After the disappointment of the racing in the opening round of the Formula One championship in Melbourne last weekend, it’s no surprise that another talented single-seater racer is testing the sports car scene.
F1 is in trouble with shrinking fields, some teams going to the wall, others saying they want to pull out, and fans walking away. On the other hand, sports car racing, GT racing and endurance racing are attracting more fans, manufacturers and bigger fields.
In the past, racing cars with a roof was regarded by drivers as the place to spend a few years having a yahoo at the end of their single-seater career.
Not so now, with an increasing number of young drivers realising that sports car racing is the place to be.
Talented Kiwis leading the way include Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber, Richie Stanaway, Shane van Gisbergen and Chris van der Drift. And as well there are the four New Zealanders in V8 Supercars.
The latest New Zealander to put his name down on the sports-car roster is former GP3 champion and GP2 frontrunner Mitch Evans.
The European-based Aucklander was approached by last year’s Le Mans 24 Hour LMP2 winners, Jota Sport, to join the team for two rounds – Spa Francorchamps and Le Mans.
“F1 is in a bit of a mess at the moment and it’s getting really hard to get into, as I’m finding out,” Evans said.
“F1 is in a bit of a state at the moment and there is such a positive vibe around sports car racing at the moment that I decided it would be a good idea to have a look and my manager, Mark Webber, said it was a good idea. I’m super pumped about it and it’ll be great to do it alongside my GP2 commitment and Russian Time [his team] were happy for me to do it.
“Young single-seater drivers have been making the transition to sports cars recently and done a good job and teams involved are starting to realise that.
“You’ve got to be realistic at the end of the day because no one knows where F1 is going and sports cars are going really well with all the manufacturers getting involved.”
He had his first hit in this year’s car in late February at Aragon, France, and is pretty impressed at how well the car goes.
“The cars [LMP1 and LMP2] are pretty much like single-seaters with wheel covers these days, so you get used to them pretty quickly. There’s so much aero, you can get a lot more out of the car.
“It will be funny to be in the same race as Mark [at Le Mans where Webber will be in the Porsche LMP1 Car] and I’ll make sure to give him plenty of room when he goes past,” Evans said.
Van der Drift has spent three seasons racing GT cars, including the McLaren MP4 12C GT3 after a very successful time in single-seaters.
He too has come to realise that the upper echelon in open-wheelers is financially out of reach and that sports cars are where you can flourish on talent.
He’s in Brazil at the moment getting ready to race in the opening round of the Stock Car Brasil championship with co-driver Tuka Roca in a Peugeot 408-skinned Nascar V8-powered saloon car.
“The race is one of the biggest in the country and televised nationally,” Van der Drift said. “There are 35 or more cars on the grid with drivers from all over the world competing, including former F1 drivers.
“The cars are more powerful than V8 Supercars and we have twice the width tyres so the grip levels are really high.
“Racing sports cars, or similar, is where I want to be now and is the way to go as F1 is a mess with lots of paid drivers.
“You need millions just to get a look in.”
