Bacheta Back To School

Luciano Bacheta enjoyed an encouraging start to his first weekend of sportscar racing at the Red Bull Ring, despite describing the Red Bull Ring as a “mental” place to learn the ropes.  The 24 year-old had not raced since a truncated Auto GP deal with Zele Racing last season, but secured a deal with Greaves to complete the European Le Mans Series alongside GT Academy graduate Mark Shulzhitskiy, in what he hopes will lay the foundations for a full season in 2015.

“I’m enjoying it much more than I expected, it’s completely different to single seaters,” said the Briton after practice. “It’s a bit more of a team sport; until you cross the line, the team, the driver, everyone is working together. There’s a lot to take in – mainly in terms of managing fuel consumption and managing the car – and the team hasn’t been here before either, so there’s a bit for all of us to learn, but it’s been alright so far. 

"The most important thing is to finish and complete our strategy as intended without any silly things going on. This is all prep for me getting into endurance racing, I’m pretty sure I’ll be staying here for a while yet.”

Luciano Bacheta makes his debut aboard the no. 28 Greaves Zytek
this weekend alongside Mark Shulzhitskiy. (Credit: ELMS Media)

The tight confines of the 2.6 mile circuit means there is little room to breathe before encountering slower traffic, which Bacheta admits has taken some getting used to, but his confidence is building with every session and the race can’t come soon enough.

“It’s pretty crazy out there with the GT cars, pretty much every pass has to be done on the brakes because there’s not a great deal in it in a straight line. That was a big shock. It feels like I’m doing a trackday at Snetterton, when there’s all sorts of cars out there and you just have to dodge them!” he said.

“Our long run pace is pretty good, Mark and I are working well together and maybe our single lap pace isn’t great, but our consistency is, so hopefully we’ll be strong for the race. That’s a nice problem to have because qualifying isn’t everything. 

"I’d love a podium; that might be a bit ambitious, but think if everything goes smoothly and we pull our fingers out then we’ll be in a decent position.”