A Year on From Victory, Le Mans Winner Earl Bamber is a Rookie Again

One year ago Earl Bamber was a Le Mans rookie who even the motor racing community were not hugely familiar with. 12 months on he's back at Le Mans and, in a sense, he'll be a rookie once more. But this time no one is unsure about the 25-year-old Kiwi.

Bamber contested last year's race for the Porsche squad in the LMP1 category – the top tier of the iconic 24-hour race. Driving alongside fellow unknown Nick Tandy and job-swapping F1 pilot Nico Hulkenberg, he was part of a crew that secured a sensational victory. For a trio racing a one-off entry – the other two Porsche cars were full-time World Endurance Championship competitors – it was a spectacular win.

A year on Porsche have scaled back their attack on LMP1 to the two regular cars, which include the driving talent of former F1 star Mark Webber. But the German marque haven't left Bamber out in the cold: this weekend he'll contest the GTE-Pro class, driving a 911 RSR in the 84th running of the race.

It's in that sense that Bamber – while clearly a defending champion – is also a rookie. He's not raced the 911 at the 24 Hours before, and now has a whole new set of challenges to wrap his head around. He's staying humble about it, too.

"Just because I won the race last year doesn't mean I really know anything," Bamber tells VICE Sports. "So I'm relying on my teammates [Fred Makowiecki and Jörg Bergmeister], who've done it many times in the GT class before. I'll try to learn from them and do the best that I can. But it's two different things." He's not wrong there: racing in the slower (but no less competitive) GT category means dodging the faster LMP1 cars while also trying to run your own race. In a sense, it's even more difficult than competing in the top tier.

Bamber's lack of bombast might stem from his route to the top of sportscar racing. Impressively professional for his 25 years, he speaks in a calm, analytical manner, choosing each word carefully. There's an almost mechanical precision to his pattern of speech: no word out of place, every syllable pronounced in full.

His road to Le Mans glory is lesson in not quitting on your dreams. A talented junior racer, he rose through the single-seater ranks to compete in the GP2 Asia Series – a spin-off from the prestigious Formula One feeder category – by the age of 18. He was instantly impressive, standing on the podium in only his second race, but without the money required to push forward his single-seater career dropped off. He would certainly not have been the first to fall off the ladder to F1 and never get back on.

"The problem with [single-seater racing] is that there's no structure to it. If you want to drive Formula Three you must pay; if you want to drive GP2 you must pay; if you want to drive Formula One you must pay. There's no professionalism there any more. And the cars are too focussed on engineering – if you're rich you can pay to have the best equipment, then you can win even if you're not that talented. So there's only a few seats in F1 where you make good money and in the rest, everyone is paying."

Faced with a brick wall, Bamber was nearly forced out of professional racing. He barely competed for the better part of three years, instead working in commentary and driver coaching. It was the latter that helped resurrect his career.

"There was a [pro] Porsche driver doing some coaching, and I said, 'that doesn't sound too right, I think it should be done like this.' He said, 'Okay, then show me.' So I took him for some laps in the car and he was like, 'Okay, you're quick!' A few months later he bought a [Porsche] Cup car for me to race."

That led Bamber into the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, one of the German brand's 22 global racing series for the Carrera machine. From here, the Kiwi's rise was rapid. He won the championship in his first year, which earned him a spot in a shootout for a seat in the Porsche Supercup, a category that races on the same bill as F1. He was triumphant in this, hopped over to the Supercup and won it at the first time of asking (while also defending his Asian title). That got him another shootout, this time for the chance to race a Porsche LMP1 at Le Mans. He got the job done there too and six months later won the 24 Hours.

During all this, however, Bamber remained aware that his career behind the wheel – at least in a racing sense – nearly ended before it began.

"It's difficult [being on the sidelines] because as a driver you always want to be in the car. But for me, I probably learned more about the sport in those two or three years than during the time I raced single-seaters.

"I was lucky that I still kept a lot of driver training, and I worked as a commentator, so I learned a lot about the media side of the sport, which helped me when I came back. You learn more about the business side. So I didn't enjoy being out of the car, but it helps me be a stronger driver today. I don't regret it."

It's important to emphasise just how sought after a seat with a top LMP1 team like Porsche is. There are hundreds of professional drivers who would walk over hot coals for the chance Bamber got last year. And Porsche don't hire people because they take a shine to them – they're there to win and accept only the best.

Bamber's rise was no doubt aided by Porsche's commitment to putting drivers they have developed in their own cars. They're fiercely proud of this. And just because he's won Le Mans doesn't mean he's got a job for life – there's a new crop of juniors, coached by Bamber's own mentor, veteran racer Sascha Maassen – who have their eyes on the same seat.

The situation has been made all the more competitive by Porsche scaling back to two LMP1 entries. His teammate from 2015, Nick Tandy, has been staking an equally strong case to move up into one of those LMP1 seats should Porsche elect to make a change. This weekend he too will be competing in the GT class.

What Bamber does in this year's 24 Hours will inevitably have a bearing on his future direction in the sport. But, having recovered from some pretty significant career setbacks already, the Kiwi seems ready to embrace whatever challenge is placed in front of him next.