The UAE leg of the 2023/24 Asian Le Mans Series season is upon us, and the title battles for those all-important Le Mans invites are heating up.
This year’s LMP2 field is packed with quality. It includes teams with WEC titles, ELMS titles, Le Mans wins and driver crews filled with aspirant drivers of every ranking. It’s no wonder that a driver like Freddie Tomlinson sees it as the perfect place to hone his skills in a prototype.
Tomlinson, who has spent the last two years competing in the British GT Championship’s ultra-competitive GT4 class aboard a Ginetta G56, has opted to break away from the GT scene this winter and get a feel for high-downforce racing.
He’s grown up fast. With his father Lawrence (the owner of Ginetta Cars) being so passionate about motorsport and a key architect of grassroots racing in the UK over the past two decades, it was almost inevitable that his love for the sport would wear off on Freddie.
DSC could tell that he was more than simply ‘keen’ to race during the early days of Ginetta’s foray into the LMP1 arena. As a teenager, he was often there in the background, attending development tests with the team and asking pertinent questions to the staff members involved. It was clear he wanted to be involved.
“I can’t remember how old I was when I went to Le Mans for the first time, but I have had people tell me stories about me being in the paddock with my Grandad carrying me as a bay with a t-shirt that had my parent’s phone number on in case he lost me!” Tomlinson says when asked to reflect on his early memories in the sport.
“Then came my first experience in a race car was when I was at 12. I’d had a big crash in karting and used the test as a chance to get the feeling of speed again, and it inspired me to push on.”
His desire to race was acted on in 2018 when he began racing in Ginetta Juniors before moving into GT4 competition.
“I found Juniors tough to get to grips with in Year 1, because I didn’t get much testing,” he admits. “It takes time to get used to the racing in Juniors, it’s door to door and if you go for a move and it doesn’t work you’ll lose so many places. It teaches you discipline. It made me a better driver.
“It’s been good, to move from Juniors to racing with slicks in GT4, where you need to manage getting the most out of the peak of the tyres. My first year of British GT featured eight drivers who graduated from Juniors with me.
“The step up was tough initially. There’s so much to learn in GT4, especially with GT3 cars coming past. But I’d say overall I feel I adapted to multi-class quite well, despite not getting much testing because of my A Levels.
I turned off the pit limiter and just loved it
“It left me wanting to find the next thing to push me to become a better driver and prototypes is where I wanted to go. Prototypes suit my driving style.
“I found out after testing the Ginetta LMP3 and LMP1 cars that it was what I wanted to do. They blew my socks off out the pit lane at the G-Fest, I turned off the pit limiter and just loved it. I went back to the GT4 car at Snetterton the week after and it felt like I was driving a boat.”
Now, with years of Junior and GT4 experience under his belt, he’s made the leap and chosen 2023 ELMS LMP2 title-winner Algarve Pro Racing as the team to help him make the transition.
The move was made with the full support of his father, who he says is the perfect blend of encouraging, but not pushy. Clearly, though, Lawrence is proud of what he’s achieved so far. He attended all his British GT races, and crucially, according to Ginetta’s motorsport director Mike Simpson, who coaches Freddie, “doesn’t barge in and look at his data!”
My main goal is to do the same as my dad and win Le Mans
“It’s a help to have him by my side though,” Freddie adds. “People know him, and it’s nice that when I go to visit teams for discussions about my future, they respect me because they respect him.”
His first two races in a prototype came at Sepang, as part of his deal with Algarve Pro Racing to race alongside Chris McMurry and Toby Sowery in his #25 ORECA. And this week he’ll be out for his third run as the series heads to the Dubai Autodrome, following his appearance in the Dubai 24 Hours with Toro Verde last weekend, winning the GTX class in its Ginetta G56 Cup.
It is still early days, but there’s no rush. He’s got the ability, he’s got the drive. And if he puts both to good use he’ll have a long career in the sport ahead of him.
“My main goal is to do the same as my dad and win Le Mans,” he says in summary. “That’s my goal of my racing career. So I’m just trying to find the right environment to help improve me and get to the level where I can make that happen.
“This year I have to push myself as hard as I can, and if I perform well in the Asian Le Mans Series then why not go for ELMS and see what happens?”
