One of four current drivers to have similarly been there right at the start of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s journey, Neel Jani will contest his 77th race at Fuji Speedway this weekend (26-28 September), 13 years after competing for Rebellion Lola in the series’ inaugural event at Sebring in March, 2012.
In that time, Jani has won seven times – four in LMP1 and three in LMGTE Pro – and was crowned world champion in 2016, after also triumphing at Le Mans that season.
Up there with the greatest drivers in FIA WEC history and universally respected for his talent, experience and general nature, the 41 year-old is ideally-placed to reminisce about FIA WEC as it reaches 100 races in Japan.
“My first step into FIA WEC was with Rebellion and the Lola LMP1 car, and it meant drivers like me could build a real career, so I was very excited to hear when they finally announced that endurance racing would be a world championship,” he told fiawec.com.
“It was an obvious step, but it was still not an easy step to form FIA WEC as a lot of ingredients were needed for it to work out and a lot of things to fulfil.”
The competitive element for Jani was crucial, and after some giant-killing performances for Rebellion in 2012 and 2013, he was snapped up by Porsche to lead the German marque’s ambitious new 919 Hybrid LMP1 programme in 2014.
“Finally, I was in a project where I could fight the Audis,” he reflected. “Now I had my chance to fight up at the front, and I really consider this period as a clear highlight of my career because of that fact.
“OK, I drove a bit of Formula 1 private testing and Friday testing and all these things, some Champ Car too, but from a programme point-of-view – with the size of the operation, the amount of people, the speed of development – this was really big.
“In testing, we had parts being flown in overnight to try, so it really was F1-style. That was how the 919 programme was done.”
Jani was a fundamental part of the Porsche 919’s development, and was crucial in identifying some teething troubles through the early days of the project in 2013 and then when it made its public debut in 2014.
At Interlagos in November 2014, the Swiss star, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas took an historic first win for the car that would go on to claim no fewer than three FIA WEC titles and a hat-trick of successes at Le Mans.
“The success of the project was really satisfying, because the work we all put in was so impressive,” recalls Jani now. “But without FIA WEC starting in 2012, would it have happened at all? Probably not, so getting to 100 races and forming a kind of entire industry for motorsport with a world championship is a very special thing, I believe."
Jani has been involved in some astonishing races and battles, none more so than Le Mans in 2016 when alongside Porsche team-mates Dumas and Lieb, he took a last-gasp victory. The drama came with just two laps of the race remaining, when the leading Toyota LMP1 car driven by Kazuki Nakajima stopped on the start/finish straight.
While the sympathy for Toyota’s heartbreak was universally genuine, it is often forgotten that the Porsche had got back into contention after earlier issues and was in a position to pounce when opportunity struck.
When it did, the trio executed ruthlessly to secure the second of three wins at La Sarthe for the incredible 919 Hybrid model.
“2016 at Le Mans was basically the one that Hollywood could have written,” remembers Jani.
“To win Le Mans in such a fashion is completely unforgettable and surprising, but we did a very good job to get back onto the lead lap that year. It will go down in history how dramatic it all was.
“It was extreme, of course, but we were in the hunt and you have to finish the race. We took advantage of Toyota’s issue and it was just an incredible experience so late in the race.
“But also the year after (2017), we had a 13-lap lead with four hours to go and we were cruising with only an LMP2 car in second place...”
On that occasion, André Lotterer was forced to park the car, meaning Jani felt the heartache just as he had felt the euphoria 12 months earlier. It was white-hot in its intensity.
“Le Mans 2016 and 2017 were the extremes and show you what sport can bring on the emotional side – and boy, was it intense,” he acknowledges.
“But for me, if you are racing at the cutting-edge, the this is the range of what you can face.
“FIA WEC is the pinnacle of the sport for sure and has many stories like this, but for me personally, 2016 and 2017 at Le Mans produced two very intense experiences that I will never forget.”
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