Scott Sharp: Daytona and Sebring successes have no bearing on WEC

Tequila Patron ESM has made the best possible start to 2016 by becoming the first team since 1998 to sweep the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours, but team owner/driver Scott Sharp insists that its success will not affect the approach to the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.  

Whilst optimistic that ESM’s fruitful new partnership with Onroak will extend to the WEC, and enable its pair of Nissan-powered Ligier JS P2s to challenge for victories, Sharp recognises that the increased competition level in the LMP2 category for 2016 will allow no room for complacency.

“Daytona is one of the top three biggest endurance races in the world, it’s almost treated as a one-off event, so we don’t look at that as having any kind of bearing on the WEC season,” said Sharp, who will join Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown in the No.30 car for the season-opening 6 Hours of Silverstone.

“I’m very pleased to see how quickly and how well the guys from Onroak have merged in with our personnel,” Sharp continued. “They have a more intricate knowledge of the car, the engine and the Dunlop tyre than we have from last year, so there’s a lot of big positives going into the first race.

“We’re certainly going into this season planning to win some races and challenge for the championship. Undoubtedly the class has got a lot stronger from last year, but we’ve got a very strong team that is working really hard right now and I don’t think we can ask for any more than that.”

2016 will be the American outfit’s second in the WEC, and follows a tumultuous inaugural campaign that saw ESM grapple with a new chassis and an overweight engine, all the while trying to learn a succession of new circuits. After a year of transition, Sharp is optimistic that ESM can hit the ground running.    

“Every time we finished a race weekend we’d think, why can’t we just hit restart right now?” he added. “Those factors made for a very difficult year for us, but I think we’re in a much better spot right now. You compare the first run we’ll have at Silverstone this year to last year, it’s going to be so much better! We’ll be starting the weekend at such a higher level and from there it just carries through the weekend, which is going to pay huge dividends.”

James Newbold

Photo:  Tequila Patron ESM owner/drivers Ed Brown (left) and Scott Sharp.