Hertz Team JOTA Facing “Venture into Unknown”

Hertz Team JOTA faces a “venture into the unknown”  according to team co-owner Sam Hignett, who maintains the team is in a “good position” in the 24 Hours of Le Mans debut for the Porsche 963.

JOTA’s No. 38 car, driven by Antonio Felix da Costa, Yifei Ye and Will Stevens, will be the first customer LMDh from the German manufacturer to race in the French endurance classic.

It joins three cars from the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport squad, giving the brand a four-car representation in the Hypercar class.

Hignett told Sportscar365 he’s confident about his team and its preparations, adding that he’s hoping for “a boatload of luck” to help the team achieve a good result.

“We’re in a great position,” he said. “We’ve got a great team of people running the car at Hertz Team JOTA. We’ve got very good support from Porsche.

“We’ve got probably the best driver lineup in the Hypercar field, I’d suggest.

“So I think we’re in a good position at the end of the day. Then it’s just going to take a boatload of luck and see what happens.”

Hignett admitted the team is somewhat on the back foot, effectively being the only team with a LMDh car that has not yet gone through a 24-hour race with their new package.

JOTA finished sixth in its debut with the Porsche in last month’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

“It’s a huge venture into the unknown, and our rivals have got a lot more experience,” Hignett said.  “They’ve done Daytona and a lot more testing than we have.

“So whilst we do have some knowledge from what the other Porsche cars have done, we’re very much backing our own race here. So we’ll have to wait and see.”

Hignett added that the team learned “an awful lot” from its debut at Spa, as it was a crucial part of its Le Mans buildup.

He also noted that JOTA traveled to Circuit Paul Ricard between the two races for an endurance test, where it joined the factory Porsche Penske crew.

“We’ve done a fair amount of testing between here and Spa, so we’ve learnt a lot again,” Hignett explained.

“It’s imperative that we did Spa, as I always said, we’ve learnt a lot about that, and then coming into this we’re five steps further ahead than we would have been.

“We’ve had a good long test at Ricard, so we’ve done some good mileage there and learnt a lot. [It was] us and the Penske lot. So that was a good test, night time running.

“We had one issue that was a known issue, and that was fixed, and we went again. Aside from that, the car ran pretty flawlessly.”

When asked about the team’s chances and reliability for the race, Hignett expressed confidence.

“I think we can show ourselves well,” he said. That’s what I would say. I have confidence that we can do a good job around here.

“We are as confident as any Hypercar, and I believe my crew are the best in the business.  So if the crew has an input in the reliability, I think we’re in good shape.”

Stevens: JOTA “Learning Every Lap” with New Car