Continued Partnership “No Brainer” for Blomqvist, Jarvis

Tom Blomqvist said it was a “no brainer” to continue his partnership with Oliver Jarvis by joining United Autosports in the FIA World Endurance Championship after winning the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi title together last year.

Blomqvist and Jarvis will team up with Josh Pierson aboard the No. 23 Oreca 07 Gibson, forming part of a two-car LMP2 effort for the Anglo-American operation.

Jarvis and Pierson were both retained following the 2022 campaign, during which they took the class victory in the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring and bookended the year with second in the Bahrain finale.

Blomqvist told Sportscar365 he was approached by the team to serve as a replacement for Chip Ganassi Racing-bound Alex Lynn.

“Obviously Olly was already here,” Blomqvist said. “They needed to look for a driver, because Alex was obviously with the [Cadillac] WEC program and couldn’t do it.

“United actually reached out to me at the back end of last year to see if I was up for doing it. Why not? That’s kind of how things started and things evolved.

“So once I knew I’d be driving with, it was kind of a no-brainer for the team as well. I think it’s a relationship that hopefully can get some good results this year.”

Blomqvist, who hasn’t raced in WEC since the 2021 season with JOTA, said that the continued partnership between the two drivers brings benefits with regards to car setup, due to their similar preferences.

“It obviously makes life a lot easier because we know each other,” he said.

“We know what we need from the car feedback-wise. We obviously gained all of that experience last year. We had a super easy working relationship.

“We like the same things from the car so it just makes your life so much easier in this style of racing where you have to share the car.

“You have to compromise stuff, you have to work as a unit so from that side it’s been super easy to just jump in.

“Obviously for me it is new with Josh, but Olly has done a year with Josh, so from that side it’s quite easy to step into this environment. I think it helps us for sure.”

Jarvis added: “Having that relationship, Tom can do the setup work and as long as he’s happy, I know I like the car. So we’ve instantly got that feeling and trust with each other.”

Jarvis: Slower Hypercars Could “Make or Break” LMP2 Race

Jarvis went on to voice concerns about the relative lack of pace between the LMP2 contenders and the expanded Hypercar field, saying the slower Hypercar entries could form an obstacle for the top cars in the secondary class.

“The first thing you notice is that there is a particular set of drivers that are super aggressive on track already in the Hypercars,” said Jarvis.

“I’ve noticed it at Daytona [with the GTP class] and I’ve noticed it here already. Really aggressive.

“But I think the biggest issue is not so much the top four or five Hypercars, it’s those that are new and struggling.

“They’re actually slower than us, but the problem is that they produce the performance in a different way.

“My concern is for the race. If they put them ahead of us after qualifying and they’re slow in the corners but quick on the straight, it’s going to make the LMP2 field pack up behind us.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult. If you can pass them and pull away, it can make or break your race.

“How they’ll manage that, I’m not sure. Right now, there’s a couple of cars that are slower than the front-running LMP2s.”