Will Stevens says the JOTA Sport drivers will be doing “everything we can” to ensure the squad’s unbroken run of winning in every FIA World Endurance Championship season it has contested continues for another year.
JOTA first entered the series in 2016 in the LMP2 division and Stevens, Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov prevailed at Fuji that year behind the wheel of an Oreca 05 Nissan.
The squad then continued to secure at least one victory in each of the ensuing eight seasons, including when it stepped up to the Hypercar class on a full-time basis in 2024, initially fielding a privateer Porsche 963 before becoming the Cadillac factory operation the following year.
But neither of Hertz Team JOTA’s Cadillac V-Series.Rs has claimed a win this year, even though they have come close on several occasions — at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in Brazil among them — with this weekend’s season finale at Monza representing the last chance to keep the run alive.
“It’s part of the history of the team, getting a win each year is a nice tradition that we would love to carry on,” Stevens — who has tasted victory in seven of those nine seasons with JOTA — told Sportscar365.
“I think Monza should be a track that suits us pretty well but obviously the competition is super high now and we just need to make no mistakes and get the best result we can to finish the season on a high to also carry a bit of momentum into next year.
“Like every race we go to, we’re in with a shot.”
Stevens has enjoyed progressing up the ranks with the team and is pleased that so many of those involved in the maiden 2016 season are still part of the squad now.
“Loyalty is something that I value a lot and also the same for the team,” he said.
“For the team, for drivers, we’re all on the same path and know we’re growing and want to keep improving and reaching higher levels.
“What’s also cool is that the core group that have been involved with the team are still there.
“My race engineer was also my race engineer for my first win with JOTA. It’s nice for him he’s still on the car and those relationships only build over a long time.”
“It’s mechanics, it’s engineers, it’s team managers — there’s a lot of people that have stayed within the program and that’s nice.
“That’s where you get the most out of people when they feel comfortable in their environment and that’s something we definitely try to keep year on year within the team.
“You’ve been through plenty of ups and downs and know each others’ strengths and weaknesses and I think that brings performance.”
Regardless of whether JOTA’s winning run continues, team co-founder Sam Hignett admits he never expected to have enjoyed such prolonged success in the WEC when his squad first joined the series.
“I didn’t know if we would get to the next race, let alone ten seasons on!” he told Sportscar365. “It’s been very good.
“There’s pride in the performances but pride in the consistency that we’ve been here.
“From the point of view of managing to put cars on the grid in WEC for that number of years is great, managing to have that level of success is the icing on the cake.
“We’ve now got a record to try and maintain. We’ve certainly left it late to try and make sure we maintain that record.”
Hignett also described the number of staff who have been involved throughout JOTA’s time in the WEC as “lovely.”
“When we have results at Le Mans, we do watches and there’s a number of people with the whole collection of watches so that’s very cool,” he said.
