2015 World Endurance Championship season preview

The World Endurance Championship roars into life with the Six Hours of Silverstone kicking off the 2015 season.

The headline LMP1 category is bolstered this year by the return of Nissan – albeit their debut has been delayed until Le Mans – who join Toyota, Audi and Porsche on the grid.

It will be the first time since 2010 that Audi will not carry the No 1 on their car at La Sarthe, with that honour falling to Toyota after Anthony Davidson and Sebastian Buemi claimed the 2014 world title. The duo will be partnered this year by Kazuki Nakajima in the TS 040 – Hybrid.

“It is nice to come into this season as defending champion, it is good to see the car with the No 1 on it and I am very much looking forward to the season starting and doing it all again really,” he told Sky Sports.

“It is looking close at the moment – after our only official pre-season test in Paul Ricard it seemed like all three manufacturers had done a good job over the winter of improving the speed of their cars by quite a considerable margin. We are looking at a three or four second improvement at Paul Ricard on last year which is a huge step.”

Despite winning the world title, victory at Le Mans evaded Davidson once again and the Briton has his eyes fixed on victory in the prestigious race, over defending his championship.

“You’ve always got to try and win both, you are in racing to win and no matter what race it is you want to be dominating and winning as often as you can," he added.

“But being realistic we won the championship last year, we had the best car on average, but we missed out on Le Mans. So naturally that is the one you want to try and win. If you only have the choice of one I think you would go for Le Mans as that is the real prestigious race in our calendar. Unlike in F1 where there is not a single event that stands out to warrant double points, Le Mans does warrant double points and that is why we have the double points there and it means so much to our championship.

“So that is what I am gunning for this year, I’d love to win it and I think speaking on behalf of the team as well it is the one thing we have set out to achieve. But you can’t try and plan to win Le Mans, you can only sort of stumble across it, it just happens. It is one of those races where you need luck on your side. No matter how good your car is, no matter how reliable it is, you still need that massive handful of luck to make sure you get to the finish line first.”

The battle in LMP2 also looks close with eight cars on the official entry list for Silverstone, including the returning Strakka Racing fielding an all British line-up.

“It is looking pretty tough – there are a lot of good drivers, a lot of good teams, quite a few different chassis and a tyre war as well to add to the mix,” said Strakka’s Jonny Kane.

There is also British interest in the fiercely competitive GTE PRO category with Darren Turner and Alex MacDowell representing Aston Martin and James Calado piloting a Ferrari F458.

“It is always close, but probably even closer this year,” said Turner.

“I think Porsche and Ferrari have been working very hard over the winter and the guys back at Aston Martin Racing have been doing their homework as well. Looking at the test times from Paul Ricard it looks like being as close as ever so I can’t imagine it is going to be an easy season.

“The key to this championship is Le Mans with the double points, so we need to have a good result there and then look at the rest of the season and hopefully be in a strong position to challenge for the title.”

The 40-year-old admits as a British racing driver, there aren’t many better feelings than driving for the famous Aston Martin brand.

“It must be like an Italian driving for Ferrari, it is a huge honour and privilege for me,” he added.

“I’ve been with the team since its inception in 2004 and as I have gone from the young driver to the old driver in the team hopefully I can help some of the next generation to come through as well. But I am not ready to hang up my helmet just yet, I’ve got a few challenges ahead and winning Le Mans with the GTE is one of those.”

Former GP2 driver Calado finished on the podium at five of his seven starts in his maiden sports car campaign and is hoping for even better in 2015.

“Last year was very much a learning year – actually I probably underestimated the transition between single-seaters and saloon cars,” he said.

“It took a long time to get used to, but saying that, we had a fantastic end of season last year with four podiums in the last four races.

“In general winter testing has gone well, I think we have found some performance in the car and I think we are in good shape and I am looking forward to Silverstone. If temperatures are cold the Porsches may have the edge, but if we can score as many points as we can hopefully we can go through the season and defend our manufacturers’ title.”