 73rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Race Winners Press Conference Transcript SEBRING, Fla. (March 15, 2025) – An interview with race winners of the four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes and GTP runner-up at 73rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. GTP THE MODERATOR: We’re pleased now to be joined by our overall GTP class winners at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor. They are back-to-back winners at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Felipe, you get to bring it home tonight. What did you have to do to bring it home? What does all the historical stuff mean to you? FELIPE NASR: Yeah, was incredible to get the job done once again. After the win in the 24 Hours of Daytona, we spoke between us, like, what a dream would be to win Sebring if we can. And here we are. It’s just hard to sink it in and understand what we just accomplished here. As a team, it was a perfect race today from beginning to the end. I think there was just one time we cycled through the back very early on when I was in the car. After that, we made our way to the front. The team did a perfect execution along the race. Nick and Laurens as well, watching them drive it was like, Man, those guys are doing a superb job. Nick also had the move there on the 31 which help us to be in a better position at the end. When I took the car in that final two stints, I was just concentrated on hitting my target on fuel and drive as fast as I could. THE MODERATOR: Nick, can you talk a little bit about the move you had to make to take the lead going on the backstretch, kind of exciting there. Talk about that. Kind of just the roll that you guys are on right now. NICK TANDY: Yeah, I mean, I’ll talk about the roll we’re on first because I think it said out there, you rarely see a sports team or an operation or something that does a single event without any faults or mistakes or anything like this. We’ve just been celebrating with probably 40 people that have just flawlessly run a car for 36 hours. Obviously Daytona and Sebring combined. It’s just a testament to what Porsche and Porsche Penske has put together as a group of people that allow us to go racing and have this success without mistake. The easiest thing to do in the world of racing is make a mistake, whether in driving or strategy call, in the pits, anything. It’s just incredible that we’ve had this run the last two events. Yeah, it’s just awesome to come here and carry that on. The car has been on the lead lap every lap of the year this year so far I think. We’ve probably led, I don’t know, more than 25 if not 50% of the laps of the races. The four-car operation, or the two-car operation, has had four podiums out of four. Just unbelievable. Unbelievable achievement for everyone involved. Porsche being back, I think it was 19 years. THE MODERATOR: 2008. NICK TANDY: 19 years. We were reminded quite well that it was a long time since Porsche had won Sebring overall. Yeah, exactly, it’s about time and well-deserved. Going back to your original thing. Yeah, I mean, the fight with the 31, it was great all day. They were a strong car. They were obviously a very good team. They won here many times before. Our cars were so closely matched. There was points where I was racing with Fred, I think it was Fred in the car, and there were still three hours to go. There were times when we were side by side. If it was the last lap of the race, there probably would have been a bit more forceful move. Sometimes you have to kind of see position and take the risk out of the equation. It kept kind of happening. I got a run on him down the back straight. To be fair, he drove really fairly and well all race when I was racing against him. Coming to the end, it showed. When we got track position and we were out front, the car was fast. We knew we had to try and get track position in case there was a yellow coming for the final stops. It was time to go. It was time to go racing. He left me just half a lane down the inside, and that was enough to go in. It was hard-fought racing. We look forward to a good season battling with him I’m sure for the rest of the year. THE MODERATOR: Larry, can you talk about working with these guys these last couple of races, how hard it’s going to be to race against them when you are all chasing that Le Mans goal in June. LAURENS VANTHOOR: Yeah, I mean, we all knew each other beforehand obviously. I’ve done a couple of races with Nick before, won some races with Nick before. Felipe got to know since a couple years. Yeah, I think it’s obviously that so far it’s been pretty smooth. It’s great when you know you’re working and you know you can rely 100% on your two teammates. I know whether it’s Nick or Felipe, at the end it’s two pitbulls which will go for every gap and do anything in the restart, whatever, to go for the victory. That’s always a pleasant feeling to have that trust in your teammates. It’s been a pretty smooth and easy collaboration. Yeah, feel