Bortolotti Raring To Go

The return of Lamborghini to top-level international motorsport with the new Huracán GT3 has been welcomed across the sport. Mirko Bortolotti has more cause than most, having been selected to join the marque’s roster of factory drivers in what is undoubtedly the biggest opportunity of his career so far. That might seem a strange admission for a man who has tested for the Ferrari, Williams and Toro Rosso Formula One teams, but the Vienna-based Italian is unequivocal and some weeks after the announcement, still exhibits the broad grin of a man with a winning lottery ticket.

“To be a factory driver for Lamborghini means so much to me; it’s definitely the biggest project I’ve been involved with in my career, so I’m really proud to be part of this programme” said the 25 year-old. “Overall definitely it’s a great opportunity, especially because we have quite a nice project ahead with the new Huracán, the first in-house produced GT3, so I’m really happy to be selected. Lamborghini is a novelty brand, it’s very popular in Italy, so being a part of it as an Italian is something very special. It means I’ve done something right in my career!”

Bortolotti is eagerly anticipating the Huracan's first race at Monza. (Mirko Bortolotti)

His story is a familiar one; without the funds to continue racing single-seaters after winning the FIA Formula Two title in 2011, Bortolotti set about reinventing himself as a sportscar racer. He dominated the 2013 Eurocup Megane Trophy in his first season with a roof and last year impressed Lamborghini with his seamless transition to GT racing, dovetailing campaigns in the Italian GT championship and one-make Super Trofeo series.

The results weren’t always there due to a proliferation of technical problems and the inevitable corollary of sharing with gentleman drivers, but as preparation for the rigours of the Blancpain Endurance Series – including the Spa 24 Hours – the experience served him well. And as he showed by emphatically winning the season-ending World Final at Sepang from 13^th on the grid, his racecraft is more than up to scratch.

“It’s going to be a new experience for me, I’ve never done a 24 hours before so it will be a tough one that’s for sure, but all those experiences helped me to grow up as a driver and as a human being to improve in general and definitely it helped to become a factory driver of such an important brand,” Bortolotti reminisces.  

“It wasn’t always about the results because last year in Super Trofeo I was mainly racing with gentlemen drivers in my car, which was a new experience for me. I took it as an opportunity to learn; in formula cars you always used to hide as much information as possible, but in GT racing you have to cooperate with your team-mates to help each other to become quicker, because all of them have to be competitive and strong for you to be successful. It was overall a positive year for me and I got used to it quite quickly, which bodes well for this season.”

The Huracan GT3 is still in its early phases of development. (Lamborghini Media)

Of course, much will depend on whether the Huracán will come out of the blocks all guns blazing in much the same way Bentley managed last year with the Continental GT3, which won on only its second start at Silverstone.  Development is still in the very early stages, but Bortolotti already feels right at home and is confident that Lamborghini partner team Grasser Racing, who proved their credentials by running Jeroen Bleekemolen and Hari Proczyk to third in the Blancpain Sprint Series in 2014, will have the car ready in time for the Monza season-opener. 

“I’ve driven it once so far at the end of last year; we’ve done two outings in total and I’ve done one of those, so the car is still at the beginning, but we have a good baseline, a solid platform to work from – the car is at a good level even though we haven’t done much mileage yet,” he said. “The guys are doing a great job, from their side last year they had a really positive year in the Blancpain Sprint Series, so they absolutely deserve to be the factory team for Lamborghini. I think together we have a good package, the factory is pushing really hard, the guys from Grasser are working well and also the drivers are well-qualified, we have a good mix of youth and experience in the team, so the atmosphere is absolutely mega.

“We are definitely still in the development process at the moment, so we cannot say at this moment that the car will be competitive at this specific moment, but we are working hard and every day helps us to improve all the small things we need to fix in order to make it 100% reliable. We’re at a good point at the moment in our schedule, so I’m very confident and looking forward to the season obviously. I think we have done our homework in the best possible way, so we will see where we are in the first race in Monza; hopefully we will be on top!”

