The Nissan Driver Development program that forms the training and experience package given as a prize to every GT Academy winner has seen some praise over the last couple of years, but none more so than the FIA Global Driver Ratings list published yesterday.
This list forms the basis of driver pairings and handicaps in the majority of the world’s top tier GT and LM racing series, including the FIA World Endurance Championship (forming the basis for the driver rankings at Le Mans), FIA GT3 and the Blancpain Endurance Series.
Drivers are ranked by a set of criteria that depend on their age, success and experience, ranging from journeyman Gentleman drivers at Bronze, experienced amateur drivers at Silver, distinguished semi-professional (or older professional) drivers at Gold and the top tier of professionals with reputation on the international stage being granted the Platinum ranking.
Many race series operate with handicap systems for higher ranked drivers, while some exclude Platinum drivers or require them to be paired with amateurs, such as we saw with the British GT series in 2013.
All of the current crop of GT Academy graduates and NISMO athletes have been given rankings for 2015 amongst the 1,729 drivers listed on the FIA Global Driver Ratings list, rated as follows:
Bronze
- Steve Doherty
Silver
- Jordan Tresson
- Wolfgang Reip
- Florian Strauss
- Mark Shulzhitskiy
- Nick McMillen
- Miguel Faisca
- Peter Pyzera
- Stanislav Aksenov
Gold
- Lucas Ordonez
- Alex Buncombe
The only Academy graduate missing from the list is Bryan Heitkotter, who seems likely to be driving another season in North America – while his codriver Steve Doherty is probably destined for some GT3 action again this year. Steve’s Bronze rating is mainly down to the fact he’s been driving in the Continental Tires Sportscar Challenge rather than FIA GT events.
However, you may notice that Jann Mardenborough doesn’t appear above either. Jann joins the ranks of the top-rated drivers in the world this year, being promoted from his 2014 Gold classification to a Platinum ranking. This puts him in amongst pretty heady peers like ex F1 star Jaime Alguesuari, multiple world champion Sebastien Loeb, GT legend Maxime Martin and thrice LMP1 winners Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler & Benoit Treluyer.
With a Platinum ranking almost a necessity for a top LMP1 seat and Nissan’s three car assault on Le Mans in 2015 with the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, it seems more likely that Mardenborough will be aiming to be the first gamer-to-racer to take a 24hr title in 2015.
The full FIA Global Driver Ranking list can be downloaded from the FIA here.
See more articles on GT Academy, Jann Mardenborough, and Lucas Ordonez.
Those who still said Jann is only for market probably never seen him race before.
Awesome job!
Pagenuad and all indycar stars are racing at Toronto on the weekend of the 24hrs which sucks
Right on Nisthletes! Rooting for you forever! Thanks GranTurismo!
Way-to-go all!
My thought exactly. Pretty awesome. This has become quite the legit little program.
Wow.
Jann platinums reality, get in my son!
Looks like Jann gets the LMP1 drive and Lucas Ordenez doesn’t. So cool looking through this list some real mega stars aren’t Platinum. I’ve always said that most of the top guys from Gt5 could become bronze drivers just opportunity or money, but becoming Gold or Platinum is a big deal.
Well done Darren Cox’s and Jann
I wouldn’t entirely rule out Lucas – or Alex for that matter. There’s only a limited number of Platinum drivers available and 9 seats to fill.
Marino Franchitti is a shoo-in, but after that, even if you take drivers whose only connection with Nissan is as GT Academy judges there’s only Dani Clos, Nick Heidfeld, Michael Krumm, Tonio Liuzzi, Franck Montagny & Satoshi Motoyama – you could perhaps include ex-Toro Rosso (and thus Renault) drivers Jaime Algersuari and Sebastien Buemi in the list for ten, but Buemi has a Toyota drive and Heidfeld is at Rebellion.
Rumour has it that Jenson Button will be driving the lead Nissan, but that still only takes us to eight drivers even if that rumour’s true, so Nissan will probably have to look to contracted Gold drivers like Lucas and Alex – and Alex is said to be very highly thought-of at NISMO for his role in developing the GT Academy winners and his GT3 pace over the last couple of years…
I don’t think a Platinum ranking is required to drive in P1. Check Rebellion Racing’s P1 entry this year: http://www.spotterguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/LM_14_v4_a3.pdf – Dominik Kraihamer was and still will be a ‘Gold’ driver for 2015.
