Behind the Scenes of Endurance Racing ft. Porsche Penske

Introduction [0:00]

Michael Christensen: When I started racing, I was guided towards Formula 1, like most people do. But it was not really a thing where I was like, I only want to do Formula 1. I think I was just focused on racing against the best in the world, in the coolest race in the world, in the coolest cars. And I think endurance racing does a lot of that, that was where the opportunity arrived, with Porsche as a junior driver. And they took me on board and I've loved being there and that was 13 years ago. So I've been in that family for so long and I like being here and I like racing for them and against all the other great manufacturers in the world.

Greg: To be the best, you have to beat the best. And who better to learn from than drivers who push themselves for 6, 8, 10, 12, even 24 hours straight. And so Josh Marsh and I went to the World Endurance Championship race in Austin, Texas, where Porsche Penske helped show us exactly that. And along the way, we heard from other drivers and fans too.

How the drivers got into endurance racing [0:51]

Josh Marsh: You know, there's a lot of people that are kind of getting into endurance racing and really becoming fans of it. What's something that you would tell newer fans of the sport? What drew you into endurance racing?

Frédéric Makowiecki: The racing has never been so intense. We are the championship with the most amount of manufacturers involved and the competition is quite close. It's not like you are saying that it's six hour race and it's boring, you know, it's a six hour race with a lot of overtaking, with lots of dogfights. You arrive and sometimes you have no choice, you have to go to contact because you know if this doesn't happen you lose too much time. Endurance racing has become a long race with the mentality of a sprint race over a long time.

Marco Wittmann: Endurance racing has changed a lot over the years. It's not so much endurance racing anymore, you know, like, you can see already at the start, we always go flat out, we go for hard fighting, and it almost has a sprint character over six or eight hour races. Back in the days, when I started my career in touring cars, when we had endurance races, it was a lot more chilled. You were trying to save the material, you were trying to do fuel saving. Also, if you had a battle, you sometimes stepped back because the race was still going for 20 hours, for example.

Nowadays, it's almost got the sprint racing character. You still go full-sanded, you go for the fights, you're racing hard. Sometimes it's maybe a bit over the top for endurance racing.

Josh: And the fans like it too, honestly.

Marco: Exactly, that's why we are here and then at the end we want and we try to entertain the fans. I think it's cool that the endurance racing has changed into this style, that we really push hard and try hard. But obviously on the other side, sometimes you need to calm yourself down, because sometimes you have to keep in mind, okay, we still have five, six hours to go. There is enough time to make up positions and maybe to fight later for a good result. So not always needed to, let's say, extract the last 2%, maybe step back and then fight back at the later point of the race.

Josh: There are a few different lengths for endurance racing. What is your favorite length of endurance race to do?

Michael: Probably 24 hours.

Marco: Six, eight hours are also very challenging and it's good fun.

Raffaele Marciello: Longer it is, better it is.

Endurance racing is a TEAM SPORT [3:14]

Greg: As they're competing over these long periods of time, not only does the car need to perform, but so do the people, too. And speaking of people, it's not just those you see on your screens. There's an entire army of people who are behind the scenes battling it out each and every race.

Jonathan Diuguid: With endurance racing, sometimes for 24 hours and other times it's six hours and shorter. But really the team aspect of it- and it really takes everybody to win these races. It's not just the pure performance of the driver or sprint race format, it's really the reliability and the pit stops and the duration of the race events and things like that. I think the team aspect is probably the biggest draw on top of the competition.

The mechanics and the engineers don't get to take breaks. They're engaged for the full 24 hours and it's probably closer to 36 with the lead up and then the tear down on the back side, but from the team side we try to support everybody as much as possible.

Preparing for a 6 hour race [4:07]

Josh: And so for endurance racing is there something that you do specifically to prepare yourself for one of these weekends for like a race day? Anything physically or mentally to kind of prepare yourself for that long race?

Frédéric: No, in general, we try to be as focused and as we say, 'In', the event and in the car quite early like this you arrive and you are well prepared. When you are stressed or when you are in a rush, you are struggling a bit to be at 100%. The main goal is to be spot on from lap one and be capable to repeat the same performance.

Josh: It's interesting for people that are getting into endurance racing. It's not just one person in the car, it's multiple. So how do you balance that with different styles of what people like the car to feel like? I noticed you guys talking a lot after the sessions yesterday, talking about the car, but how do you balance that?

André Lotterer: Well, we try to put our experience together from our different pasts and racing different cars, what we think is the right thing. So we put all that together and most of the time, we feel the same thing. So the engineers put all that in a box and then come up with a solution, but we all have the same aim.

Porsche Penske Car #5 on track — Porsche Penske Car #5

Matt Campbell: Here on the #6 car, we've just finished the fire up on that car. Number six was first in the fire up procedure, all the body works back on it and the crew is just giving it a quick little wipe down to make it nice and shiny and fast for the start of the session. We've made a few more changes since yesterday as well, a little bit of fine-tuning between the sessions yesterday. So just preparing everything and getting everything ready, fine-tuning. It's a very challenging track. There's also some new surfaces around as well, so a lot to know and learn but luckily we have a lot of guys here behind and a lot of good mechanics so that makes it easier.

Josh: So then, you're driving the #5 car for qualifying today, is that correct?

