De Oliveira’s “Full Focus” on GT300 After WEC Outings

Joao Paulo de Oliveira says his “full focus” will be on his SUPER GT campaign with Kondo Racing this year following his exploits in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Vanwall Hypercar team.

As announced by Nissan last month, de Oliveira is going into his fifth season aboard Kondo’s No. 56 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in the GT300 class this year as he bids to add a third title to his 2020 and 2022 crowns.

Last year, the 42-year-old made his first race appearances outside of Japan since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as he was recruited to drive for Vanwall in the WEC rounds at Monza and Fuji following Tom Dillmann’s sudden departure from the team.

However, with Vanwall missing out on a grid spot for the 2024 season, de Oliveira says he is not harboring any ambitions to race abroad this season and is content in his role as Kondo Racing’s spearhead in the GT300 class.

“I’m very much at home here,” de Oliveira told Sportscar365. “I know the chief engineer [Shinichi Yonebayashi] and the team manager [Nobuaki Adachi] well, and we basically work together, the three of us. We will try to use this as our strength. 

“The full focus is here on SUPER GT. I want to focus on having a good season here.

“I think this year could be one of the most difficult ones, especially considering how we finished last year; we struggled for performance a lot. Starting from that point, it’s definitely challenging.”

Asked if he still has any plans for racing overseas, de Oliveira replied: “At the moment, no. I would really like to do the Nürburgring 24 again [in future], and I’ve spoken to a few people about it here and there, but nothing is fixed.”

Replacing Teppei Natori as de Oliveira’s teammate aboard the No. 56 car this year is Daiki Sasaki, who steps back down to the lower category for the first time since 2013 after losing his seat in Kondo’s GT500 team over the winter.

De Oliveira and Sasaki previously shared a car in 2017 when they were paired up at Kondo in the top division, scoring a pole position at Suzuka.

“I drove with Daiki for one season in GT500, seven years ago, so now we’re a bit older and a bit wiser, I hope!” said de Oliveira.

“When a driver comes from GT500, there are different factors. There’s some frustration about driving a car that is not as fast, not having the same downforce. 

“You are not used to that amount of movement in the car; you are used to something more like a formula car with the GT500. That can be tricky sometimes, you have to re-adapt and learn to drive in a different way. 

“This is his challenge. We will try and guide him in the right direction, but it’s up to him.”

During this month’s GT300 test at Fuji Speedway, the best time set by the Kondo Racing Nissan was a 1:37.711, around 2.6 seconds off the best time set by the Team LeMans Ferrari 296 GT3 that was running for the first time.

While wary of reading too much into the lap times, de Oliveira warned that the GT-R is facing a major straight line speed deficit compared to the fastest cars.

“It’s difficult to say, we don’t know what the others are running,” said the Brazilian. “But I will say the discrepancy in straight line speed… I hope it’s not like this during the season. 

“The SRO and the GTA need to get on top of this. We are 17km/h slower on the straight compared to some cars. At the end of last year, we were affected by a weight increase, an extra 50kg, and a lower boost adjustment. 

“This is what we have. I wish we had something in the pocket. It’s frustrating.”