvis adds: “You’re not going to luck into a podium in LMP2 this year.”