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CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: Robert Wickens & Tommy Milner

Friday press conference transcript following first IMSA practice sessionCorvette Z06 GT3.R drivers Robert Wickens and Tommy Milner met with members of the media Friday morning after the first practice for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. The two recapped the one-hour session in DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the preparations ahead of the race and the continued progress of the Corvette with Bosch’s state-of-the-art hand-control braking system.
ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RRob, take us through the first session on-track for you.“The first session was definitely not the session I had envisioned or dreamed. It was honestly a pretty shaky start. We had some issues on my installation check at the start of the session, which we got resolved, but we missed probably the first 20 minutes or so of FP1. And when you only have 60 minutes of the first practice, you want to try to utilize everything you can. So I think a lot of it was probably just myself, but I just felt like I was rushed kind of the whole time. I had a hard time kind of just settling down and finding a rhythm. But Tommy drove the car, put in a great lap. And then when I got in at the end of the session, I had a great reference lap on the dash to kind of understand how to extract lap time from this Corvette Z06 GT3.R around Long Beach. And it’s kind of the exact reason why I was so happy to have a teammate like Tommy here this weekend. I know after this practice when we’re done here we can look at some data and we can calm down and come up with a strong approach to try to find time and improve. It’s my first time here in a GT3 car, it’s only technically my third day and in the Corvette, so I feel like I’m still a little rusty. The last time I did a race was Road Atlanta last year, so a lot of my competitors here have already done the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring; they already have 36 hours of racing experience under the belt and I’m just still getting through rough stuff a little bit but we’re going to keep pushing and keep working hard. I’m excited for the second practice this afternoon.” Robbie, can you just talk a little bit, if you could, about how the systems are coming together for you with the Bosch system?“This track is kind of the ultimate challenge for hand controls given how tight some of the corners are. The fountain and obviously the Hairpin, so something I’ve never experienced with racing with hand controls is kind of having to deal with so much like steering angles around these tight corners. I was relatively prepared to know what to expect into the Hairpin, but when you experience it in real life… I’ve done iRacing sessions and other stuff where you understand there’s a lot of steering involved to get through the Hairpin, and I drove it in an IndyCar, so you also understand. But once you live it with hand controls going through the Hairpin, when you turn so much and you realize that you can’t reach the brake paddle that I was initially using and I need to switch hands to continue to slow down the car, it’s going to take some time to continue to get lap time. I think that’s honestly probably one of my biggest time losses to Tommy that I could see inside the car in that session. But the Bosch electronic braking system is working flawlessly. It’s giving me confidence. It’s definitely not the reason why I was struggling for pace in that session. I think it’s just going to take some time to get up to speed and hopefully get a good look at data, look at some on-board videos and do some self-coaching and with the help of Tommy beside me, we’re going to find some more speed for second practice.”
Robbie, obviously you’ve had test sessions in the Corvette with the hand control system, but this was your first day on track, not in a testing capacity with others on track. How was that for you? Did that change your approach at all?“It did. It was hectic. It’s kind of like what I touched on. I felt like I was just kind of flustered the whole session. When I did my two days in Sebring, there were only maybe three other cars on track the whole two days, so we pretty much had the entire track to ourselves. This was my first time obviously experiencing the speed difference of a GTP versus a GTD car. Then with our issues that we had at the start of the session, when I finally went out for my installation lap I felt like everyone else already had hot tires and I was just like a nuisance on the track so that was an adjustment. Then once Tommy got in and set a good baseline time for the car and everything, I think we all settled down a little bit. It’s a busy track out there when all of us are out there.” Now that you’ve had some seat time in testing capacity and practice capacity, can you talk a little bit about the feel of the system? Obviously it’s going to be wildly different compared to what it was in the TC car because it’s a different beast, but you said you were happy so far.“From the feeling of it, I know exactly where I feel like the threshold is on the brake and I feel like I understand how much I need to brake for each corner. I just need to try and figure out how to extract performance from the Corvette, and I think that’s kind of the beauty of this Bosch EBS – it’s just integrated into this car so well that I don’t even really… there’s no quirkiness or I feel like I’m not driving around any issues. It’s just I hit the brakes and the car slows down, which is pretty much exactly what you want it to do.” Can you maybe take us through the rest of today, what the schedule is, you know, the next practice session, maybe assume that you’re going to get back to the bulk of the time?“The rest of the day we’re going to finish up here, get back to the truck, look at some data and some video, and harass my teammate Tommy on how to drive one of these cars quicker. Honestly, the car balance felt like it was going to be in a really good spot. With it being a temporary circuit with no room for error, I’ll set up to err on the side of caution. I just need to figure out how much more I can push, if I need to brake later, harder, more entry speed, kind of stuff like that. Then, hopefully a bit of lunch. We get an hour and a half in FP2 instead of an hour, like we had this morning. So I’ll focus a little more on getting settled into the car and then keep working away on driving the Corvette.” Can you give us a walkthrough of a lap at the Long Beach Grand Prix from your own perspective?“First off, it’s great just to be back. I’ve had the privilege of racing here in IndyCar in 2018 and then being here every other year that IndyCar’s been here with the coaching roles that I do with Andretti Global and IndyCar. So I feel like I’ve experienced this culture for so many years, but to be putting on a fire suit and sitting in the car again, I feel like I’m home where I belong. It’s just such an amazing event, the track obviously has so much history, the 50th anniversary this year… I think everyone wants to win to kind of be a part of that milestone. Regardless of the category, whether it’s been Formula 1 races, CART races, IndyCar races, Champ Car races, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, I think every driver wants to win here because just being on the podium, it’s just an historic place. The track is amazing. It’s raw, it’s unforgiving and you have to commit to put the lap in. For me, I think that’s the next step, I felt like I got to a point in that first session, where without risking the car, I needed to kind of see a lap of data to understand how to go quicker. So I’m just really excited for Practice Two here coming up in a little bit and try to make it a big step forward.