van Splunteren: Lamborghini suits me better

Newly-signed Lamborghini GT3 Junior Max van Splunteren believes he will be much better suited to the Huracán than the Bentley Continental GT3 he drove last year.

Speaking to Racing.GT after a successful initial test in Catalunya, the Dutch 20-year-old was enthused by the Huracán and is itching to get started on his 2016 programme with Attempto Racing in the Blancpain GT Series.

The Dutchman was impressed by the Huracan at his
first test in Catalunya (Max van Splunteren/ Facebook).

“The Bentley was a very big car, you really had to throw it around the slower corners and the ‘Mickey Mouse’ parts of the track, whereas this car is the other side of the spectrum,” said van Splunteren, who completed a part season with HTP Motorsport last season with a best result of sixth at Zandvoort. “It’s light, agile and turns easily. The good thing about the Bentley was it was very good aerodynamically, but the Lamborghini is also very good aerodynamically – the biggest difference is in the sheer size of the car.

“I’m quite an aggressive driver, I use a lot of tyres and with the Bentley the rear tyres would degrade faster than the front ones because of the turbo engine,” he continued. “I think the Lamborghini will suit me a little bit better because I can throw the car around a little bit more and still have life in the tyres.”

In the Endurance Cup, Van Splunteren will benefit from sharing with countryman Jeroen Mul, who was part of Grasser Racing’s line-up last year. The team’s third driver is yet to be announced, although van Splunteren did confirm that they would look to enter in Pro-Am. 2012 GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi will make his GT racing debut alongside Van Splunteren in the Sprint Cup, in what ought to be a very competitive line-up.

“I know Jeroen from racing in Holland, so we already get along well. I think he’ll be very good team-mate to have, he’s already driven the Lamborghini for a year so he knows the car and the brand quite well," he said. "With Davide it’s the sheer speed; he looks like a pitbull, he goes straight towards the target and does everything he needs to do. He needs to get used to the weight of the car and being aggressive with the kerbs, but I’m sure he’ll get used to it very quickly.

“There will be a lot of very quick drivers and good teams in Sprint this year because now every manufacturer has to have two cars in Sprint to be eligible for Pro in Endurance. It will be very difficult, but I think we have a very competitive package to do some good finishes, and go for some wins in Endurance.”