Nissan’s much-anticipated Le Mans challenger, the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, made its race debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend. Such is the scale of the challenge to enter the top endurance class, Nissan set a target of getting one of it’s three cars to the finish of the 24-hour race.
The #22 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO of Harry Tincknell (GB), Michael Krumm (GER) and Alex Buncombe (GB) took the chequered flag at 15:00hrs on Sunday afternoon after battling against the odds to complete the greatest race in the world.
For the first ten hours of the race the three GT-R LM NISMOs racked up the miles, all completing over 100 laps of the 13.629km Le Mans circuit in that time. The race was certainly not without drama for the #22 car, which had to contend with regular teething problems but also being hit by debris. The biggest ‘moment’ for that car came just nine hours into the race when Tincknell ran into a large piece of debris whilst hurtling towards Indianapolis Corner at 340kph.
“We ran the entire race making sure we were mechanically sympathetic so we could rack up the miles and finish Le Mans,” said Tincknell. “I certainly didn’t expect to hit a massive lump of ‘something’ that was right in the middle of the racing line. The car was feeling good at that time too so it was a real shame to have to come in with damage and lose a chunk of time. We had struggled a bit in the early part of the race but I managed to immediately pick off seven or eight P2 cars and then concentrated on bringing the car home in one piece.”
The Le Mans 24 Hours is a huge challenge for any manufacturer but to make your race debut at Le Mans requires Herculean effort. The Nissan NISMO team has worked non-stop since the GT-R LM NISMO first took to the track at the end of 2014. The car is still in the infancy stage of its development but a huge number of lessons were learnt this weekend as the team fought to keep the cars on the track.
The first casualty came close to the 10-hour mark when the #21 Nissan lost a wheel and despite the efforts of Tsugio Matsuda (JAP) was unable to return to the pits. Matsuda’s team-mate Lucas Ordonez (ESP) started the race in #21 before handing the car over to Mark Shulzhitskiy (RUS), before the Japanese driver jumped in.
“It has been a tough Le Mans 24 Hours for us but we expected that,” said Ordonez. “The start of the race went well. We had good, clean stints initially but then when we got into the night we were having some issues and then Tsugio (Matsuda) had a problem with one of the wheels and he couldn’t make it back to the pits. Losing a front wheel when you have a front wheel drive car is not ideal. It was unfortunate but I have to thank the team, they made a superhuman effort over the last weeks and months and it’s devastating for them to have their car not return to the pits.
“We have learnt so much this weekend. We have gathered so much data but we have learned how to work together as a race team. We now need to keep on learning, improving and developing for the future.
The #23 Nissan had perhaps the most painful exit from the race, retiring with a suspension issue. Jann Mardenborough (GB) and his team-mates Max Chilton (GB) and Olivier Pla (FRA) were delayed by a clutch issue at the start but they got stuck into the race and were looking good for a finish when Mardenborough was forced to pull off the circuit with just one hour of the race remaining.
“Missing the start meant that I missed out on any danger,” said Mardenborough. “I had a really good opening run, triple stinting the tyres and just concentrated on keeping the car on the track. I was gutted to have to retire the car with just an hour to go. I tried everything I could to get going again but #23 had had enough. We ended the race with a car that was much better to drive than at the start as we continued making progress as we went through the race. Thanks to the crew who have worked so hard, particularly these past few weeks. We did something to be proud of today.”
“I am feeling very proud of the whole team right now,” said Nissan’s Darren Cox. “For sure we have had problems but that’s what happens when you innovate. Our engine is strong and we were able to quickly fix the other problems that we had. We have learnt an incredible amount at Le Mans and our battles will only make us stronger.
“Most LM P1 manufacturers don’t finish Le Mans at their first attempt so it was important for us to hit this target,” he continued. “The guys in the garage are the heroes this weekend and the drivers have all done an incredible job, sometimes in very difficult circumstances.
“They needed physical and mental strength in equal measure this weekend and every one of the nine delivered for us. We have done exactly what we needed to do. We dug in, we solved our problems, we exploited the limits of our current performance and we finished the Le Mans 24 Hours.”
In addition to its fledgling LM P1 programme, Nissan provides engines to many of the LM P2 teams at Le Mans. Those teams did the Japanese manufacturer proud at Le Mans by taking the top seven finishing positions in the LM P2 class. The #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan took the win, followed by last year’s winner the JOTA Sport Gibson-Nissan, with the #26 G-Drive Ligier-Nissan taking the last podium place. Gaetan Paletou, Nissan’s newest Lounge to Le Mans racer, unfortunately didn’t get to race as his car retired before it was his turn to drive.
The next race for the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which will be held on 30 August.
Select photos by Rajan Jangda of EnduranceRacing.co.uk.
See more articles on 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gaetan Paletou, Jann Mardenborough, Lucas Ordonez, Mark Shulzhitskiy, and Nissan.
Sad overall result from Nissan but I expect they’ll learn from it and develop throughout the season and be ready to challenge next year.
I can’t believe I can’t get The Nissan HTR LMP1 Car now as GT Academy is closed as my PS3 was broken and I can’t even buy it as well!!!!!!
When will it be available as a car you can buy in career mode?
It was definitely a sad outing. Even the remaining running car came in behind many of the GTE Am cars. In a class where Audi kept pace and eventually dominated, Peugeot came in and kept pace winning overall eventually, Toyota and Porsche last year kept pace Porsche winning overall the very next year. Nissan just fizzled away.
I expected a lot for Nissan returns at Lemans. But, i’m afraid to say this, this is a big fail.
You can be proud to finish Lemans when you are classified (finish within 70% of winner’s distance).