Matt: Correct. Every driver wants to do qualifying. You've got new tires, you've got low fuel. The car's, let's say, optimal for the couple of laps so it's always the best it will be all weekend. But for myself, I'm quite relaxed when it comes to qualifying. And also, I've been doing qualifying all year. So for me, we've got, let's say, a bit of a routine within our team. It's always Kevin qualifying in the #6 car, myself in the #5 car. And we've got the same, more or less, line up in the race when it comes to driver line up. It doesn't really change much when it comes to stints, you know.

We've all, more or less, got our little routines within a race weekend. And for me, I love qualifying and qualifying has actually been one of our strong points this year as well. We've had really strong performances. So hopefully this weekend is no different.

Josh: Yeah, hopefully, you know, is that pretty normal for each- for all the teams to have like one driver does it kind of switch off between drivers?

Matt: It alternates a fair bit, you know. A lot of our manufacturers are changing per race, some are staying the same like us. I think for us it's a good option because, you know, on a race weekend, each driver is always working on the same things. And you can more or less, when it comes to qualifying, because it's always the same driver, you can maybe extract that little bit more because you're used to it, you're getting a few more new tires throughout a race weekend. So yeah, I think it's just preference. And for us, I think it's been really working extremely well throughout the whole season so far. Obviously we've had strong qualifying performances and you know, I think we've got a really good structure going.

Bouncing back from difficult results [7:08]

Greg: The drivers can prepare themselves as much as possible, mentally, physically, but none of that matters if the car isn't ready. And in Porsche Penske Motorsports' case, come Friday night after FP2, it wasn't.

Josh: What's the vibe for the team feeling like after FP1 and FP2?

Urs Kuratle: So after day one here in Austin, I mean, it's a bit difficult to say where we really stand compared to the others because there's a lot of cars on the track and that's the same for everybody. And it's difficult to find a free spot for a good lap, especially if you want to do qualifying sims like we tried to do and many other people tried to do today. It's about to analyze for the engineers, about to analyze the real pace from everybody and to see where we stand relative to these guys. So that's a little bit of homework to do tonight, analyzing the timing. People are working on it and we will be fighting and tomorrow is a different day with all the learnings from today. Once again, that's the same for everybody, but usually we can improve quite a lot.

Josh: So a lot of homework to do tonight, but feeling good about tomorrow?

Urs: Yeah.

Why the Circuit of the Americas is so iconic [8:09]

Greg: Fans recognize the circuit for its spectacle and big Texas energy, but drivers know it for the challenge it presents them.

Pre-race start at the Circuit of the Americas

Josh: One of the questions we've been asking drivers is- fans love this track, they love coming to COTA watching any racing series. What is it about this track that makes it so special for drivers and why do you all seem to really enjoy racing here?

Marco: Well, we definitely enjoy it, I can tell you. I think it's the mix of corners we have here at COTA. If you get two andthree wrong, then turn eight is still wrong, you know? You need to get into the flow, but once you get it right in turn three or turn four, then it just continues in a good way, and that's what I like. It's very challenging for us drivers, very exhausting. Up to turn 11, you have no rest as a driver.

Michael: It's very technical. You have some elevation changes which makes it challenging because some of it is within the corner. Then you have very high speed corners, very slow speed, some long straights. You have a bit of everything, to be honest.

Frédéric: You have fast, slow corner, medium speed corner. You have some small elevation, it's very cool. The only point where I'd say I'm not a fan is there is too much runoff, you know? I like a little bit of an old school track like when you are going to Sebring or Atlanta. That's why if they can listen and remove a bit of runoff, put a gravel trap and grass, it will be perfect.

Michael: But also just to be in America, it's always a lot of great fans here and Austin is a great city so yeah, it's just nice to be here.

Jonathan: I think it's amazing facility, first and foremost, you know, obviously they've invested a lot, not just in the track but you know creating like a festival atmosphere. There's music events all kinds of other things that people can do at the circuit and then Austin is a great city too as well for entertainment.

The fan experience at a WEC race [9:49]

Josh: Who are you guys rooting for?

Fan #1: JOTA! Gotta be!

Josh: That's a good answer.

Fan #2: I'm hoping for an Alpine win, so I hope I'm looking forward to that.

Fan #3: I'm team Button for sure.

Josh: OK, some good options. We got some spread out options here. We'll see who wins.

Fan #3: Compared to F1, it's a lot easier to move around.

Fan #2: The drivers are really approachable, like you can just walk up to them which is really amazing.

Fan #1: It's an insane track like just being able to walk around everywhere and see everything. It's not super high pressure in terms of like you have to be sat in your seat during the race. You get to really do all the things. I think that's part of the reason WEC is so cool.

Closing remarks[10:26]

Greg: After spending a weekend in the paddock, we realized it takes three things to compete at this level: the team, the machine, and the dream.

Porsche Penske set themselves up to do everything right this weekend. But at the end of the day, only one can win. The cards weren't in their favor, but for 99% of the teams, that was the case as well. But to be the best, you have to beat the best. So despite the unwanted outcome, teams packed up and headed out for Fuji with a fresh mindset and a dream to secure a better result.

And by the end of the season, that's exactly what they did.

Want more exclusive Insiders?

Then you're in the right place! Head to our YouTube playlist for more, and be sure to subscribe to be the first to see new episodes. Or you can check out some of our recent episodes below:

No items found.