Cardiff-based Jann Mardenborough is forging a career in both the single-seater and sports car arenas.
He is joining Carlin to make his return to GP3, the F1 feeder series, in addition to competing in Nissan’s LM P1 car in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
“I was thinking at the start of the year that it would be amazing to do both LM P1 and GP3 so I’m very happy and surprised that this has happened!” said Mardenborough. “The championships are relevant to each other – all racing is – but they do require different skills.
“GP3 is short sprints so the racing is very aggressive from lap one until the flag, whereas in LM P1 the races are between six and 24 hours long so the ability to quickly change strategy is required along with the obvious need for physical and mental endurance.”
He added, “It’s great to go back to Carlin for GP3. I made my single-seater debut with them and they are a very professional outfit. I want to be a winner so I’m going to be using what I learnt last year to improve my performance and to challenge for podiums and lots of points.”
Team boss Trevor Carlin said, “Jann completes an extremely strong line-up for us. Having worked with him in F3 and seeing him continue to develop in GP3, I have no doubt that Jann will be a potential race winner from the start.
“It’s fantastic to see the path his career has taken; from a gamer at home to a competitive GP3 racer on track and we’re thankful to the GT Academy and Nissan for entrusting us with this next step in Jann’s single seater career. Our aim is to retain both the drivers’ and teams’ titles and with Jann, together with Antonio Fuoco and Mitch Gilbert I think we have a very capable team with which to attempt that. ”
If single-seaters and sports cars were not enough, Mardenborough has also been selected to make his debut in the Nurburgring 24 Hours this year, racing the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3. In typical Mardenborough-style he has already been over to Germany to have a go, albeit in a small hatchback car!
“I went to the Nurburgring 24 Hours as a spectator and I was sick with envy of the other drivers,” he said. “My first experience of the Nurburgring was very familiar as I did plenty of laps on Gran Turismo 6 before going out for real.
“I can say after one lap I was already pushing and kerb hopping! Me and Wolfie (Wolfgang Reip – 2012 GT Academy winner) did eight laps nose-to-tail, flat-out, overtaking cars with three times the power that we had! The marshals must have thought we were crazy.
“There’s a section called ‘wippermann’ which is my favourite sequence of corners virtually, and doing it for real it’s my favourite sequence of corners on any track I’ve been round. It’s bliss. The track is dangerous and will hit you hard if you’re careless for a split second and that’s exactly what a racing circuit should be like!”
