ELMS – What the drivers said about their 2017 season

Rob Smith – JMW Motorsport: “It’s been a massive year. When I started with JMW three years ago if you’d said we would have year like this one, I don’t think I would’ve believed you. Jim and Valerie (McWhirter) have put their heart and soul into their team and I must say a massive thank you to them for taking me into their family and for making this the most amazing year of my life.

Jody Fannin – JMW Motorsport: “We started the year in the old car, the F458, and winning at Monza in its last race was a fairytale. I don’t think anyone expected that to happen, especially us. We had to learn a whole new car, which was a team effort trying to figure out the set up on it. The team have been absolutely fantastic, the car has been faultless. JMW is a family run team, with a great atmosphere and they have welcomed me in. This championship is a real team effort and all the guys deserve this.”

James Allen – Graff: “That was definitely a better season than I expected. We had a few technical issues at Monza and also at Paul Ricard. But we had good results with a win at Spa-Francorchamps and another one at Portimão for the last one of the season but also a fourth place at Silverstone for my debut was really good for me. Le Mans was also great with a fifth position in class and sixth overall.”

Richard Bradley – Graff: “It’s been good. It was frustrating at the beginning, with the new car which had some technical issues, but I think it was the same for everyone down the pitlane. However, eventually the supplier got rid of those issues and since then we’ve been really quick. We had some difficulties in Paul Ricard with technical issues but then we won at Spa for the first year in LMP2 for the team, so it was a really good result.”

Alex Kapadia – RLR M Sport: “I’m very happy about it. RLR is a great team to be with; we kept making progress every single time. Ross Warburton, my teammate in Michelin Le Mans Cup, has improved a lot and working with John (Farano) and Morten (Dons) in ELMS was also great. It was great as well to do a duo program with RLR and it was nice to see the team get the results they deserved. So, I’m really happy.”