Jamie Chadwick makes encouraging Debut at La Sarthe Despite Heartbreak for IDEC Sport while in podium contention
- RACERS
- Jun 15
- 5 min read
"Regardless of the outcome, such a special place and a bit of a dream to be able to compete here" – Jamie Chadwick made a highly encouraging debut in the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, joining the iconic endurance race for the first time in her career and battling in podium contention in the LMP2 class until an issue ended her race prematurely.
Jamie Chadwick made her debut in the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, joining the iconic endurance race for the first time in her career as part of IDEC Sport’s LMP2 lineup.
The British driver—three-time W Series champion and Indy NXT race winner—has continued to break new ground at every step of her journey, and her move to endurance prototypes in 2025 proved no exception.
After claiming a class win on debut at Barcelona and an outright historic overall victory at Le Castellet in the European Le Mans Series, Chadwick arrived at Circuit de la Sarthe leading the ELMS standings with the IDEC squad. Her debut at Le Mans was again extremely proomising and, despite ended in heartbreak, it confirmed her potential at the top levels of endurance racing.
In her first experience at the 13.6 km Circuit de la Sarthe, Chadwick shared the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca 07-Gibson with her ELMS teammate Mathys Jaubert and veteran endurance ace André Lotterer. The latter replaced Daniel Juncadella—Chadwick's usual co-driver in ELMS — who contested Le Mans with Corvette Racing as part of his WEC campaign.
Lotterer, a three-time Le Mans winner and two-time WEC champion, immediately made his presence felt in Free Practice 1, setting the team’s best lap of 3:38.014, placing sixth in the highly competitive LMP2 class. Jaubert followed with a 3:38.7, while Chadwick posted a solid 3:41.7 on her first runs around the track.
In night practice (FP2), Chadwick concentrated on adapting to the challenging low-visibility conditions. Despite a trickier session, the #18 car ended P16. In FP3, Chadwick closed the gap to her teammates, finishing just 0.7s off Jaubert’s benchmark of 3:41.041. The final night session saw the IDEC Sport crew back inside the top ten in class, with Chadwick continuing to gain confidence in night conditions and heavy traffic—crucial for the 24-hour race ahead.
Qualifying duties were handed to André Lotterer, who recorded a time of 3:37.940, good enough for 14th in class before a late red flag ended the session prematurely with under four minutes to go. As a result, the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca would line up 14th on the LMP2 grid for Saturday’s race start.
The 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans began under overcast skies but with an electric atmosphere. Starting the race, André Lotterer relied on his vast experience and quickly climbed into P13, engaging in a close three-car battle with Theo Pourchaire’s APR Oreca and Esteban Masson’s VDS Panis machine.
By the first round of pit stops at the 30-minute mark, Lotterer had briefly fallen to P16 but climbed steadily back to P10 as the pit cycle unfolded. By the one-hour mark, the German had worked his way up to a strong P6, later jumping into the top five after a second round of stops, passing Pourchaire’s #25 APR Oreca in the process, as the team opted to go off-sequence.
On lap 28, Chadwick got behind the wheel of the #18 Oreca for her first-ever stint at Le Mans in racing conditions. Rejoining in P12, she quickly slotted back into sixth once the rest of the field completed their stops. Her early pace was promising: a 3:42.1 lap showed good potential, as she hunted down Matthias Kaiser in the #25 APR machine and closed the gap to the VDS Panis entry ahead.
Chadwick pitted again on lap 39 and stayed in the car for a double stint, once again rising to seventh before her next stop on lap 50. During this stint, the race’s first Slow Zone was deployed after Gianmarco Levorato’s Mustang lost a wheel and crashed at Tertre Rouge.
Chadwick stayed focused and maintained strong pace in the 3:42 range. A brief Full Course Yellow followed for debris, and Chadwick gained a position as the APR car was caught out by the neutralization and picked up damage.
Four hours into the race, Jamie Chadwick had completed a faultless debut stint and handed the car to Mathys Jaubert with the #18 crew in a strong sixth place.
Jaubert quickly found rhythm and set a 3:40 lap, matching the frontrunners. The team remained solidly in P6 as night fell. Another Full Course Yellow was triggered by Leung’s stranded car, but the IDEC Sport crew emerged unscathed and continued to gain on rivals, including the sister #28 car of Sebastian Alvarez.
By lap 105, Jaubert brought the car in for the tenth stop and Lotterer took over once again. The veteran driver stayed on pace, consistently lapping in the 3:40s and eventually climbed to fourth place by hour nine. Though running slightly off-sequence due to earlier strategy calls, Lotterer’s pace allowed them to cycle as high as third.
On lap 149, Chadwick rejoined the race for her second driving stint, inheriting fifth in class in the early night hours. A strong series of laps saw her hold P5 until pitting again on lap 160, remaining in the car. A Full Course Yellow followed due to a crash for the #46 WRT BMW at Porsche Curves, and Chadwick continued to gain on the sister IDEC car, this time driven by Paul Lafargue, once the race resumed.
On lap 171, Chadwick handed over to Jaubert following another solid double stint. Soon after, a major incident for the #24 Nielsen Oreca driven by Cem Bolukbasi brought out the race’s first and only Safety Car. The IDEC Sport car moved into third briefly amid the pit stop cycle.
As the race reached the halfway mark, Jaubert was back in fourth and pushing hard. He was consistently one of the fastest LMP2 drivers on track, closing the gap to Alvarez and Louis Deletraz. On lap 205, with Deletraz in the lead, Jaubert rose to second when Alvarez pitted.
With Esteban Masson charging in the VDS Panis entry, Jaubert came under pressure and eventually pitted, handing the car back to Lotterer as daylight began to return to Le Mans.
Just one lap into his next stint, disaster struck for IDEC Sport: Lotterer lost the right rear wheel and was forced to pull over, triggering a Slow Zone. The car was stranded trackside, unable to return to the pits, bringing a heartbreaking end to a brilliantly executed race for the #18 team.
“I mean, incredible first week, regardless of the outcome, such a special place, a bit of a dream to be able to compete here, and we were having a really good race actually”, Chadwick said after the disappointment.
“We've lacked a bit of pace all week, so we didn't know if we would be in the fight for anything, especially after qualifying, but just had a really nice strategy, made no mistakes, and found ourselves in a good position, so it was all coming together quite nicely”, she commented. “I was getting more and more comfortable each run, and finding performance with that – and then unfortunately the wheel came off as we got into the morning”.
“Just a bit bittersweet in many senses, so that was our race done. It would have been great to have finished it, but we learned a huge amount, and looking forward to what's next.”
While the result didn’t reflect the effort, Chadwick’s performance across multiple stints—both in day and night—was very encouraging. Alongside Jaubert and Lotterer, she was instrumental in keeping IDEC Sport in podium contention throughout the race: her quick adaptation to the car, the track, and the traffic at Le Mans makes for an interesting future in endurance racing.
Chadwick will return to the ELMS at Imola on July 3–5, leading the LMP2 standings and eager to carry the momentum from an impressive start of the season.
