Four-Car TF Sport Contingent “Comes With Challenges”

TF Sport team principal Tom Ferrier says the British squad’s four-car entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans “comes with challenges” but that the clear target is to “maximize every bit on every car.”

The reigning Le Mans GTE-Am winner and FIA World Endurance class champion is bringing its largest contingent to the event on its seventh participation, eclipsing the three-car entry of 2021.

The stable is split between a trio of Aston Martin Vantage GTEs, including two full-season WEC cars, and an Oreca 07 Gibson for the Racing Team Turkey LMP2 program.

Ferrier told Sportscar365 that his team has added a handful of external personnel and that a key organizational aspect is to keep each of the four crews separate.

“The LMP2 is in a separate garage, so it runs with a separate crew, engineers and team manager,” he said. “It’s a bit more segregated, like a three and a one rather than a four.

“But it comes with challenges. It’s just about finding the right personnel. There are 62 of us, not including drivers or caterers.

“It’s been good because there are only five new faces in the whole crew. We’ve got a mechanic over from V8s in Australia who flew in to do it with us. It’s been a good reunion.

“The setup is hard, getting that done. But once you’re up and running, everyone operates in their own separate crews.”

TF Sport has kept its LMP2 Pro-Am team from the ELMS “as much the same” as it can, while the extra people have been embedded in the GTE department.

Leading staff from the two full-season WEC Aston Martins, which are run for ORT by TF and D’station Racing, have been maintained but the mechanics have been “swapped around a bit.”

According to Ferrier, one important goal was to avoid overstaffing the operation.

“We always run on the lower end of staff as a team anyway,” he said.

“That’s always been our philosophy. It’s easier for people to have more input and involvement in what they’re doing. I don’t want any more staff, to be honest! It would be hard if we started adding a load of new people.

“One thing is the knowledge of working on the cars. The other is pit stop knowledge and rules and regulations. If you start bringing loads of people who have never done that before, it becomes harder basically.

“Le Mans is always so busy, arriving and scrutineering, then suddenly you’re on track. It all goes pretty quickly.”

Ferrier is personally “really proud” to have expanded TF Sport into a four-car Le Mans operation that makes it one of the largest teams in the paddock by entry numbers.

“Everyone keeps congratulating me on it, but it’s not one of those things you think about so much,” he suggested.

“I think the big thing is not just trying to get through [it] thinking that we’ve just got the job done. We want to maximize every bit on every car.

“That’s the hardest bit, trying to take the time and make sure everyone gets the best crack at it as possible.

“Trying to find a clear track in qualifying, being on the right tire… quite a lot goes into giving those opportunities to everyone.

“I don’t want to regret it at the end and say, ‘well, we just got through that.’ But I don’t think I’d want five entries!”