This article originally appeared on Racing.GT

Comment: Jenny Tinmouth Blazing A Trail For Women In Motorsport

Fairy stories don’t come along all that often in sport. The law of averages state that ninety-nine times out of every hundred, it’s the big boys who come out on top. The underdog is so-called for a reason, after all. But every so often, in flagrant defiance of conventional logic, a ‘Steven Bradbury moment’ comes along out of the blue. These moments are the stuff of dreams that we, the general public, can identify with and aspire to. And sometimes, like the proverbial buses, two can come at once.  Indeed, amid the clamour surrounding humble League One outfit Bradford City’s shock FA Cup win over Jose Mourinho’s big-spending Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, it would have been easy to overlook the news that stalwart privateer Jenny Tinmouth had been signed by the factory Honda Racing Team to campaign a full season in the British Superbike (BSB) championship.

Honda Racing UK's new signing Jenny Tinmouth (Double Red)

It goes without saying that the 36-year old’s appointment is an enormous step forward for women in motorsport and by her own admission, the news came as something of a shock, although perhaps it shouldn’t have been have given her reputation as a trailblazer in motorcycle racing. In 2010, Tinmouth broke her own record as the fastest female ever to lap the fearsome Isle of Man TT at an average speed of 119.945 mph and became the first woman to score a BSB point at Snetterton in 2013. She is not one to be content with merely making up the numbers.

As anyone who has seen the epic final lap battle between Tommy Hill and John Hopkins at Brands Hatch to decide the 2011 title will tell you, BSB is a hidden gem of British sport where risk truly does equal reward. Tinmouth knows all about that; the first and so far only female competitor in the series, having run her own bike since 2011, Tinmouth embodies the endearing underdog spirit and richly deserves her opportunity in the 2013 championship-winning outfit, which returns after a year away with Jason O’Halloran and Dan Linfoot also on its roster. Having always had to ride within herself, knowing that any accident could prove enormously costly, Tinmouth has been rewarded for her efforts with a seat at the top table and the weight of a fully-fledged manufacturer behind her.

Ahead of the biggest opportunity of her career, which she described as "the ultimate dream come true," Tinmouth faces a steep learning curve. With the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade still unproven in a race environment and Tinmouth not slated to test until March, it is far too early to make any predictions as to where she will end up. 

But in a sport where men and women can and do compete together on track, the underdog now has the chance to show what she’s truly capable of. Godspeed Jenny.

TCR – What We Know So Far

When Marcello Lotti took to the stage at Birmingham’s Autosport International Show in January to announce that five manufacturers – Ford, Honda, SEAT, Volkswagen and Opel – had all been confirmed for 2015, with a further three (Alfa Romeo anybody?) in the pipelines, it was the clearest sign yet that the TCR International Series is set for big things.  It’s been a long time in coming since the first announcements back in July, with only the odd press release and mocked-up graphic to keep our mouths watering, but the wait is almost over, with just two months to go before the first race in support of the Malaysian Grand Prix on March 29^th.  

Before that, group testing will commence in February to work out the Balance of Performance and equalise the machinery, where the cast-list will no doubt become clearer. German veteran Franz Engstler is the only driver to have been announced having switched from the WTCC, but the roll-call of customer teams is certainly impressive. Multiple Swedish Touring Car champions WestCoast Racing, stalwart WTCC privateers Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Mike Earle’s Onyx outfit, the reformed Paolo Coloni Racing, and Target Competition, running the SEAT León Racer – the only TCR-spec car to have previously competed in the one-make Eurocup series – are the five to have been announced so far, with Lotti confirming that 20 of the 24 available spaces have been filled.   

The first image released by JAS Motorsport of the TCR Honda Civic,
to be ran by West Coast Racing (TCR International Series) 

Lotti, the former WTCC boss no less, clearly intends for his new initiative to challenge his former employers and has set forth ambitious plans for a homogenised, cost-effective platform to run across various national championships, much the same as GT3 has done in sportscar racing. With priority given to developing touring-car racing in new markets, Lotti has no plans to go up against the behemoth that is the British Touring Car Championship, but has already announced an Italian, Portuguese and BeNeLux championship due in 2016 to join TCR USA – which will run as a sub-class in the US Touring Car Championship (USTCC) in 2015 – and TCR Asia, to be ran by experienced promoter David Sonenscher. Further announcements are expected regarding expansion into Thailand, China, Russia, Spain and the Dominican Republic, a mightily impressive achievement even before a wheel has been turned.

