| Some prototype drivers last week believe Watkins Glen is the most physically demanding circuit on the IMSA schedule because of the high-speed corners and G-forces. What’s your take from a GT perspective?“I think for those guys that’s more of a point than it is for us. Those cars are going so fast through some of the fast corners that they have so many Gs to endure. It will be tough on the upper body. I think for us that’s a little bit easier. I don’t personally feel that Watkins Glen is way harder than any other track. I personally always find street races like Detroit, for example, very intense, even though they’re lower speed, but having to be so close to the walls all the time makes it very tough.” On having a week off between Le Mans and Watkins Glen instead of back-to-back.“I am happy to have that week off. Le Mans is always a very long time away from home, so it’s great to be able to recover from that. You don’t sleep a lot during the Le Mans 24 Hours, so I must be honest: I had a couple of daytime naps this week, so it was great not to go to Watkins just yet. So it’s been really nice to have that weekend break.” What part of Watkins Glen rewards experience over raw speed?“I feel like the experience really counts when it comes to the multi-class thing, dealing with the prototypes. I always like looking at the way Nick Tandy does it. If I speak to some of the prototype guys, they say, ‘Man, it’s actually cool that Nick is now in a GT car.’ He really understands what to do when we are approaching. So I feel like there’s always something to learn and I feel like I’m getting better every year with trying to manage the traffic. It’s a real aspect of the race where you can make a difference as a driver. So some of the inexperienced guys can come in and be super fast, but they can lose out when it comes to traffic management. So I feel especially the guys that have experience overall in the ranges of classes – LMP2, Hypercar GTs – are the ones that usually are the best at that. For example with Nick Tandy, I always travel back with Renger van der Zande and he always tells me, ‘Man, you need to up your game because you’re not as good as Nick yet!.” We touched on how Jonny Edgar did at Le Mans. I know it’s not your call, but the talent is there. Is he a driver you would like to see as part of the Corvette Racing family one day?“I would say 100 percent. I don’t get to make those calls and I really don’t know what his plans are. There is always room for good drivers. And Jonny, to me, is just one of those young guys that really, really stood out to me. He’s incredibly fast; what’s so funny about him is he seems so smart during the race. He’s fully on top of the strategy as well, kind of thinking along with Tyler (Neff), our engineer on what to do next and what is best. Yeah I feel like he’s a complete package.” Managing traffic against GTP cars especially in high-speed sections.“In the Carousel, I always feel like I commit to the corner and I know that with this commitment level, I’m gonna need all the track in the exit to make it and to keep the car on track. And sometimes those guys have so much more grip, so much more potential in those high-speed corners, that they just drive around you and they don’t realize that I’m fully on the limit. And it’s very hard to uncommit. It does create situations where it can be so easy to make a mistake because they don’t always realize how much on the limit we are compared to them. So I do feel like every time I race here, there are situations where it goes just right and sometimes it goes just wrong. But it’s definitely a more difficult track to manage the traffic than most others.” Reviewing the finish at Detroit and the late-race penalty.“So unfortunately, you’re fully right. That Turn Three is kind of becoming my nemesis there with obviously an incident with a Lexus two years ago, then an incident with Lauren Heinrich and now an incident again with a Lexus where I feel like out of those three times, it’s probably been three times mostly down to me. So as much as I hate admitting that, it’s the way it is. I feel like this time, I was definitely trying to make sure that whatever I did, I was never ever going to hit the 3 car because we needed a win in Detroit. Super important for the brand, super important for the team. So I left too much margin. I started coming off the throttle a bit too early because I knew that Antonio (Garcia) was struggling to switch on his front tires at the restart. I could see that, so I tried to give him a little bit of a break. And with doing that, I didn’t realize how close the Lexus was. Unfortunately, the defensive move was purely an instinctive one. As soon as I did it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, why did you do that?’ Because two corners after, I knew I was going to get a penalty. Even though looking back on video, I felt like it looked less bad than I thought it was going to look. I felt like he had plenty of room on the inside. But still, the rule is don’t move under braking. This was a clear moment of me reacting to his overtaking maneuver. I reacted and he hit me and unfortunately, this destroyed our result, which I think should have been an easy 1-2 result, so it happens unfortunately. I need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, specifically in Turn Three in Detroit.” Talk about the chemistry that you’ve developed with Tommy and why you guys are working so well together.“Tommy is a super, easygoing teammate. I feel like he never really pushes through his personal wishes. I feel like sometimes he wants the car to work in a certain way, but he would never compromise the overall result. He’s just a teammate that I would always love to have as my teammate. He is very fast, he always brings the car back in one piece, and he’s very easy to find compromises with in terms of setup and run plans. Over the course of the years, we get to know each other better and better. There’s nothing bad to say about Tommy Milner, and I hope I get to work with him for many more years to come.” What part of the Glen’s circuit is most comparable to the general layout over at Le Mans?“I feel like some of the high-speed corners, let’s say The Carousel… it’s still different than Le Mans, but it reminds me a little bit of the last sector in Le Mans – the Porsche Curves, the high-speed flowy nature of it. But in reality it’s a pretty different track altogether.” Does 24 hours at Le Mans make it a little bit easier to kind of transition into Watkins Glen from a driver mindset?“I can imagine if most of the season you’re doing sprint races and then all of a sudden you have to do a six-hour race, that would be a bit of a different approach than someone who does a lot more longer endurance races. So I do feel like I’m very lucky to be racing in both championships at the same time. I always believe that the more a driver gets to drive, the better he becomes. So yes, I do feel like it helps me prepare. I’ve just done a lot of long stints in Le Mans. So I’m not too worried for the physicality of doing the longer runs with just two drivers in Watkins. So I do believe it helps me prepare and gives me a little bit of an edge on the drivers that don’t have that luxury. So yeah, to answer your question, I think it does help.” |