But finish non classified isn’t good at all,
i mean, if it was an open race, i think any daily road car and any sunday driver is able to run around a track 24h without any mechanical problem in order to obtain “nc” (not with a 3’40” turn, but “nc” result).
The result is more than 110% of best in class time for qualification
And dnf, dnf, nc as a result
It is sad, now, i hope they will find something to get back as an outstanding outsider!
Good luck, we still love Nissan
Anyone that thinks Nissan’s performance at the 2015 LM24 was anywhere near “positive” is 100% delusional. The car was completely off the pace, they had all kinds of problems and didn’t even show the positive stuff it showed slightly during the big pre-race test day
· Audi 1999 = 360 laps (5 behind), 4th overall
· Peugeot 2007 = 359 laps (10 behind), 2nd overall
· Toyota 2011 = 134 laps (all retired before 12h), 1 second off in qualifying
· Porsche 2014 = 348 laps (31 behind), 2nd & 4th in qualifying
Yeah, the door issue was a bit odd (but I saw a mechanic having issues with the latch earlier, I think the latch was made a little hard to open with big thick gloves on). As were those rather scary flames on Jan’s car when it pulled up with an hour to go :)
as the nismo spokesman kept saying “we are here to have fun” the car is obviously still under development! roll on next year when hopefully they will be competitive! well done to all involved hope you enjoyed your very expensive day of fun!! lol
After being in development for less than 18 months, the fact that they finished a 24 hour race at all, much less in as good of a position as they did, is quite an accomplishment!
Most cars are barely getting into a driveable PROTOTYPE at 18 months!
”in as good of a position as they did” They ‘finished’ last and were non classified due to sitting out so much of the race.
Frankly, it was a bad start! When Peugeot came to challenge Audi, or Toyota or Porsche, they were fighting for the win. So, this is bad, very bad! Like it was not a factory effort. The whole project is little funny, and the drivers are not on the same level with the competition.
What is very funny to me, we got new qualifying record made by Porsche, and new race lap record made by Audi, but I have no doubt that Nissan GT-R LM NISMO will be one of the best cars in the game (just go to a Quick match play Le Man race and you will see what I mean) and the next one, which is hilarious!
‘Finish Le Mans’ is a bit questionable, the car was in the garage for so long it couldn’t complete the required distance and was ultimately non-classified. It would be like me doing a 4 hour timed marathon but spending 2 hours of it sat in a pub.
Agreed.
I know people wont like what Im going to say, but it is the truth. Nissan has been making too much marketing. In GTP it is even stronger than out there. And their marketing is working too much.
Maybe someone can say thats a good thing, but it is not. Their results at LeMans this years was clearly not good and there´s still lots of people talking to it as it was success. Joining and racing LeMans is not easy, it is “tough”, yes it is. However, their best lap was 18 seconds slower than the average of LMP1, and 10 seconds slower than the slowest LMP1 besides the GT-Rs LMP. 10 seconds per lap. About 3 seconds per minute of lap. And, as said by the comment right on the top of this one, they could not stay on track. They were either slow or unstable.
A lot others manufacture did a lot better on their first try. Toyota is the japanese example. So, guys, please, stop defending Nissan like you were defending yourself, before this gets ridiculous. No problem on wishing the best for them, no problem of wanting to work for them as a succeeded pilot at GT Academy. But calling success a failure is not right at all. The others competitors made a lot more, and deserve more attention than they do. This is not http://www.nissan.com. Its http://www.gtplanet.net. Keep your mind healthy, please, do not succumb to overmarketing.
As someone else said, if their campaign is driven by marketing (as is every other factory race team in the world), then so be it. It doesn’t affect a single person out there, so nobody should be saying that’s the case. Marketing or no marketing, they would’ve still had the same problems before Le Mans, they would’ve still turned up, they would’ve given 100% like they did. Aloha, you’re very keen to make it seem as though Nissan put their feet up during the race, liking it to “Going to a pub” or describing it as “Sitting it out”. They didn’t sit anything out, and anyone twisting it like that is just looking to defame their efforts. It would be akin to you starting a two hour marathon and breaking your leg halfway through, getting treatment and then finishing the job. I will defend Nissan when people are out to get them, citing “marketing”, citing a “lack of effort”, or making a dig at the car – if you got any other car and broke its IC and made it go round on ERS, would they be able to go any faster? For a car with less power and more weight than an LMP2, it certainly put down very quick lap times, especially considering they had to change the setup to make the chassis accept being solely FF (and one of the reasons it was slightly unstable over kerbs).
A marketing campaign that does not affect anybody life doesn´t have any sense at all. Of course it does. The objective it is to change people behaviors. The problem about this Nissan marketing is exactly that. People are getting nonsense by it. People are starting to call failure success! How long would they call success of others manufactures as failures?
Marketing or no marketing? More resources on marketing means less resources elsewhere.
Finally, I think it is clear to everybody that their car was a LMP1 car, right? Well, they were under the LMP1 regulations, which is the faster one. Their opponents were on LMP1 class (which did lot better than them as I said), not LMP2. They have the liberty and allowances of LMP1 rules, which provides more support to speed than LMP2. In others words, if their car is heavier and less powerful than others from same class (less powerful in many senses), thats their fault anyway.
No, ToroTrak failed to deliver the team with a usable hybrid system. It is in no way Nissan’s fault.
Good job Nissan and GT Academy grads.
It’s not a bad start, but I hope this makes them reconsider the fail-wheel-drive layout
You fail to to understand the car was meant to be 4WD but the Hybrid system which powered the rear wheels didn’t work, so the team was forced to run the cars as FWD.
Nothing about the door issue?