How to prepare an amateur for Le Mans sensory overload

I can’t remember any year where there were so many cars as we have in the GTE Am class at Le Mans this year, and I have to say it’s quite a competitive field. Nowadays some bronze-graded drivers are capable of lap times that some of the higher-rated drivers aren’t able to beat, so for the rookies going up against such strong line-ups who have done it several times already is a tough challenge.

When I last raced at Le Mans in 2015, my team-mate Patrick Long had already made 11 starts, and this time I’m the one who has the most experience in my #18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. It’s a big mission for Alessio Picariello and I as the pros to get our bronze co-driver Andrew Haryanto feeling in the best way, sharing with him all the small details. And it’s not just about coaching to gain performance either.

I remember a time when there were many slow punctures created by collecting too many of the small but sharp stones on the Mulsanne Straight. This has nothing to do with your performance, but if you end up with a slow puncture it can throw you out of the race when you have a lot of very competitive rivals.

I have to say I’m extremely impressed by Andrew’s performances so far this year. At Spa for his first time in a GTE car, the conditions were not easy because we had very, very cold asphalt temperatures, and many Ams who had way more experience than him had crashes. But Andrew managed really well, he is listening a lot to what Alessio and I are telling him and he can adapt quite quickly.

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It was the same at Monza, where you try to have lower downforce to have good straightline speed. Andrew had a spin in the race that cost us some time, but I am sure that he learned from it. We were almost two laps down after the spin and at the end we finished just behind the sister car from Dempsey-Proton Racing, because we did many things in the right way.

#88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Andrew Haryanto, Marco Seefried, Alessio Picariello

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Our main focus now is to get Andrew as consistent as possible, instead of squeezing every tenth, because we have already seen that he can do quite good lap times compared to other bronze drivers who have been doing this for a long time.

Having just completed two race weekends in the World Endurance Championship so far, it’s impressive what he is capable of doing and what he is showing. Monza showed us that if we do everything right at Le Mans, we can go there for a really strong result.

I have good feeling about the race, but we’re not putting any expectations on it. We’re definitely not saying, ‘We should be aiming for a podium finish.’ That would be the wrong mindset because this only gets the pressure up and once the pressure is so high, there is a really big chance mistakes will be made.

We said to him, ‘The spin in Monza was an important experience, but we have to skip that at Le Mans.’ Andrew is really aware of it, he analysed why this happened and now knows how to avoid it

We will try to do our best to drive smoothly, not do anything to get a penalty and, when we are 20 hours into the race, we can see what is possible or where we could end up.

It’s hard to me to have a read on how it will turn out. The Ferraris have looked very strong in the WEC so far, but to me an important factor is that those line-ups who were strong in the early races of the season have worked together a lot already. For example, Christian Ried and Francois Perrodo are driving in the European Le Mans Series as well, so they had a lot of seat-time and a lot of time working together with the same team of engineers and co-drivers.

This experience is an important factor in such a line-up, because the more you work together the better you know each other. New combinations like the Herberth Motorsport Porsche with Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn and Rolf Ineichen will have good pure speed, but it’s the first time they will be driving all together in a GTE car, which is clearly a disadvantage.

#18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE Am, Andrew Haryanto, Alessio Picariello, Marco Seefried

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Even before the Test Day last weekend, we started our prep to get Andrew ready for Le Mans, sharing some track notes. We were trying to take care that we didn’t overload him, but he was requesting actively, ‘Guys, where do I need to take extra attention?’ That shows us that he is not only really keen to hit the track, but also to not fail.

We said to him, ‘The spin in Monza was an important experience, but we have to skip that at Le Mans.’ Andrew is really aware of it, he analysed why this happened and now knows how to avoid it.

Of course, you can’t really prepare a new driver for everything, such as how it feels driving at night through the Porsche Curves with the traffic coming up behind you and flashing the lights. The night practice sessions are highly on our radar to give him as much seat time as possible before we start the 24 Hours itself.

There will be many situations where we can fail, like for everybody, but I think we are quite aware of it and strategy-wise I can say we are really sorted. We run under Absolute Racing, which is new to Le Mans, but it’s still within the Proton set-up and they are highly involved in it. That gives me good confidence for car #18 to go there and have a good one.

#18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE Am, Andrew Haryanto, Alessio Picariello, Marco Seefried

Photo by: Marc Fleury