a bit sorry for them for Le Mans. But that’s what it is (smiling). THE MODERATOR: We’ll go to questions. Q. Nick, obviously another key achievement in your career. We keep talking about this, Daytona. LAURENS VANTHOOR: It’s time to retire now (laughter). NICK TANDY: They’re tired of hearing it, but I’m not (smiling). Q. What does this achievement mean, to win overall, now have wins in the big six endurance races, the Triple Crown, all of that? NICK TANDY: It’s incredible because I never realized how big a thing it would be winning all the four 24 Hours. It went global. People talking about it globally. The Triple Crown is probably one of the more historic kind of – what do we call them – accomplishments, groups. Q. Accolades. NICK TANDY: Accolades, exactly. That’s why you’re a journalist (laughter). Yeah, it’s one of the most historic. You look at the names of the people that are on that list, I mean, one of these two is also going to join it this year, most likely Felipe – sorry, buddy (smiling). You look at the names that you’re linked with. That is just an unbelievable thing. Again, on top of the unbelievable stuff that happens when you win a single race like Daytona, let alone the other bits and pieces. I remember when I won Sebring in 2018 the first time, I said, This completed my set. I was racing Le Mans spec cars. There were six major races. No, there were four major races. Three? I don’t know. Four, that’s right. There were four that raced Le Mans spec cars, the three IMSA endurances and Le Mans. Yeah, I’m getting lost in my train of thought. Q. Now you’ve won them overall. NICK TANDY: Exactly. I think somebody said it’s the sixth Tuplet, which is again something that nobody’s ever done. Hopefully it’s even harder for somebody to match that rather than just the four 24 Hours. Yeah, I’m glad I’ve got some good people to help me along the way to do it. It’s just great, yeah. Q. Felipe, towards the end you were really pushing, fastest lap just before the end of the race, was the sister car, had it caught you, would they have been allowed to pass you? Do you have to push that hard at the end? FELIPE NASR: Well, the thing with Sebring, you never know to catch the train of cars again when you’re lapping GTs or the LMP2 cars. In my mind, all I wanted was to have enough of a gap that when I get through those lapped cars that I had enough in the bag just to manage that in let’s say a more manageable way. But when I heard the green in the final restart, we were going all in. I’m sure the 6 car, if he had the chance, he was going to come and put on a fight, as well, for victory. That’s why behind the wheel I was just focused on delivering everything I had, build up that gap, take the win. Q. Larry, I wanted to get your thoughts on the competition towards end. Were you surprised that one Cadillac faded when night fell after they were so close to you during the day? LAURENS VANTHOOR: Well, it’s funny. I think it shows the subject we speak about non-stop about Sebring, that is you have the day in Sebring and you have the evening. Clearly during the day, the heat of the day, I think especially the Acura, but also the Cadillac, they were stronger than us. We could barely keep up. They were saving more fuel. But most of the time when you’re strong in the day, there’s a big chance that shifts once it gets cold because you get a balance shift, because the track grips up, gets colder, so on. The car always behaves different in the evening. I think that’s what we saw. It’s not that we didn’t try hard in the beginning. It’s just the shift of the race of Sebring. That’s the challenge of this race I think to try and nail that because it’s always a bit of guess work, what’s going to happen. I think that’s what we saw, yeah. THE MODERATOR: Nick, you mentioned the 7 car led 166 of 353 laps today. :307 of 781 at the Rolex. 30-ish percent, so… NICK TANDY: Room for improvement (laughter). Q. It seems like with wins at Daytona, first and second here, there are no bugs left in the Penske Porsches. Is there anything that you guys need for Le Mans besides luck? Do you have everything you need to give Roger his first win there? LAURENS VANTHOOR: I mean, I think the car and the team and the drivers, everybody involved in the project, has shown so far that what we’re capable of, winning IMSA, WEC, these the only things missing are Petit Le Mans and Le Mans. It’s the ultimate level Le Mans. Everyone is there. All the competition is there. Everybody is aiming for that race. Everybody is preparing for that race for probably 12 months. It’s the ultimate showdown. It’s a unique track. Yeah, I think it’s quite obvious that we have everything in place to be successful, but we haven’t succeeded in the last two years. It’s obviously very clearly the goal of Porsche, of Roger Penske, the whole organization, of us. Yeah, let’s see if this year is the year. It wouldn’t be too bad. We’re definitely trying. Yeah, we’re not the only ones. