United Autosports LMGT3 driver James Cottingham spoke about the demands and experiences from his first FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The 2023 vice-British GT champion opened up to Motorsport Week about his impressions and thoughts after completing his maiden WEC campaign.
He stepped up to his first-ever world championship season with United Autosports, following two years in the British GT series.
Likewise, the Anglo-American endurance racing outfit endured their maiden LMGT3 campaign with a pair of McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVOs.
Cottingham co-drove the #59 entrant with Gregoire Saucy and Nicolas Costa and reflected on the majesty of the eight-round 2024 season.
“It’s an amazing experience racing – 72 hours in one season and on five continents.
“It’s quite difficult to beat that in terms of a life experience.
“If someone had said to me three years ago that in three years time, ‘You would have done a world championship including Le Mans’, I would have thought they were crazy.
“So I think I’m incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to do what I’ve done this year and it’s a hell of an experience.
“It’s great to share it with my family as well.
“My father, who’s 82-years-old, came to every single round, which I was really touched by that.
“And I’m so glad that I was able to do that with him.
“It was really good to have him along and my wife actually came to every round except for the first, which was great too.
“So as an all-in-all life experience, it’s been fantastic and I’m very fortunate that I’ve had so much support from my family.”
Comparing WEC to British GT
The SRO-managed British GT championship incorporates multi-class sportscar racing across some of UK’s most famed circuits.
WEC features a prototype class – Hypercar – and a GT class – LMGT3, whereas British GT utilises solely GT3 and GT4 machinery.
Like British GT though, LMGT3 driver lineups feature a mixture of professional and amateur racing drivers emulating the preceding GTE Am class.
“I think the whole thing is so overwhelming,” he said looking back on the eight-round WEC season.
“You don’t really have a chance to think about it when you’re in the thick of it.
“… Especially this year with the delays because of the shipping, it was like a gentle break into it [the Prologue and Qatar 1812 km season-opener].
“Obviously the first time you get on-track with a Hypercar, it’s a bit of an eye-opener.
“But that said, I think with my historic motorsport background where I did lots of years of doing endurance races in lesser-powered cars versus higher-powered cars, it wasn’t really that different from racing an MGB in the Spa 6 Hours and having GT40s coming past you.
“I think for me, the biggest takeaway is when you sit in a drivers’ briefing and you look around and it’s like six or eight ex-F1 drivers in the same briefing as you and you think, well, why are they here?
“And then you realise it’s because they’re in the same race as you; you do feel like an imposter.”
Duelling a day job alongside the WEC season
Cottingham is the managing director of DK Engineering, an automotive sales, restoration and preparation service specialising in Ferrari.
He is co-responsible for the day-to-day running of the company with a worldwide clientele to sustain.
His historic racing interest stemmed from his automotive upbringing and his father’s pursuits in racing.
Duelling a full WEC campaign and his day job at DK Engineering was a key challenge this year.
“I’ve got 50 employees here and it’s a very ‘hands-on’ business we work in whereby every minute or every day that I’m not here is a big loss to the business and people have to pick up extra tasks to cover you.
“I think I’ve probably been away for 14 or 15 weeks of this year so it’s been quite an undertaking.
“So I always knew it would be hard and there are times where I’ve really struggled with it.
“It’s been a huge experience from that point of view. But I’ve loved it!”
United’s take on a new challenge
The #59 McLaren scored 14th at the Qatar opener, followed by 11th at Imola, and fifth at Spa – before Le Mans.
“I think it’s not necessarily uncommon knowledge now that we were having tremendous difficulties with the torque sensors and getting everything to work properly,” said Cottingham on the staggered start to the season.
“The way United had come from that position… and the way they applied themselves and solved the problem and got the car working.
“But all the same, within a season, they have managed to turn that car into a super reliable and super competitive car.
“So I think that’s testament to the team and how good a job they did.”
A bitter-sweet Le Mans debut
Cottingham relished his Le Mans event debut which was the third round of the 2024 schedule in June.
United Autosports won this year’s running of the Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMP2 category with the misfortunate double LMGT3 retirement.
The United driver, nevertheless, recalled the highs of finally competing in motorsport’s most historic event.
“Being there with friends and family over the last 20-plus years I’ve gone to that event as a spectator, dreaming of doing it at some point.
“On Sunday at about midday and I’m sitting in hospitality with all my friends, that was a real high point because, I’ve done everything I could during that race.
“I’ve done more hours than I was supposed to, so I’d done all my stints.
“That was a real point where everything had come together because there’s so much of the planning in the first part of the season that it’s all geared towards Le Mans.
“At 10.55am, we were running fourth or fifth in-class and at 11 o’clock we’d retired.
“So that was a mega low point as well, all within a few hours of each other.”
A difficult truth in Bahrain
Cottingham regarded the 8 Hours of Bahrain season finale disappointingly after a difficult Fuji event, but also most favourably out of the new circuits he drove on.
United upheld their strong qualifying performances at the Bahrain International Circuit with their fifth pole out of seven total starts.
For Cottingham, however, it was a difficult truth having qualified in second place yet lost out to Josh Caygill’s pole position by 0.002 seconds.
Caygill was his fellow FIA Bronze-graded equivalant in the sibling #95 McLaren and also a WEC rookie.
Next year, qualifying is set to be mixed with Bronzes driving in Q1 and then either a silver or gold-rated driver in Q2, better known as Hyperpole.
“On one side, it’s a shame that we don’t get to do all the qualifying but on the flip side, I think it will make it a much more even playing field and obviously, it adds an element of complexity or diversity to the driver lineup.”
In spite of this, United were unable to turn over their front-row knockout with tyre strategy and virtual-safety-car timing sighted as determinant factors.
A challenging year, a hopeful future
Whilst Cottingham has not decided his plans for next year, he reaffirmed his keenness to continue at United Autosports and McLaren.
“For next year, I’d love to do WEC again and I’m not talking to any other teams.
“I’ve got no interest in moving brand or team.
“I know what I take away is they [#95 McLaren] had a podium this year. We didn’t.
“They had a pole this year. We didn’t.
“So next year it’s our turn, if I get to come back.”
United Autosports has suffered a challenging year with showings of promise throughout the majority of WEC events.
The multitude of manufacturers in LMGT3, each equally represented by two cars, has seen only one repeat race winner – the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 LMGT3.R.
Only AF Corse and Manthey have been able to win multiple races.
After the #59 claimed three P4 finishes in a row, perhaps they could fight for podiums next year and take on the might of Manthey.
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