Personal disappointment that the TCR International Series won’t be visiting Britain aside, the calendar is mightily impressive, comprising five Grand Prix circuits, including Monza, Sochi and Singapore, with a rumoured end-of-season trip to Macau thrown in for good measure. It’s far too early to make any predictions, but if the jigsaw pieces can come together, then there’s no reason why Lotti’s vision won’t materialise. 

Lewis Hamilton: A Deserving SPOTY Winner

Was Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton a deserving winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award? Whomever you ask, a different response is proffered. Many favoured runner-up Rory McIlroy, having won both the Open and PGA titles, as well as playing a crucial role in helping Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup, while Jo Pavey’s 10,000m gold at the European Championships, aged 40, less than a year after giving birth, also attracted high praise. The debate could go on forever, but to argue that Hamilton was an unworthy choice to succeed the likes of Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray because he drove the fastest car, or as self-styled football philosopher Joey Barton claimed, because he is a tax exile, is frankly ridiculous.

Hamilton became the first British double-champion
since Sir Jackie Stewart (Photo: Mercedes AMG F1) 

In any case, having the fastest car is no guarantee of glory; just ask Hamilton circa 2007, when he conspired to throw away a 17 point advantage with a pitlane blunder in Shanghai. He had to rely on a healthy slice of luck to deprive Felipe Massa of the title in 2008, but no such accusations could be levied at him in 2014, as Hamilton found another gear in the second half of the season to win five races on the trot. That the title would fall into his lap in Abu Dhabi when his closest rival Nico Rosberg hit problems is largely academic in the grand scheme of things; Hamilton had already won the psychological battle following their high profile clash at Spa, which saw the German openly pilloried by Mercedes bosses.  

Rosberg was a worthy adversary, becoming the first team-mate of Hamilton’s career to outqualify him over the course of the season with ten poles to Hamilton’s seven. But Sunday is where the points are decided and it was here that Hamilton’s superior racecraft shone through; he had no right to keep Rosberg at bay in Bahrain and in Hungary, but did so with aplomb both times. Hamilton was furious with Rosberg’s qualifying faux pas in Monaco which perversely prevented him from challenging for pole, but channelled his frustration in a positive direction where the temperamental Hamilton of a few seasons ago perhaps might not have. By and large, Austria and Brazil apart, the mistakes we have become accustomed to seeing from him were few and far between in 2014; instead, it was the usually unflappable Rosberg who allowed wins to slip through his fingers in Italy, Japan and the USA.  

Having finished runner-up in both 2007 and 2008 to boxer Joe Calzaghe and cycling legend Chris Hoy, this was truly the year that Hamilton transcended to greatness as he became the first British double-champion since Jackie Stewart. McIlroy’s day will surely come, but for now, let Lewis enjoy his moment. 

One to Watch: Richard Muscat

2014 was a momentous year in sportscar racing, as Bentley made a triumphant return to motorsport in the Blancpain Endurance Series, Toyota broke Audi’s stranglehold of the World Endurance Championship for the first time, and Tom Kristensen called time on his fabulous career. And for those who looked closely enough, this was also a year in which young Australian Richard Muscat’s talents shone through to mark him out as a future star in the making. 

Joining Betty Klimenko’s Erebus GT squad for an assault on the Australian GT championship in just his third year of circuit racing, Muscat duly won seven times in 13 races to seal the title in style, which led to impressive cameo appearances on the international stage at the Spa 24 Hours and the recent Gulf 12 Hour, where his Black Falcon team took Pro-Am honours and mixed it with the brand new McLaren 650S GT3 to finish fourth overall.  

All told it’s been a thoroughly impressive season, exemplified by the cool manner in which the 22-year old Victorian dealt with the intense pressure of the Highlands Motorsport Park title decider following a costly mechanical-induced DNF at Sydney.