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. THE MODERATOR: Good evening, everybody. We’ll start with our second-place finishers. Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre. Kevin, start us off. Podium finish here for the team again for you guys. Talk about maybe what it means for this group to have the success you’ve been having. KEVIN ESTRE: Yeah, definitely a good day, great day for the team. 1-2. Very strong, yeah, operation. No mistake in the pits. No penalty. No contact. This shows that we were all doing a good job here. But for us, the No. 6 was just not good enough today, not fast enough compared to the sister car sadly. They had a little bit more pace than us. Yeah, it was pretty much a pace race with not too many yellow. Yeah, that’s it. Our car was okay, but not good enough. So a little frustration, for sure, from our side, from my side at least. After a very close finish in Daytona, quite a close finish here. Yeah, we were missing a little bit of pace here. Yeah, still good points for the guys. Great execution again. We just have to analyze and know where we were missing a bit of performance compared to the sister car. At least we beat everyone else. So that’s the good point, I guess. THE MODERATOR: Mathieu, obviously as Kevin mentioned, good points. You’re in a championship battle. Also your teammate. How do you reconcile that with also wanting to win this race? MATHIEU JAMINET: Yeah, I mean, at the moment I have mixed feelings, you know? For sure it’s really good for the championship. This is helping us on the big picture because it’s a long year. I know how painful it can be to have a bad Sebring after last year and be behind on points to the sister car. At least know we are on their toes. It’s going to be an exciting year and exciting battle I guess between the two cars, as long as we can fight. To the end hopefully. Today, like Kevin said, they had a bit more pace. So, yeah, we need to analyze because that car was a bit stronger. Whoever was in, we just could not match. That’s, yeah, hurting a little bit, to be honest. But yeah, congrats to them because today they were just better. Yeah, just hungry now for more and for winning, because after Atlanta it was a short finish with placing second. And Daytona, then here. They are always scoring big points. I want to taste Victory Lane again. THE MODERATOR: Let’s come over to Matt. Matt, you and Mathieu have had a lot of success in IMSA competition previously. Reunited this year for the full-time season. Picking up where things left off a few years ago here? MATT CAMPBELL yeah, for sure. So far 100% podium streak back together. That’s a good thing (smiling). Third in Daytona and second here. For sure we want to be on the top step next one. Yeah, it’s good being back with Mathieu after a couple seasons away. Have a lot of experience together, driving many years together in many different championships. It’s good fun, but looking forward to the rest of the year, hopefully getting some more good results and consistent results, thinking of the big picture for the championship. Yeah, we’re only two races in, so it’s a long way to go. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. Congratulations. LMP2 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our LMP2 winners here at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in the No. 43 car. Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg, and Jeremy Clarke. Tom, you’ve already got an IMSA win, but how much bigger is this one for you to win? TOM DILLMANN: It’s so cool to win 12 hours of Sebring, legendary race. I would say before the season, when you’re racing IMSA, you have the chance to compete and the chance to go for the win in some amazing events, like Daytona, Sebring, and Petit. Yeah, to have won one of them, it means a lot. I think Jeremy, the first time in IMSA, first time in Sebring, on Thursday he did an amazing job. Bijoy, as well, of course (laughter). No, we had a plan. We wanted a quick car in the night. We had to fulfill little bit during the afternoon. The car balance was not good in that moment. It paid off with a good car in the night. We kept it clean all day to have a chance to fight at the end for me. It worked out. Mega job from everyone. THE MODERATOR: Bijoy, you have a Petit win, now a Sebring win. You’re checking them off the list. Tell us about that. BIJOY GARG: Yeah, obviously would have liked Daytona as well. There’s always next year for that. And yeah, I think it really speaks to the development at least I’ve done as a driver. Like Petit was a cool win, but for sure when you go from P3 to P2, the level is always raised. I don’t want to say last year was difficult, but this was definitely, definitely a lot of learning for me. I’m glad I can apply it this year. So yeah, it was a good race I thought. Obviously we won. I thought stuff was executed well. I thought obviously we had to suffer a little bit in the day just with the car because it wasn’t set up for those conditions. Yeah, once it started going dark, I think