In saying that I wonder how Ordonez and Buncombe will fare in a P1 prototype. Nissan has a massive pool of in-house talent to pick from (ALMS, Super GT, Super Formula/Formula Nippon) so competition for their 9 P1 seats will be hard fought.
Indeed not, which is why I used the phrase “almost a necessity” and added the qualifier “for a top LMP1 seat”.
FIA driver ratings aren’t all that. Nissan will pick the best drivers for them (whether they prioritize performance or marketing remains to be seen) whether they are platinum, gold or (unlikely but possible) silver. The only rule is that bronze drivers can’t race in LMP1 and Nissan wouldn’t be looking at bronze drivers anyway.
@Famine, M. Franchitti a shoe-in? Mediocre Honda driver Tonio Liuzzi? Dani Clos? Jenson moving to a team that is unlikely to be competitive next year? What are your sources? Do you have inside info or are you speculating?
All rumours are pointing to P2 standout Oli Pla and Sarrazin being the shoe-ins and Nico Lapierre is also heavily rumoured. JP, Matsuda and Quintarelli are also obvious possibilities, though taking two or all three would seriously undermine their important Super GT program. JP should get a seat though, he is a seriously impressive driver. Heidfeld and Panciatici also make plenty of sense and would surprise no one. Gommendy and Chatin have been mentioned by Darren Cox, though the latter is very unlikely considering his lack of experience. Krumm and Motoyama are Nissan stalwarts, but they’re old and (relatively) not that quick anymore. Up-and-coming Daiki Sasaki has looked a bit better than Krumm in the same car this year. If you are going up against Davidson, Nakajima, Lotterer, Duval and Jani, you need better that.
I’m have neither inside info nor am I speculating. Please re-read the post which ONLY explains why gold-rated Lucas and Alex are not excluded from a seat – it’s not putting any of the named 8 drivers in, merely stating that they are the only Platinum-ranked drivers with extant Nissan ties. There’s also Karun Chandhok, who’s Gold-ranked for 2015.
The Button thing is a rumour and clearly flagged as such and Franchitti has been put forward for a seat in Nissan’s LMP1 since before Nissan’s LMP1 was even confirmed.
Ah, I missed the GT academy judge bit. My mistake, that’s what I get for skimming your post.
I don’t think Liuzzi or Clos are threats for seats, but Heidfeld and Montagny are certainly possibilities. I didn’t know that Montagny was a GTA judge myself, but that link coupled with his pace and LMP1 experience should make him attractive. Pissing off Dr. Ulrich would be a bonus too. ;)
That said, there’s plenty of capable drivers available that Nissan could go for, both internally, drivers with small Nissan links and others, that you didn’t mention. I didn’t even mention Lucas Luhr or Christian Klien.
Montagny wasn’t a GT Academy judge, but he’s got Nissan (World Series by Nissan) and Renault (F1) links. I was really having to reach to get Nissan-linked Platinum drivers!
In that case, you wouldn’t have needed to stretch at all by listing Tsugio Matsuda or JP Oliveira. Both platinum-rated factory Nissan drivers.
Neither’s been within forty feet if an LMP2 car though, much less LMP1. All the others have raced prototypes at Le Mans at least once – except Dani Clos and Jaime Alguersuari, who’ve gone through the open wheel route right up to F1. Formula Nippon and Super GT won’t cut it – probably.
But as I said, they’ve got 9 seats to fill. If we assume Marino Franchitti is one (and it’s been said he signed for Nissan’s LMP1 2 years back) and Jann is another, that’s 7 seats remaining and either they’ll fill them with platinum drivers (which will be hard for them to do) or Lucas and Alex will get a chance. Alex Brundle (Gold) too.
Incorrect. Matsuda drove the KCMG Oreca at Silverstone and CotA in WEC this year and JP tested the Lotus LMP2 at LM last year. And for what reason other than preparing Matsuda for a potential LMP1 seat would there be for Nissan to put him in that Oreca for those two rounds?
Also, you seem to have a distorted view of Japanese motorsport, GT500 in particular. GT500 is currently acknowledged to be a great breeding ground for LMP1 drivers as the cars are closer to LMP1 performance than LMP2 is and the slower traffic is dense. The skills seem to transfer. It’s no coincidence that Audi’s arguably three best drivers cut their teeth in GT500 and one of Toyota’s fastest is a GT500 regular. Lotus’s fastest driver at CotA and Fuji is a GT500 mainstay. SF is also very competitive near the top with top LMP1 drivers Nakajima, Duval and Lotterer competing. And JP Oliveira is clearly as good any of them in both disciplines and is clearly better than the likes of Krumm or Liuzzi. If you think the likes of Dani Clos are a better bet to get a seat than JP, it says more about you than anything else.