Muscat leads V8 Supercar racer Garth Tander's VIP Petfoods
Aston Martin at Highlands Motorsport Park (Photo: Australian GT)

“Sydney really killed us; we lost forty or fifty points there, so the championship fight was really on from then on,” Muscat recalls. “Sandown wasn’t the best round and we came to New Zealand having never been to the track before, and Erebus had never been there either. There was a lot of pressure on that last round for sure, but we all got together to look at the track, decided what we were going to do with setup and when we hit the track first session and we were quickest, on the front row and won. It was definitely one of those dream weekends!”

If the championship decider was something of a dream, Muscat’s international debut at Spa had a more surreal quality about it. For a first taste of 24-hour endurance racing, the crash-strewn weekend of seemingly endless caution periods was hardly the ideal introduction, as drivers struggled to settle into any kind of rhythm.

“It was just a bit silly; I remember thinking, ‘what are those guys doing out there?’ They needed to recognise that it wasn’t a 6-hour race and to finish you’ve got to treat it like a practise session. If someone is quicker than you just let them go, because you never know what fuel load or what tyre life they’ve got. There’s just so many variables that go into the race. Of course you want to go as quickly as possible, but if somebody’s quicker you don’t have to risk everything for those two or three seconds down the road.”

But despite the scale of the challenge, having only driven 13 laps of the circuit before qualifying, Muscat was by no means out of his depth and managed to keep the car on the island throughout, where many more experienced others failed. Any hopes of a standout result in a Pro-Am class that also comprised Australian megastar Craig Lowndes were dashed by a rear-suspension failure, but as a learning experience, it was invaluable. Unsurprisingly, Muscat has his sights set on a return in 2015.

Muscat, pictured with Abdulaziz Al Faisal, would eventually finish 16th
in class and 34th overall after a rollercoaster weekend (Photo: Erebus GT)

“Spa is just one of those tracks you’ve got to respect - it’s definitely the most dangerous track I’ve ever been on,” he says. “You can’t just go there and expect to be on the pace straight away; if you do that you’re probably 95% certain to put it in the wall straight away. There’s such a huge demand on the driver the whole time, its high speed with the walls coming so close at Eau Rouge and every corner has got different characteristics. Some you’ve got understeer, some you’ve got oversteer, some the car gets light, so you have to be on your game. The history always plays a part of it as well, looking back at some of the Formula One accidents there you respect it a whole lot more.

“It was definitely a good experience, I remember that night when the race finished I couldn’t move at all, everything was sore, it was just crazy! I did eight hours all up, one single stint and four double stints, so it was quite intense but I really enjoyed it and hopefully it will be the first of many Spa trips.”

Still in the early stages of his career – the same age as Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert and just a few months older than Kiwi sensation Scott McLaughlin – Muscat has plenty of time on his side as he approaches the career-defining choice that many of his countrymen have faced. There is undoubtedly a promising future in international GT racing ahead of him, should he choose to pursue it, but the lure of becoming the next Lowndes or Jamie Whincup in the high-profile V8 Supercar championship is an undeniably tantalising prospect.

“They are very unique beasts,” Muscat said after sampling Will Davison’s Erebus Mercedes-Benz AMG E63. “I was talking to Shane van Gisbergen in New Zealand and he was saying that even for Jeroen Bleekemolen it took a few goes at the Supercar to get on the pace straight away – yet he can jump into a Viper, the SLS or whatever and he’s always super quick. 

"The biggest thing to get used to is the braking and the throttle application; you’ve got to maximise the pressure then bleed off as quickly as possible so it doesn’t pinch the fronts, but you’ve still got to have the pressure on the nose to get the car to turn in because it understeers quite a bit. Then you’ve got to feather the throttle a bit more because the tyre size is half what we’ve got on the GT car with 100 more horsepower and no traction control, and it goes away quickly if you get a little bit of wheelspin - which is easy to do when you’ve got 750-800 horsepower!”

Muscat celebrating his Australian GT title. He moves on to the
one-make Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2015 (Photo: Australian GT)

It’s not a decision to be made lightly. As the recent struggles of European exports Alexandre Premat, Maro Engel and Robert Dahlgren have shown, mastering V8s is no easy feat and, as Muscat himself points out, with only 24 slots on the grid, sponsorship will play a typically pivotal role.