the car really came to life. At the end, yeah, we were quick enough to win, and that’s what matters. THE MODERATOR: Jeremy, they both mentioned the setup on the car during the day. Talk about how much you had your hands full during your stint, what it means to you to win this one. JEREMY CLARKE: Yeah, I think the start of the race, the temperatures were already getting up pretty high. I kind of felt the same thing they felt. Later in the afternoon, it was not quite perfect, but my goal this whole weekend, being my first IMSA race, first time at Sebring, was just bring the car home, no damage. That was my number one goal. I played it very conservatively, made sure I understood what the car was going to be like in those conditions, then kind of just built confidence over time. It ended up keeping me in the car for the first three hours and some odd change. I think it was really good team strategy. I think that kind of really helped us get in the position of winning this race. THE MODERATOR: Do you feel like being in the car for that length of time helped you especially as the stint went on with more confidence? Were you getting ready to get out of there. JEREMY CLARKE: Yeah, I definitely built a lot more confidence. I think my lap times towards double stint tires were faster than the start of the race on new tires. I definitely built up a lot of confidence throughout that stint. I was ready to get out of the car. I think I was able to kind of maintain focus. I felt like I was able to keep those lap times coming, keep the pace for as long as the team needed me. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Jeremy, you were kind of a late addition to the lineup. Given the success today, are you looking to come back and do more with the team? JEREMY CLARKE: Yeah, I think I’m committed to do the rest of the endurance races this year. So yeah, planning on doing that with the team. Q. Talk me through the end of your race. There was a lot happen at the end. What was the mindset in the car? At what point did you realize the win is on here? TOM DILLMANN: The team prior to the yellow was catching very quickly the cross strikes, so I knew we had good pace. But to be fast enough to overtake is another story with this kind of high downforce car. I knew we had a shot, but in IMSA you can really go from hero to zero in an instant in those last few minutes. I kept pressuring him because I know that if you have the pressure behind, you have to risk a lot in traffic. That’s what happened. Happened to me a month ago. I was on the other side. I was leading in Asian Le Mans, and I had a mistake in traffic. I know what can happen. It happened and I could take the lead, and from then on I think I had enough pace to control the race. You still need to go through GT traffic, which is not easy. They are all packed, they are all racing for position. They are not letting you by easy. Once I was through the GT traffic, I knew it was under control and brought it home. Q. You stayed out for an additional lap when others went to pit lane. Why was that? The fuel number? TOM DILLMANN: We wanted to beat the wave-bye, which we did, and it worked out. Nice recovery after early DNF in Daytona. To bounce back with the win is the best we could have done. We are now back in the contention for the title. Yeah, awesome. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. We’ll let you go celebrate. GTD PRO THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by our GTD Pro winners here at Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. We have Laurin Heinrich, Klaus Bachler, and Alessio Picariello. Laurin, champion last year. How big is it to get kind of a signature win like this for you guys today? LAURIN HEINRICH: Yeah, it’s very special I think. Obviously last year we won the championship. We won three races in the process of that. But none of them were, let’s say, one of the big three in the IMSA calendar: Daytona, Sebring or Petit. So this year I want to defend the champion for myself and AO. For sure on my list was to win one of the big three. Daytona unfortunately didn’t work where we were trying, but now it worked, so… For me personally, it’s my very first major endurance win in sports car racing. It’s a huge achievement. I couldn’t have done it without my teammates Alessio and Klaus, my team AO and Porsche. Yeah, I’m over the moon. I think a moment like this will stay forever. Certainly a day I will remember hopefully for a really long time. I hope it’s the first of many. THE MODERATOR: Klaus, you’ve won here before. How does it compare? KLAUS BACHLER: I mean, I would say was quite equal also two years ago when I won here. It was very special. Obviously first victory in the IMSA championship. Now it’s my second victory; two times here. For sure it’s very special. Now it’s time to try also to win other races, some sprint races. Laurin did it last year already. But, yeah, I mean, to win this special race for the second time is also something I will never forget. It’s so competitive out there. I mean, everything can happen. 