Nick Tandy
Tandy, like the other contenders here chasing a second Le Mans win, is a trusted pair of hands within the Penske run Porsche works team. But the 39-year-old has spent much of his frontline sports car career in GTs rather than top-class prototypes.
After a gritty grass-roots career that began in Ministox on Britain’s short-track ovals, Tandy rose to the international ranks through sheer hard graft.
He landed a big chance in a third 919 Hybrid LMP1 at Le Mans in 2015 and won, sharing with Nico Hülkenberg – making a well-timed cameo from F1 – and Earl Bamber.
Now crewed with Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet and Brazilian Felipe Nasr in Penske’s #4 963, Tandy has every right to fancy his chances.
James Calado
Last year, Calado became only the second Brit to win Le Mans for Ferrari – and his predecessor Peter Mitchell Thomson (aka Lord Selsdon of Croydon) only drove for 72 minutes in 1949, so he barely counts.
This year, in the 499P’s sophomore season, 34 year-old Calado will bid to join Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type ace Ron Flockhart as a British consecutive two time winner.
Ferrari should be in the mix once again, as Calado shares the #51 entry with fellow 2023 winners Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi.
James Cottingham
As career paths go, James Cottingham has taken a novel one to reach Le Mans. Most racing drivers transition to historic racing once they grow a few grey hairs and begin to wind down. But this 40-year-old is doing it all back to front.
“If you’d asked me three and a half years ago what I’d be doing now I would have said more of the same: driving historic racing cars,” says Cottingham. “If you’d told me I’d be doing not only Le Mans but the whole of the WEC, I’d have thought you were kidding.”
He is the son of David and Kate Cottingham, co-founders of DK Engineering, one of the world’s foremost classic Ferrari specialists – hence the foundation in historic racing. Still DK’s managing director, Cottingham chose to have a crack at modern GT racing and last year finished runner-up in the British GT Championship. Now he is part of United Autosports’ full WEC line-up as the Leeds-based team takes McLaren back to Le Mans with a brace of 720Ss in the new LMGT3 class.