Olli Caldwell was back with Inter Europol Competition team for the second round of the European Le Mans Series this weekend. After a lengthy gap in the season, the rookie driver was raring to go as he joined his teammates once again for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. Where the trio battled relentlessly to take 3rd place in the LMP2 class.
Deep in the South of France sits the Circuit Paul Ricard and having raced at the French track in single-seaters, Olli was no stranger to the twisting and physically demanding track.
Re-familiarising themselves with the LMP2 charger on Thursday, the #43 squad were looking rapid ahead of the weekend’s racing, topping the morning test session followed by setting the fastest overall speed in the afternoon. Taking this encouraging pace through to the Free Practice sessions on Friday, Olli was selected to take charge of the qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Olli took to the track as soon as the green flag was given for the 15 minute qualifying session. Having set his first well paced out lap, Olli returned to the pits for fresh rubber. However their strategy was thrown into disarray when the 22 car stopped on track forcing the Red Flag to be flown, therefore tyre management would be a key factor to qualifying well with just over ten minutes left of the session.
Back in action after a short hiatus, the British driver opted to hold back from the pack to gain some space on the crowded track.
Only slightly shy of the fastest pace through the opening sectors, Olli punched in his best time of the session to jump to P3. But in a super tight qualifying run across the field, where the drivers were dealing in thousandths of a second, Olli further improved to P2 but was pushed down as quicker times trickled in. Locked in a battle with IDEC and Cool Racing, the rivals were split by the narrowest of margins. Settling for P4 overall, Olli reflected on his efforts:
“We can be happy with our pace today, throughout the weekend so far we have had great pace and I’m sure we can make the most of that in the race. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get the tyres in the right window today with the disrupted session, but we are in a good place to fight from tomorrow.
Heading the charge
With the sun beating down on the French track on Sunday morning, the Inter Europol squad assembled on the grid, with their eyes firmly on claiming their first points of the season following misfortune last time out.
With teammate Rui (Andrade) taking charge of the #43 machine for the opening stint, the pack roared along the pit straight as lights went out for the second round of the season. A rather hectic start meant they immediately lost ground into the first corner, but with 4 hours of racing ahead of them Rui put his head down and set about making up ground before handing over to Olli after the first hour.
Opting to be the first car to pit for fuel was a roll of the dice for the Le Mans winning outfit as they turned their focus to the alternate strategy. When their rivals began to pit a few laps later, they shuffled out to be in the good position of fighting for P3. Locking into battle with the Duqueine car, Rui dived to the kerb of Turn 9 taking a risky move on the inside of the #35 which ended in a wheel-to-wheel tousle. Both cars managed to get away relatively unscathed and the Inter Europol car settled for P4 on the road.
Under Pressure
Soon enough Rui pitted for a nose change due to slight damage picked up in the on track scuffle, whilst he swapped over to give Olli the reins for the next stint of the race on Lap 34. Returning to the track in P12 due to their extended pit stop, Olli had to get his elbows out as he fought through the Pro-Am class.
Unfortunately his efforts were cut short as the team were handed a drive-through penalty for the earlier contact with the 35 car. But determined as ever, Olli used it as his motivation to push even harder into the race.
With the Safety Car making its first appearance of the 4 hour race to recover a stricken GT car, the fuel running was looking to be an issue to the yellow and green machine, which meant the 21-year-old was forced to make a quick ‘splash and dash’ under safety car ruling. This sadly dropped their track position to be 7.8s adrift to the back of the main LMP2 field, making their efforts even harder as time reached the final third of the race. However Olli used every ounce of talent and skill to fire their way to be running P5 in class when he handed over to his teammate Jonathan (Aberdein).
Powering to the Podium
Swapping tyres and driver gave the team a welcome boost as Jonathan began to reel in their opponents. With the fuel management seemingly under control, he went on to set the fastest pace of their car as the race reached the final 40 minutes. Hooking into the back of the APR #25 and Cool Racing #47 he began to charge for the final podium position before sweeping into the pits for one final fuel stop the aim was to run to the very end of the race.
As the minutes ticked down there was a real chance at an overall podium, with the #34 LMP2 Pro-Am who had been leading the race began to struggle with damage. In a thrilling and nail-biting finale to the 4 hours of racing, Jonathan was pressuring the #34 right to the finish. Crossing the line to take P3 in the LMP2 class earned Olli and his teammates their first podium of the year, their efforts just 0.2s shy of the overall podium too.
Olli recaps a difficult but rewarding race:
“Overall I’m happy with the result here, we didn’t have much luck in the race with a lot thrown our way. But the car was really quick and I’m confident that when everything goes perfect, we will be in a great position.
I’m very pleased with the performance of everyone in the team. It’s great to be back on the podium again”
Olli Caldwell will be back battling in the European Le Mans Series on 26th August at Aragon, where the series sees its first night race.