30 minutes to go, there was the last restart. To be honest, the chance is always there that you lead the race easy. We were in quite good position let’s say before the last restart because Laurin did an incredible job and the gap was, I would say, 10 seconds or something. For sure you were a bit more relaxed. When the last restart comes, everything can happen again. You can go from P1 to whatever. It’s very special to win such big races with such big competition. THE MODERATOR: Alessio, this is your first win here in IMSA, a big one. How does that feel? ALESSIO PICARIELLO: It feels great. I mean, to be honest with you, IMSA, my first race in IMSA was here in 2018. I didn’t really like it because I didn’t understand it. Then I came back in ’22, I did Daytona, Sebring, then I came back again last year in GTP, which was really different, and that’s when I really started to enjoy IMSA because I really understood how to drive it here. Now I just love it. Every time I come here, I love it so much. I love the racing, the fuel saving, the strategies. It feels so good now to get my first win, Sebring, which in my opinion is probably the toughest race of the calendar, at least in IMSA, I will say in endurance. Yeah, to share it with Laurin and Klaus is so special because the atmosphere between us is so good. They are good friends. We have so much fun. We have really strong friendship. Then also to be part of AO, to drive Rexy is so popular. AO is such a good team. Yeah, it’s been such a pleasure to be part of the team so far. THE MODERATOR: We’ll go to questions. Q. Laurin, you broke the GT lap record tonight at Sebring, which hasn’t been broken since 2022. KLAUS BACHLER: I think 2020. Q. You broke it once; then you also broke it kind of again within the last five minutes of the race. What was going on with the car? Why was it doing so well the last few minutes? LAURIN HEINRICH: Yeah, you’re right. The car really came alive when the sun went down. It’s always the crucial part of this race. Also when you prepare for this race, you always aim to have a quick car at the end when it really matters. To be honest, AO and our engineer, he’s done an amazing job at predicting what we need in these conditions because we don’t know. Of course, we have the night practice, but after the night practice the track rubbers in even more. It’s never the same. It’s something you cannot really practice. He has experience. He gave me the car to win the race, and I just pushed. I wanted to drive away from the others. I managed to do it. As a driver, it’s something really special when you drive in the night. Sebring, which is probably one of the darkest tracks we have in the world, when you drive at the night. It feels really fast when it’s dark and also front headlight was not 100% working anymore. Yeah, I had to really concentrate, see where I go. The car was helping me to obviously achieve that. Q. Aside from the significance of this win, the history of the event, how important is it in the context of properly kick-starting a championship defense? LAURIN HEINRICH: Yeah, it’s super important. Daytona was a bit unfortunate. Obviously everyone comes to Daytona with zero points, more or less. After qualifying you already score some. Yeah, you want to win Daytona. Most people go all in. I think that was not really our approach. In the end you fight with these people. It went wrong. We lost some points in Daytona, which is not great. Obviously we knew at some point if you want to defend the title, you have to catch. The sooner the better (smiling). Now getting that win, also yesterday P2 in the qualifying, great points for the championship. I’m honest with you, I don’t know exactly where we are now, but a win in IMSA is always big points. You have 30-point gap between the winner and second place. We saw last year how tight it can be. In the end it can come down to the very last point. Getting a win is really something big. We still have eight races to go and we already have our first one. Last year we could win three. I think that was really important for us and gave us, yeah, some safety margin in case something goes wrong, like we saw at P.T. last year. I hope we can carry that momentum into the next ones. Last year we managed to win back to back after our first win. Certainly going into Laguna, that was the track where we won our first race last year. Should be a good track for us, as well. But yeah, I’m just happy. Certainly it’s all about the points. Just getting that win, yeah, is incredibly special. THE MODERATOR: On the points, you are second unofficially. Minus 17 to the No. 65 group. They’ve got 653. You have 636. LAURIN HEINRICH: That’s good (smiling). Q. The fight towards the end. How much of that was waiting for the right moment to strike? LAURIN HEINRICH: Yeah, to be honest I had a bit of a different approach. I thought I was catching him. Both of us knew it would be a fuel race. Both of us were fuel saving. I like