Nissan Drops Jann Mardenborough From GT500 Race Seat

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Nissan Drops Jann Mardenborough From GT500 Race Seat

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on January 20th, 2021 in the Super GT category.

 

[DS13_supergt]

I can't understand this decision, he has showed his talent more than once, he has done everything that was possible and kondo racing for sure is not the fastest team.

 

[scooterlord]

Although I don't know the driver personally, it takes more than a driving skillset for a team to pick you - eg soft skills, communication skills, etc I guess we'll learn soon about their decision.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Although I don't know the driver personally, it takes more than a driving skillset for a team to pick you - eg soft skills, communication skills, etc I guess we'll learn soon about their decision.

Very true - plus whenever motorsport decisions seem strange money is normally involved - e.g. who brings the most sponsorship to the team or who has the right nationality to match a key sponsors marketing plans.

 

[CTznOfTime]

It's not a easy environment at all, highly volatile... Those who are there a long time, must know how to play the game... Not easily given to anyone, sad unfortunate truth...

 

[snc]

Although I don't know the driver personally, it takes more than a driving skillset for a team to pick you - eg soft skills, communication skills, etc I guess we'll learn soon about their decision.

and most important - sponsors skills

 

[mef]

I hope this isn't a case of 'let's go with the Japanese driver', either on the part of the team or a sponsor.

 

[Tornado]

Based on his performance outlined in the article it sounds like they dropped him because he was Just A Guy when promoted to the top class, and presumably they can get JAG performance from someone who will bring the team more money or fit in better with the Japanese racing team for the Japanese manufacturer in the Japanese racing series with Japanese sponsors.




Like, he was there for 4 years. What's the usual turnover for drivers in Super GT who are usually just kinda there?

 

[GTFan24]

If he truly was dropped simply because of Japanese driver preference over pure talent, then Nissan truly messed up big time and it will do nothing but bring up countless accusations of "Japanese Bias" in their GT500 program.

 

[RACECAR]

If he truly was dropped simply because of Japanese driver preference over pure talent, then Nissan truly messed up big time and it will do nothing but bring up countless accusations of "Japanese Bias" in their GT500 program.

Japanese driver preference or any sort of Japanese bias would be funny considering this guy still drives for the factory team:

And he's clearly far from being Japanese.

 

[mustafur]

Given who replaced him I think it's a fair assessment of Japanese Bias, I thought only 1 driver of the 2 even had to Japanese though.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

It's sad to see what's happening to all the GT Academy graduates these days. Seems like once Nissan pulls out of motorsport they all struggle to find a drive with other teams, and now even Nissan doesn't want Jann anymore. You can only hope that Igor Fraga has got what it takes to stay in the game long term.

 

[RACECAR]

It's sad to see what's happening to all the GT Academy graduates these days. Seems like once Nissan pulls out of motorsport they all struggle to find a drive with other teams, and now even Nissan doesn't want Jann anymore. You can only hope that Igor Fraga has got what it takes to stay in the game long term.

I feel like with Kaz backing him and still being relatively new, he's still got a chance. Nissan seems like they are just washing away ANY remnants of Darren Cox or GT Academy and Jann was basically the last thing left.