Turvey proves his point

It’s easy to fly under the radar when you do most of your racing in Japan. For all its merits, the Super GT championship gets very little coverage in Europe, meaning it took a standout cameo for NEXTEV-TCR in the Formula E season finale at Battersea Park for Britain’s Oliver Turvey to re-enter into the collective conscious. But if people were surprised to see him qualify seventh on his Formula E category debut in Battersea Park, they shouldn’t have been. 

Turvey put in a competitive debut showing in Battersea (Formula E).

Still only 28, Turvey seems to have been around for a lot longer. A former winner at Monaco in Formula Renault 3.5, McLaren test driver for the last six seasons and a graduate of Engineering from Cambridge, he added 'Le Mans winner' to his repertoire last year after being called up as an 11th hour replacement for Marc Gene in the LMP2 Jota Sport outfit and only narrowly missed out on a repeat this year, finishing second. Although his Super GT results so far have been more solid than spectacular, three top ten finishes are a more than respectable start in a wide-open field where no car has made it onto the podium more than once.

“It’s a real shame it doesn’t get the publicity because it’s a fantastic series,” says Turvey. “The cars are really high level, very quick, with lots of downforce for a GT. In that respect, they’re more like prototypes, with carbon fibre chassis. There are four different tyre manufacturers, which means lots of tyre development and the competition is extremely tough, some quick Europeans but also a lot of Japanese drivers who have been in the championship a while and who know the circuits. It’s a great series to learn and develop as a driver, so it’s a good place for me to be and I’m really enjoying it.”

But despite all the external differences, the cutting-edge Super GT and innovative Formula E series are not wholly incomparable, with both favouring technically-minded drivers, as Turvey explains.

“[Formula E] races are extremely strategic,” he says. “You need to be a thinking driver, which is one of my strong points and I think part of the reason why the team selected me for this weekend.”

Turvey and co-driver Takashi Kogure finished eighth at Fuji (Super GT).

Despite having never driven the car in anger, Turvey was confident of racing at the sharp end of the grid with team-mate and championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr, and duly disappointed only to be ‘best of the rest’ come Saturday qualifying at a circuit he could cycle to from his home in Putney.

“Qualifying was a little bit of guess work; the technique is a little bit different on the braking to what I'm used to and everyone else has obviously had a whole season, but I'm getting more confident with the car, so there's definitely more time to be found,” he said on Saturday afternoon.

Third quickest in second practise on Sunday morning – following a 2km jog back to the pits after a mechanical failure in first practice – showed his confidence wasn’t misplaced, but a wet qualifying session meant he was unable to translate that pace into a favourable grid position. Nevertheless, comfortably best of the rookies with two ninth places and the fourth fastest lap in race two, Turvey could be reasonably content with his weekend’s work.

“I’m really pleased for Nelson to win the championship and that I could help him out today,” he said afterwards. “To be as quick as the guy that’s won the championship in my first weekend is something I can be proud of. It’s just a shame we couldn’t qualify higher!”

His efforts weren’t lost on Piquet either. The newly crowned champion reserved special praise for his team-mate in his post-race press conference, referencing the fact that Turvey’s performances as a rookie – equalling the total points scored by the car's previous incumbents Charles Pic, Ho-Pin Tung and Antonio Garcia in the entire season previously – was on a par with, if not stronger than Andretti’s Jean-Eric Vergne, whose own category debut in Punta del Este came when the competition was not nearly as well-prepared.

Team China boss Steven Lu with Turvey on the grid (Own photo).

“Oliver really impressed me this weekend,” said the Brazilian, who beat Sebastien Buemi to the championship by a single point. “He’s adapted to the car really well, similar to Jean-Eric when he came on-board, only he came at the last race when everyone is on their max potential with the car. He’s done an awesome job, he’s really helped the team and he’s the quickest team-mate we’ve had, so I hope to have him back next year.”

Indeed, as the only NEXTEV-TCR driver to out-qualify Piquet all season, Turvey will certainly be in demand for season two. With the regulations opening up to facilitate the development of new electric powertrains, Turvey is aware that his engineering background and extensive development experience makes him an attractive proposition for any team, should prior commitments allow.

“I’ve always enjoyed the development side and working with McLaren has helped me develop a lot as a driver in the last six years, which hopefully we showed at Le Mans,” he said. “At the minute I’m in my sixth year as McLaren test driver and I’m also racing for Honda in Japan, but if the opportunity is there and I can fit the schedule around those commitments then I’d love to do Formula E as well, because as a driver you always want to race as much as possible and in as many different categories as possible; the more experience you gain can only help you.”

Having proved his point, Turvey headed off back to Japan. He will have left a lot of people with some thinking to do…