Tincknell delighted to have the band back together

Despite missing out on victory in the first round of the European Le Mans Series by just 0.37 seconds, Jota Sport driver Harry Tincknell spoke of his delight to be back competing for the championship which so narrowly evaded him last season.

After signing for Nissan’s all-new LMP1 outfit, it looked certain that the partnership which yielded a heroic victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours would be broken up, but due to a set of unforeseen circumstances, Tincknell found himself unexpectedly drafted back into the team with whom he impressed so greatly last season.

With Nissan pulling out of the first two rounds of the World Endurance Championship and Nick Yelloly parting company with Jota before the first round, “the stars aligned” for Tincknell to fill the breach alongside Filipe Albuquerque and Simon Dolan.

Tincknell got Jota's ELMS title challenge off to a
strong start with second at Silverstone (Jota Sport)

“It was the right decision from Nissan not to come to the first couple of races, and we’ve learned so much from the testing that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. It was sad but then at the same time there was a problem with one of the drivers at Jota, so the stars aligned at almost exactly the right time,” Tincknell said. “I’m massively excited to be back; I didn’t think it would quite work out in these circumstances, but we’re here now.

“We’re in good shape; we know the car is very solid and has definitely proven to be slightly better than last year’s,” he added. “Obviously we had a lot of success last year; if we hadn’t had the shunt here last year, I think we would have won the championship very easily in the end. It just shows that even though it’s only a short sprint in terms of five races, they all count and you do have to look at the long term. So we’re back to finish the job this year and to have the same driver line-up is fantastic.”

With a year’s experience under his belt, a victory at Le Mans and a manufacturer drive to boot, you could be forgiven for thinking that Tincknell would approach this year slightly differently, but the man himself says that’s not necessarily the case.

“Last year coming into this weekend I’d never done a sportscar weekend before and I’d never worked with the team on a race weekend before, so there were definitely a lot of unknowns. Now I’m obviously more experienced, but I’ve still only done one season in sportscars; you look at someone like Oli Pla, he’s got around eight or nine seasons under his belt, so by the time I get to that stage I’ll know a hell of a lot more than I do now,” he says. “I’m pushing myself all the time to find the limit and keep improving myself and although I’m more experienced, I’m definitely not he finished article!”