Jann Mardenborough: Turning Virtual into Reality at the Le Mans 24 Hours

On Saturday afternoon, 23-year-old Jann Mardenborough will start his third Le Mans 24 Hours and his first in the legendary race's top category. The French endurance classic is one of the most prestigious events in world motorsport, with heavyweights Audi, Porsche and Toyota gunning for outright victory. This year, they are joined in the premier LMP1 class by Nissan. Mardenborough will drive for the Japanese manufacturer, going up against a field that includes ex-Formula 1 star Mark Webber, current F1 racer Nico Hulkenberg, and arguably the best sportscar driver of this generation in Andre Lotterer.

But the Darlington-born, Cardiff-raised driver has a very different background from the guys he'll face at the La Sarthe circuit. Just a few years ago, Mardenborough was a university dropout who'd given up any hope of a career behind the wheel. In fact, he didn't really know what he'd do with his life at all.

Then he entered an online gaming contest.

GT Academy is a 'virtual-to-reality' competition run by Nissan and PlayStation. Gamers enter heats playing Gran Turismo online and eventually, when they've been whittled down to a chosen few, get the chance to prove their abilities at a real circuit in a full-blooded car. The overall winner gets a contract to race professionally for Nissan. And this is no PR gimmick: Nissan place significant support behind their graduates.

"In 2010 I was in university in Swansea studying motorsport engineering," Jann told VICE Sports. "I was there for three weeks before I dropped out. It wasn't for me. It was more maths-based than I'd expected, so I left and moved back to Cardiff to live with my parents."

By the time Mardenborough had returned home, GT Academy was about to launch its third season.

"I woke up one morning and decided to have a go. I'd heard about the competition before and I'd always wanted to be a racing driver as a kid, but saying it and doing it are completely different things. At that time in my life I had nothing else going on — all my friends had gone off to travel or study, while I was still at home. So I put all may attention into GT Academy."

Mardenborough progressed thorough the virtual segment and eventually found himself at Silverstone driving a very real Nissan GT car. It was a shock to the system.

"Before this point I'd never been on a track, driven a sportscar, or power-slid a car. All my experience was on Gran Turismo! But I eventually won the competition and from there my life changed completely."

From university dropout with a PS3, Mardenborough was now a professional racing driver, competing across Europe in a wide variety of cars. The transition sounds almost dangerous, but the GT Academy graduates have all shown incredible ability in their new careers.

And Mardenborough does have sporting heritage. His father Steve was a journeyman professional footballer who played for a few dozen clubs across England and Wales, as well as a short stay in Sweden. Jann was born in Darlington, where Steve played between 1990 and '93, but grew up in Cardiff while his dad turned out for a variety of clubs in the South Wales area during the final years of his career.

But the son's sporting career could — despite its very late start — be set to eclipse the father's.

Because Mardenborough has progressed further up the ladder than his fellow GT Academy graduates. While other drivers were placed in GT racing series — driving race-modified versions of conventional Nissan road cars — Mardenborough was pushed towards single-seaters, the starting point for a career in F1. Initially he found himself in Formula 3, racing against guys his own age who'd been competing in high-level motorsport since their early teens. Last year Nissan placed him in GP3, which sits just two levels below Formula 1 and races on the same bill at European rounds. His first victory, at just his fourth event in Germany, proved any remaining disbelievers wrong. He's racing there again this year and sits fourth in the standings after the opening round.

Psychologically, these huge leaps seem to wash over Mardenborough, though he did face some unavoidable physical challenges.

"I had a lot of lower-back issues during my first F3 season because you sit on the floor, basically, and you hit bumps and curbs and that force is transmitted through your spine. I went to see an osteopath, and he said the kids who've been doing karting since they were eight, their bodies have developed, whereas it was completely new two me."

But while Mardenborough's GP3 seat places him on the path to F1, it seems unlikely that his future lies there. Instead, he is more likely to be a long-term leader of Nissan's sportscar programme. Like F1 cars, the LMP1 machine he will pilot this weekend requires experience of racing with downforce. That is partly why he was fast-tracked through F3 and GP3.

And, given how fondly Mardenborough talks of Le Mans, missing out on F1 probably wouldn't been seen as a failure.

"Le Mans is my favourite event," he said. "The first year, I didn't understand how everything went; the second time, I knew what would happen at each stage, so I could plan my time accordingly. In the first year it all happened very suddenly and I was like, 'I need some sleep — I need some rest!'

"As for the race itself, the best part is racing at night. To drive in the dark at nearly 200mph on a public road is the best feeling ever. Passing road signs that fast is incredible, but it's quite peaceful as well. Sometimes you're doing a long stint and you're out there in the dark on your own; it's just you, the car and the track.

"Nothing comes close to Le Mans."

His chances of victory are slim. Nissan are in their first year back in the top class and their radical front-engined car has struggled for pace having missed testing and two races. Mardenborough's entry — which he shares with Frenchman Oliver Pla and former F1 racer Max Chilton — has qualified 12th, a fairly disappointing result, though they are still their team's highest placed car. And in a 24-hour race, pretty much anything can happen. If attrition is high Mardenborough could yet find himself on the podium come Sunday afternoon.

Regardless of how he fares this weekend, Mardenborough has a lot going for him. He's bright, speaks with relaxed fluency, and is clearly very passionate about his sport.

But more than this, he has a normality about him that is often lacking from hot-housed young sportspeople — not least racing drivers. While his contemporaries grew up at circuits, dedicating their lives to the sport from the age of eight, Mardenborough led a normal existence until he was 20. He grew up like a normal kid in any British city. There is something to be said for that.

There is also something to be said for getting a second chance at a dream. As a boy, Mardenborough wanted to be a racing driver, but it didn't pan out. Given that future F1 drivers have usually been spotted by the age of 14, he must have lost hope. To get another shot is a great story — one Nissan are well aware has tremendous PR value. But they still need him to do the business on the circuit. So far, Mardenborough has kept up his side of the bargain.

But with the transition from virtual to reality comes the inherent risk that motorsport poses. A few weeks after we spoke, Mardenborough was involved in an accident during a race at the Nurburgring in Germany. His car flipped upside down, cleared a fence, and landed in a spectator area. A fan was killed in the incident; Mardenborough escaped any serious injury, though Nissan described him as "very distressed".

No one who has seen him race would suggest that Mardenborough was to blame for the crash, nor that his background as a gamer was in any way a factor — veteran drivers with 20 years' experience have been involved in similar incidents.

The events of that awful day will never leave him. But Mardenborough's story is, ultimately, one of hope. His rapid ascent through the ranks poses the question of just how much latent motor racing talent exists outside the sport. Professional racing is insanely expensive — the top young British drivers outside Formula 1 are all the sons of millionaires, as is Mardenborough's Nissan team-mate Max Chilton — but the GT Academy programme has helped several talented racers who would otherwise have missed out on a career in the sport.

Le Mans is about hope, too. In such a long contest, a lack of pace in the car is not necessarily a reason to give up. Mardenborough and his team-mates will start the race on Saturday afternoon convinced that they have a chance of making the chequered flag. And 24 hours later, they'll hope to pull of a major surprise.

Mardenborough knows a thing or two about those.