That said, Alex Brundle is a good shout. He has proven his speed this year and should be in contention either for a seat next year or in years to come.
You’re still missing the point by a huge margin
I have heard the João Paulo de Oliveira rumors. He was in Fuji WEC paddock with Nissan. I think he’s certain to be one of the drivers he probably Nissan’s fastest factory driver at the moment. I don’t think it’ll be hard to adapt from Japanese F3000 to lmp1. Personally I have my fingers crossed for Satoshi Motoyama as well lets be honest that guy is the face of Nissan for the last 20 odd years. Another name to look at famine who you missed is Luca Filippi wasn’t he italy’s judge this year.
Missing the point?
Sidetracked by your misconceptions, sure, but I think I have it. Nine seats to fill. Let’s say Marino Franchitti gets a seat, as you say. Then seats for Heidfeld, Panciatici, Pla, Brundle, Montagny, Alguersuari and Gommendy/Klien. That’s 8 seats filled with readily available drivers that have already performed well in LM prototypes (+Jaime), without picking up anyone dropping from F1, without plundering the Super GT program, without tempting a driver away from Indycar and without poaching anyone from Toyota or Audi. Throw in Jann Mardenborough as the token GT Academy graduate (to satisfy Darren Cox and the marketing department), and you’ve got a complete driver assemblage without having to make much of an effort. Of course, that’s not how Nissan will operate (we already know they have approached and been declined by Simon Pagenaud), but it should give you an idea of the plethora of relevant driver options that Nissan have to choose from.
Are you understanding my point?
Yes, you missed the point. Go back and re-read.
The post to which I was originally responding suggested that Lucas would miss out because he’s not Platinum. I was pointing out that there’s not really 9 available Nissan-connected Platinum drivers with LM24 or LMP2+ experience to fill the 9 seats, meaning that there’ll probably be a Gold or two in there.
The point wasn’t that the names I listed would be driving. The point was that you shouldn’t exclude Gold drivers like Lucas, Alex Buncombe or Alex Brundle because there aren’t enough Platinums to fill all 9. If you think I was filling seats with anyone (except Jann and Marino), you missed the point.
I replied to that with “FIA driver ratings aren’t all that. Nissan will pick the best drivers for them (whether they prioritize performance or marketing remains to be seen) whether they are platinum, gold or (unlikely but possible) silver.” in my initial reply. Driver ratings were created to categorize amateurs and young drivers so that pro-am classes can exist in FIA/ACO categories. They’re often questionable (see Simon Dolan’s remarks on Signatech’s silver driver situation in ELMS this season), but they serve their purpose well enough I suppose. They aren’t going to be relevant when a manufacturer is selecting drivers though, factory teams will select drivers based on a combination of performance, potential performance and sometimes financial implications. FIA gradings are insignificant to them. There’s no practical difference between gold and platinum anyway.
I thought the point had moved on to the overall availability of suitable drivers and whether relatively lesser drivers like Lucas Ordonez will get a look in, but I guess I was mistaken. No matter, this discussion has run it’s course.
It’s quite entertaining watching everyone argue and knowing what’s really going on. Love you guys ;) haha
Still hoping for a seat, Nick? :D
With Nissan’s successes in LMP2 in the last few years, powering the majority of the cars, it’d be neat to see a whole boatload of NISMO Athletes in LMP1 and LMP2 machinery. I keep crossing my fingers for a GT-R in LM GT too and get Sir Chris in for a stint.
Let’s just hope the ACO don’t turn us down for media credentials again!
Hey Nick sounding confident have you got a winter home in indianapolis ;) lol
Haha who knows! We shall see what the future holds though!
This is way too cool!
I’m amazed at Jann’s progress!!
That is so cool!
Truly amazing what this little GT Academy thing has become.
When has GT Academy ever been little? Nissan and Sony (huge global corporations) have always been sponsors, Silverstone (one of the most famous tracks in the world) has been the final stop for years, and the top drivers usually make it somewhere at or near the top racing series on the planet. It’s not like they used some dirt track up in the mountains for the Academy in the past or drive in some racing series that uses cones in a parking lot in the Midwest after GT Academy is over.
…as far as I know, the GT Academy has always been a big deal.
Way to go guys, that’s great! Especially Jann getting platinum.
This is actually worth reading, great news!
Holy snaps!
Awesome.