Single-seater graduate Adrian
Quaife-Hobbs says he is enjoying life as a works McLaren GT driver ahead of this
weekend’s Silverstone 500. The Briton, a former champion in Auto GP and
race-winner in both GP3 and GP2, will be joined by Gilles Vannelet for his British
GT category debut, and only his third meeting following the off-season switch
to GT racing.
“I’m enjoying this a lot more
than I did GP2 – I can push harder in an hour than I could ever in a GP2 hour
because the tyres last,” said the 24 year-old, who readily admits that his
second season in the category was not up to scratch. “I enjoyed most of the series [on
the single-seater ladder] but GP2 ended up being quite political; it was never
relaxed. There’s lots of things that go on, inter-team battles and all this,
whereas here everyone is working towards the same goal. It’s not just about
you, it’s a lot more chilled out environment, and it’s much more enjoyable –
and that’s even before we start winning!”
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| Quaife-Hobbs will make his British GT debut this weekend (Xynamic). |
As he alludes, Quaife-Hobbs has
had little to show for his efforts so far in the Blancpain Endurance Series; Monza
was an uncompetitive weekend across the board as McLaren struggled with
straight-line speed, while a sterling opening stint from Nico Lapierre and
excellent pit strategy came to naught at Silverstone last weekend due to the untimely
intervention of Andy Soucek’s Bentley. However, he can at least take solace from the
improvements being made round by round on the new 650S, which made it onto the
podium in the Sprint Series at Brands Hatch, before Quaife-Hobbs’ sister car
won outright at Silverstone with Rob Bell, Kevin Estre
and Shane van Gisbergen.
Whilst McLaren have yet to hit
the heights in British GT so far this season, they were in position to
challenge for victory at Oulton Park before Andrew Watson’s accident at Island
Bend and will likely be ones to watch this weekend.
“We
were going really well at the Blancpain round and looked good for a podium
before being taken out,” he said. “The fact we’d got into that position after making up
30-odd places suggests the McLaren will be a strong contender this weekend.
I’ve never driven on the Avon tyres before but the team isn’t expecting much
difference anyway. I guess the biggest change for me will be racing in a Pro-Am
crew, but Gilles has a lot of experience.”
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| The Blancpain Endurance Series meeting ended in disappointment for the 59 crew after contact with the no. 8 Bentley put an end to their race (Xynamic). |
As the last driver to be announced
on the factory roster, Quaife-Hobbs’ learning curve has been a steep one as both he
and McLaren have sought to get to grips with their new mount, but the
experience of team-mates Alvaro Parente and Rob Bell – on McLaren’s books since
2011 and 2012 respectively – not to mention former F1 driver Bruno Senna, has proven invaluable, particularly given the uniformity of their feedback.
“We all say exactly the same
every time we get out of the car, we all have the same opinions on what our
problems are and where we need to improve, so it’s quite easy for the engineers
in that respect,” he says. “So far it’s been okay, it’s obviously a different
approach, but there are some similarities; in qualifying you just take the car
and do the best you can do. The biggest problem is the traffic - you’ve just
got to be a bit lucky because if you get stuck behind a group that are five
seconds off the pace it’s a nightmare!”
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