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RNow over to Tommy, a four time winner here at the Grand Prix. How much did that help you in this session?“Certainly having been a racer helps me in situations when things are a little bit rushed, just to get settled in quickly. I’m very fortunate to have spent so much time with Corvette Racing over the years and spent a lot of time in the Z06 GT3.R. I know the last two or three years now I’ve missed this race but didn’t feel like it hopping this Corvette and then getting comfortable again.” Milner on Wickens’ first session…“For somebody who’s in his third day in this GT3 car, I know his standards for himself are super high, but to come here for the first time to Long Beach in a long time, driving basically a car new to himself and be a second off the pace in about 10 minutes of practice is quite impressive. He’s talking from the position of who he is. He wants to be the fastest. And that’s why, for me, I’m excited to be here this weekend with him and his journey. But also just having a teammate as competitive as Robbie is awesome, rewarding and exciting for me. It’s been easy talking to him about driving this Corvette because it’s like talking to any other teammate that I’ve ever had in my career. So he sounds a little bit down right now. But I can tell you for 10 minutes in the car here at Long Beach, that’s a good place to start from, for sure.” Robbie, so much of being a race driver is second-nature, instinctive feel. How long does it take for a lot of these things you need to do in the car to become instinctive?“From a hand-control perspective, it’s definitely instinctive now. I guess it is like using your feet… understand that, you know, your right foot applies the throttle and sometimes with race drivers your left foot applies the brakes. So I’m still trying to get up to speed with understanding the ABS system and if the car likes it a lot or less or whatever the case is. So I’m still trying to figure out a bit of that muscle memory of how hard do I have to squeeze my brake to kind of achieve that happy threshold for braking performance. I think definitely it’s driving with my hands that has been second nature now for quite a while, but I’ve said it every time – I feel like every time I’m driving a race car, I’m continuing to learn something and continuing to perfect my driving ability with my hands. Obviously I’m jumping into a different car with a slightly different control system. There’s going to be a level of adjustment but for the most part, I feel like I’m in a pretty good starting spot. I think that’s down to a lot of the design work. It was such an evolution from what I used in my TCR car, and we needed to learn in TCR to be where we are now, 100 percent. The first time I drove the Corvette at Sebring, I was all blown away by how comfortable I was with the brake system straight away and how much feeling I had. Even here, I’m not worried of figuring out how to apply the brake or apply the throttle. I know all that, and it all feels great. It’s just trying to extract pace from the car now.” Can you give us a walkthrough of a lap at the Long Beach Grand Prix from your own perspective?“It’s such a high-commitment racetrack. Obviously, any mistake here typically ends in a concrete wall. So it’s a place that requires a lot of comfort and confidence in the car. It’s one of the best street tracks that I’ve ever raced in my life. Just got a good flow and rhythm to it. It ends up being pretty good for multi-class racing with some passing opportunities to let the faster GTP cars go by. The first section has lots of character and has a lot of nuance to it to find lap time. It has the pretty unique corner there with the fountain in turns Two and Three. Then you go to two of the more difficult corners on the racetrack in turns Four and Five where there are curbs here at the apex in some places. For us it’s quite difficult to use all of those. So for me, it’s just a lot of fun. You know, it’s a place where when the car gives you the confidence, you can really hustle around here, and I think that’s what makes the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit so much fun for us as drivers. And then you add all that with just the atmosphere of the fans being on top of you and being close here on Shoreline Drive… the whole event itself is one of the races that I’ve missed the last couple of years. Now that I’m back, it reminds me of how special this place is.” In your experience, how much does the track change and evolve from what was this morning’s session? What do you want to just see here when you go back out?“Yeah, certainly it’s a big part of this weekend. Typically we’re one of the first series on the racetrack. So parts that are dusty and doesn’t have a whole lot of rubber laid down… after our next session, once the IndyCar guys come on track a little bit as well, it just adds grip to the racetrack and makes the first session or two for us a little bit tricky because you start finding lap time as time goes on. It’s always not entirely clear if that’s you making gains with your driving or with car setup or it’s just the track itself getting faster. So this weekend is challenging. It’s a compressed schedule, and playing catch-up with the racetrack and continuing to improve yourself in the car while the track is improving is just always a moving target. So that’s another aspect of this weekend and this race that makes it challenging but also rewarding when you have success.” Do you learn anything from the way Robert approaches this racetrack? I realize you might have some differences in the car, but what about the way he looks at data? Are you able to pick up any things that will help do his driving?“Certainly. I’ve been very lucky throughout my career with Corvette Racing to have very talented teammates, and with every single one of them, you learn something about their driving style, about their preparation, how they look at data, things like that. And this will be the most important thing for me. The first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to be the first one to take a look at data with Robbie. But already from the experience that I’ve had with him, we rode together after the first test that I did with this hand-control car in between the Daytona Roar and the Rolex 24. Just talking to him, understanding how his brain works a little bit, there’s always things to learn and pick up, and someone with the talent that he has, I’m always keeping my mind and my ears open to understand what makes him as good as he is. So I’ll be stealing as many secrets as I possibly can this weekend.”