Interview with Jacob Greaves

1.    How are the preparations going for the 2016 season?
JG: "Preparations for 2016 are going to plan, there is always a feeling that there is not enough time to get everything ready before the ELMS Prologue but I suspect that is the same for every team. We are very familiar with what is required to be competitive with the Gibson and we will have something of a learning curve with the Ligier. However the guys in the team are top professionals and will cope, I am confident that we will be ready and on the pace at Le Castellet."

2.    Is there more pressure going into the season as reigning champions? 
JG: "Not really, we will prepare to the same level regardless of the results in 2015. We won the title in 2011 and used that as a springboard to expand the team to two cars and even enter the FIA World Endurance Championship but that level of improvement is no longer possible, we are operating at pretty much full throttle these days. Like all the top teams we used the winter break to analyse our performance and see where we could improve, but changes would be marginal at most. We will approach the first round at Silverstone in the same way we did in 2015, aiming to win, we do this with every race we contest." 

3.    The team have retained the tried and tested Gibson 015S-Nissan on the #1 car and a Ligier JS P2 for Memo Rojas in the #41 car.  What are the logistically challenges of running two different chassis? Are there any advantages of the older, open cockpit, Gibson over the newer closed cockpit Ligier JS P2 or vice versa?
"The logistics of running two different chassis is not something that we consider to be an issue. We anticipate it being less of a problem than running a car in both the ELMS and FIA WEC as we have done in the past. It is a matter of planning and being organised, something we have a strong reputation for.

"Until we have some testing and a race or two under our belts it will be difficult to be precise about the relative merits of the two cars. Our experience with the Gibson demonstrates its abilities and from the performance of others we can see that the Ligier is extremely competitive. Logically the Ligier has the greater development potential being a more recent car but Gibson’s updates in 2015 put it right back to the front of the field. In the LMP2 grid virtually all the cars are competitive, generally it is the drivers and the management of tyres and strategy that make the difference over a season of four hour events."

4.    What are your thoughts on the new three day event format for the 2016 season?
"Silverstone’s timetable shows it to be a two day event, due, no doubt, to sharing the stage with the FIA WEC. The schedules for the other races have not been published, so it is difficult to judge. We would react favourably to more track time in free practice which should be possible with the additional day. So we see this change as helping the teams to optimise their performance and set up."

5.   With 15 cars on the LMP2 grid, who do you see as your main rivals?
"The 2016 ELMS LM P2 class is even stronger than in previous years, all of the teams are professionally run and capable of being competitive, however the results of the past few seasons would suggest that our strongest challenge will come from G-Drive (Jota) and Thiriet By TDS Racing. However it would be foolish to assume that  new outfits such as Dragonspeed and So24 by Lombard Racing will not also be racing at the front. Whoever wins the titles in 2016 will have earned them the hard way, we like to think that will be Greaves Motorsport."

Picture: John Brooks / Greaves Motorsport