For now, Muscat is hedging his bets. After two podium finishes in a one-off Porsche Carrera Cup GB outing at Snetterton, his next step will be taking on Australia’s equivalent championship against strong opposition including 2014 champion and three-time Bathurst winner Steven Richards, which he hopes will help his prospects of landing a co-driver seat come the endurance season at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.

“It will probably be a busy year next year!” he laughs. “Carrera Cup Australia is our main priority, it’s kind of like a half-way house between Supercars and GT and if you can drive a Porsche you can basically drive anything. The Porsche championship this year has been just as competitive as V8 Supercars, there’s around eight or nine guys who can win it every weekend and next year should be even stronger again. Hopefully next year will be a good year, but as for the future who knows? Whether it’s V8 Supercars or GT racing, I’ve got experience in both cars now, so let’s see what happens.”

If his dominance of the Australian GT championship is anything to go by, wherever he ends up in future, Richard Muscat is certainly a name to keep an eye on.

Journey to Le Mans – A First Look

Telling the story of Jota Sport’s remarkable victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Charlotte Fantelli’s eagerly-anticipated Journey to Le Mans is everything a motorsport documentary should be. It’s a story of human endurance, conquering personal demons and, most importantly, passion, following the team from pre-season testing right through to the chequered flag, encompassing the many highs and lows along the way.

Journey To Le Mans tells the story of Jota Sport's
remarkable 2014 season. (Fantelli Productions)

As one might expect, the drivers are the stars of the show and in the form of rising star Harry Tincknell, relishing the opportunity to emulate his mentor Allan McNish, and entrepreneur Simon Dolan, whose burning passion to succeed in motorsport provides a focus for the picture, Journey to Le Mans has a strong human story to tell. Overcoming an enforced driver change on the eve of the race, sleep deprivation and biblical rainstorms, there can be no questioning how much it meant to all concerned to conquer the biggest and toughest race on the sportscar calendar. Ticknell’s beaming smile when interviewed following his first experience of the Circuit de la Sarthe was a joy to behold, matched only by the unbridled elation of the post-race celebrations with team affiliated drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Marc Gene.

Further interviews with team manager Sam Hignett, performance engineer Pete Webster and chief mechanic Bob Friend lift the lid on the camaraderie within the team, a vitally important, yet oft-overlooked aspect of motor-racing. This is powerfully underlined by footage of Jota mechanics waiting apprehensively for news in the immediate aftermath of Dolan’s violent accident at Silverstone, a haunting reminder that motorsport remains a fundamentally dangerous sport, despite the safety improvements made in recent years.

All the right people are doing all the right things; with the gravitas and authority that Sir Patrick Stewart lends to the narration and expert commentary provided by Radio Le Mans’ own John Hindhaugh, there’s a lot to like and plenty for the average viewer to engage with. And thanks to its slick editing and evocative cinematography that tells a story all of its own, Journey to Le Mans certainly doesn’t look out of place on the big screen. The film deserves credit for capturing the spectacle of Le Mans in all its resplendent glory, from the frenzy of the driver’s parade to the ethereal quality of the night-time interjected by headlights, all overlaid with sonorous engine noise. Petrolheads can’t go wrong.

If you’re a fan of motorsport, or any sport for that matter, don’t miss it. 

Renger van der Zande: Living the American Dream

2014 has been something of a breakout year for Renger van der Zande.  Having been forced to spend time on the sidelines in 2012 after a disappointing campaign in the DTM, the 28-year old made the move Stateside last season to resurrect his career momentum and landed a deal with Peter Baron’s Starworks outfit for the inaugural United Sportscar Championship in the Pro-Am LMPC class. America is famed for being the land of opportunity and Van der Zande relished in it, finishing runner-up in the points to the dominant CORE Autosport pairing of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun with wins at Laguna Seca, Road America and the season-ending 10-hour Petit Le Mans enduro for good measure.