fuel saving. I think it suits my driving style. I was catching him. My approach was to not wait too long, maybe already take the first opportunity I get. Maybe catch him a bit off guard or by surprise. Also, I mean, I made the experience last year in the last, yeah, hour of the race, many things can go wrong by taking too much risk or others just defending or taking too hard. I didn’t want to spend too much time fighting because in the end it’s also a high risk. Yeah, I think it worked quite well to just take the first opportunity I got. I have to give it to him. I mean, he played safe. We are both young Germans. We are actually both part of the motorsports in Germany, so we are both supported by the ADAC in Germany. It was cool to actually fight with him for the first time on the track between each other. I hope we going to have some more fights in our career against each other. ALESSIO PICARIELLO: What time is F1? THE MODERATOR: Half hour or so, something like that. We’ll get you out of here just in time. Get you a beer and particular back. ALESSIO PICARIELLO: Thank you. GTD THE MODERATOR: We have our GTD winners here for the second consecutive year at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, and Indy Dontje. Russell, you did it again. How did you pull it off this time? RUSSELL WARD: Yeah, honestly just consistency and hard preparation at the shop the last two months. THE MODERATOR: Philip, close racing there at the end. Take us through that, how you were able to overcome the competition. PHILIP ELLIS: I mean, it was just a good battle I think with the Ferrari and the Lexus for probably the last two hours. Was very tough, but that’s what this racing is, especially in IMSA. I think the drivers like it, I think the spectators like it. Think that’s what we should keep doing it, as well. Obviously there was some rubbing here and there. That’s part of good racing. Nothing was over the limit. Just used whatever I had to use. Was a good race. Was a hard race. Happy to end up on top. THE MODERATOR: Indy, this is the first win for the team since Watkins Glen. How excited are you to get in the car with these guys knowing the record that you have? How do you feel about taking home another trophy? INDY DONTJE: I have to keep up. No, feels really good. We’re racing already quite a long time together. We know each other really well in and outside of the car. I think that helps a lot. We have a really good rhythm in driving, driver-change practice, knowing what we would like in the car. I think all these things come together in this race. Not only in this race, but also in other races. So yeah, it’s a good feeling to have a back-to-back win here in Sebring. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Philip, I spoke to Jack. He didn’t seem too pleased about the move in turn five. Wanted to get your view on it, the contact, how that opened the door for you. PHILIP ELLIS: Yeah, I wouldn’t be happy if I lost first place either. I understand that he’s not super happy with it. To be honest, I just gave him back what he gave me a couple laps before in turn seven. He we all know Jack. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a great guy. But that’s how he races, as well. You reap what you sew. Q. Seemed to be quite a good stint after you dropped back. PHILIP ELLIS: When we got the penalty, we had quite a good lead as well, to most of the cars. I think there were two or three cars close by that actually jumped through that drive-through. And then it was a full push at that point, trying to make up as much time as we could again, and crawl back to where we were before. We were a bit lucky as well with the full course cautions. We would have been off cycle to some of the other cars. That basically brought us back into the game. Q. The significance of going back to back in a race that is this famously tough on everything?RUSSELL WARD: Honestly, I mean, just to repeat what I said, the preparation is all done at the shop. Really hats off to all the crew at Winward Racing, the full-time guys working day and night to make the car perfect. The car really suits this track really well. It’s good on the tires. It’s good in the heat. It’s reliable. If you keep it on the paved surfaces, you really have a good chance in winning the race. If you look at the three cars in the mix at the end, none of us put a foot wrong. It’s really what it comes down to in these endurance races, is consistency and being there for the last two hours. INDY DONTJE: I mean, at the test we were great. During the whole practices, we were doing really well. Qualifying went well. The AMG runs really great here in Sebring. It suits the car a lot. I won’t say it was an easy one, but the car felt really great. It’s AMG, but a great win to within with all the preparation and all the effort they put into this program because I think that’s really lovely to see. I call them my racing family because, yeah, they’re doing an absolutely great job. THE MODERATOR: Guys, congratulations. |
