Mathieu Jaminet, 2025 IMSA champion: “It was better to secure the podium”

Mathieu, things got a bit hectic even before the start with Julien Andlauer's last-minute withdrawal. You had to call on Laurens (Vanthoor). What does it mean to bring home another title?

Yes, the day didn't start as we would have liked. It took us an hour and forty minutes to get to the circuit, which is good news because it means there were a lot of fans on the road. So, that's positive, but we almost missed the sighting lap. We had to pull over to find a solution and get back to the track on time.

Then we realized we didn't have a third driver, so Larry (Laurens) jumped in the car—and he did a great job, by the way. Thanks to Larry, he saved the day.

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Then we finally got to race, and it went well. We had a very good car for the race. The team had prepared very well for the weekend. There were still a few question marks after qualifying, but we made the right setup choices, and it's always nice to be able to say we had a good package. So, we're coming away with a podium and the title, so we're not going to complain.

The final stages of the race were quite complicated with this late stop. Did you know you were going to have to refuel?

Yes, obviously, we tried to stretch the stint as much as possible, hoping to make it to the end. We were saving fuel in the last stint, but we knew that a caution could change everything. At one point, we decided to simply follow the #31, without taking any unnecessary risks. We told ourselves that it was better to secure the podium rather than try to win by taking too many risks and perhaps losing everything.

In the end, we quickly realized that this was the goal, and we brought the car back safely.

At that point, you were ahead of the Acura, so you knew the constructors' title was secured. Were you thinking about that too?

That's true. Yes, we knew everything was in our hands. The No. 7 was a little further back. So it was up to me and the team not to make any mistakes, especially not a silly one, which could have ruined everything in the final minutes. I was pretty relaxed, but it made no sense to push too hard at that stage and risk jeopardizing everything.

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