Schultis and van der Zande celebrate victory at Road America (Regis Lefebure)

“It’s been an amazing season; to finish it off with a big win in such a classic event is a really nice feeling,” he said. “At the beginning of the season it’s always a big question mark where we are and it’s a very competitive class; you look at the top guys like Bruno Junquiera, Colin Braun and Jack Hawksworth, they are all very professional drivers who get their living out of racing and know how to win. With Mirco [Schultis] being my team-mate last year and this year, it’s also a question of how he will do, but we ended up with three wins and six podiums which is amazing.”

However, that’s not to say things have been straight-forward. Mechanical gremlins were a persistent nuisance throughout the year, robbing the team of valuable practice mileage needed to find the optimum set-up for single lap and long runs. That considered, the Dutchman has every reason to be delighted with the progress made over the course of the season, from a difficult run in the Daytona 24 Hours to ending the year on a high note at Road Atlanta.

“We had a lot of car issues this year with the steering, the electronics and so on, which meant we didn’t have a lot of time to set up the car, but during the race we would magic out a set-up out of the blue which worked, the car kept running till the end and we could finish races on the podium. It’s been a season where we struggled with the car, but when the moment was there to do it, we went out and did it.”

van der Zande took his first win in the USC at the iconic Laguna Seca. (Regis Lefebure)

The American style of racing evidently suits van der Zande, and it is in the United Sportscar Series where he believes his future lies. Discussions are ongoing for next season with Baron – who van der Zande credits with being the best strategist he has ever worked with – but it would come as no surprise to see him advance to the ranks of the Prototype category.

“I’m very happy to be there and I love the racing, with so many cars on track, so many different categories, it’s all about survival,” he reflects.  “As a driver, I learned a lot, and it’s also a lot of fun. 

“The relaxed way of how the Americans do their racing is something we can learn from in Europe. I still love racing in Europe; I did a GT Masters race at the Nürburgring and I finished third there which was really cool to do a podium straight away, but for sure my main programme for next year will probably be in America again because I’m enjoying it so much there.

“People say the tracks in America are dangerous, but that’s what we do, right? I haven’t seen any penalties for track limits during the whole season because the track limit is the wall, maybe you have a five inch piece of grass and that’s it. If you exceed the track limits, your car is broken! That makes it very challenging, and you can also see the respect between drivers is phenomenal. I think it’s because of those iconic tracks which automatically demands respect; you do a track walk at Mosport in Canada, or Watkins Glen or Road Atlanta and you’re amazed by the elevation changes. It’s really exciting to go out there and it means there’s more respect among the drivers – okay, we do touch sometimes but we have some really nice battles.” 

With the end of the regular season comes new challenges. Next up on van der Zande’s horizon is the ever-growing Macau GT Cup, against a strong international field consisting of Macau specialist Edo Mortara, circuit lap record-holder Maro Engel and newly-crowned DTM champion Marco Wittman to name but a few. 

van der Zande receives advice from Mercedes legend Bernd Schneider
before the 2013 Macau GT Cup. (Erebus Motorsport)

Macau is a circuit van der Zande traditionally goes well on – he took two fifths and a seventh in his four attempts at the Macau GP and ran competitively in the GT race last year before a final lap collision attempting to pass Alexandre Imperatori’s Porsche ended in the barriers. This time around, a win is the only goal.

“I just looked at an on-board lap from last year to refresh my memory and you can’t really describe the feeling of going there with such a big car," he said. "The SLS has so much power, good grip and good downforce which is really important on the streets of Macau. You’re driving from wall to wall and from the moment as you disconnect the pitlane speed limiter to going back to the garage it’s one big thrill. 

"The adrenaline is so high, you have to really concentrate. It’s always a big highlight of the year to come back there and for the brand, BMW, Mercedes, all the ones at Macau as well, it's the perfect challenge. To win there is something big and my expectations are to go for the win, I think it’s possible. 

"Last year at the beginning of the weekend I didn’t have the setup I wanted, but in the end we sorted out the car, I did P1 in the warmup and the race was very fast as well. I’m quite confident about being there with the GT car, I know have a very strong car to win this race with so I will go for it!”