One final interview to catch up with from the end of the 2013 season, but with the growth in importance of the Pro-Am classes in sportscar racing it’s an important one. David Heinemeier Hansson has risen in stature as a driver in three short years of competition to sit very high up indeed on the list of talented ‘Sportsman’ drivers in international endurance racing.
He spent 2013 contesting the FIA WEC for Oak Racing in a title battle fought out between top quality teams of Pro drivers in now well proven LMP2 machinery, ‘his’ #24 Morgan Nissan coming home second in the Championship to the sister #35 car.
With the title year over it’s time to look to the future, and who better to ask about the prospects than the US domiciled Dane, always keen to get substantial ‘bang’ for his motorsport Buck.
The tweaks we saw late in 2013 to the driver rankings bring a number of current arrangements into question going forward as some drivers are graded out of the ‘Amateur’ ranks. How do you assess the situation for gentleman drivers, and in particular for the Pro-Am format of the relevant classes going forward.
“The interesting thing about the driver rankings is that they are part and parcel of an expectation that otherwise you would never have in racing.
“Usually it a simple case of whoever is faster gets to win but if you choose to attract gentleman audience by saying, in effect “Here’s a way that you an win, tailored to guys like you, people who don’t go racing all the time, who have instead a different career in business and so on.” Then it becomes a very fine balance because now there is an expectation that it’s going to be ‘fair’ .
“The problem is that I think that fairness is very easy to tip. It just takes on, just one driver to be wrongly ranked to ruin a whole class of competition for a whole season and with it the whole sense of fairness.
“I think we’ve had some instances of that in 2013 in LMP2. I think that Rusinov is too fast to be a Silver,” and apparently so do the FIA and ACO, he’s just been upgraded for 2014, “Exactly, and whilst that’s gratifying to see after a season but it’s also necessary, you’re not going to do the same thing again.
“You show up in a class and can very quickly spot someone who is way out of balance for what they (FIA/ACO) have set up as the expectations. Remember it’s not us arriving with those expectations, this is something that is being sold to us as fair and balance before you arrive and find that one driver is just a total mis-fit with that.
“That can’t happen twice. If it does happen twice then you just think nahhhhh, it’s not really worth it, there are other places for me to go spend my money and my time.
“There’s also the option to go and race in something completely open because at least then I know that there’s no pretense or prospect of thinking “This is going to be fair, there will be other guys like me etc.”
“In GT (Am) there have been even more instances of this I’d say, especially with the Silver drivers and that’s where they haven’t made it clear. Maybe that’s part of the frustration.
“We have this ranking system of Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze, what does it mean? What does it mean to be a Silver driver. There are definitely different perspectives on that.
“I thought going in that there were, sort of, two categories, Platinum and Gold for the professional drivers, people who either get paid to drive and/ or this is their primary occupation. Then you have Silver and Bronze for the Gentleman drivers who this is not their livelihood, this is not what they are trying to do to earn a living.
“But that doesn’t seem to be quite the match with what ends up happening.”
Is that because they are attempting to match the Pro-Am aspiration against another sub-set, Results?”
“Yes.”
And that brings with it the risk, and in this case the reality, that the rankings can be manipulated?
“Absolutely right.”
But what we need then, in effect, are better rules?
“Yes, and that’s up to the FIA, and the ACO. If they say they want these rues in the first place, to create that market and those aspirations, then they have also accepted the responsibility for them to be fair. They could also have said from the start that they didn’t want this market and this aspiration but I think they DO want it because if you look at other Series, look at Blancpain for instance, where they say, “Gentleman drivers, come here where you can have a great time with like-minded drivers,” and it blossoms! Doubly so now.
“Having been in motorsport for three years now I’ve come to know a good number of the teams and thee are very, very few of them that can just afford to put together all pro lineups.
“The Gentleman driver, I think, seems to be actually increasing in stature in commercial terms. You need drivers to bring money. And if you value that group of drivers then you have to pay real attention to what’s going on because some of the lack of attention, or rather some of the lack of transparency, is really frustrating.
“I mean by that, I really still do not know what it actually means to be a Silver? To be Silver rated, as I am, is that because I am within some sort of percentage of other drivers, is it because I am a Gentleman driver with some pace, what does it mean?
“Then there is the frustration around thinking where I should go next year – Which class should I go to? I think, I really like LMP2 but then I have this feeling of showing up again to find, say the Nissan Academy, will sick in a guy who is on the Pro driver track who just doesn’t happen to have raced anything in the ACO’s orbit, becomes a Silver driver as a result and will then go Jann Mardenborough fast, by which I mean a young guy who actually shamed half of the full Pro field, and then all of a sudden you then go “Is this what it means?”
“They need to be clearer. If they could just formulate, what are the criteria? If it’s performance then what is that performance cut-off?
“I’ve heard now some numbers that are new to me, the whole Bronze thing in GTE Am, for the first time I heard that what they are looking for is 1.5 to 2 seconds off their Pro driver. Where did that number come from? I only heard of it yesterday (in Bahrain) but why is that number not public?
“Why can’t we have a transparent ruleset and therefore transparent expectations for it? For me it is plain and obvious – If you get paid to drive, if someone is paying your salary to do this then you cannot fall into the categories of either Bronze or Silver driver?
Perhaps then it’s time to dispense with the differentiation and just call this as two subsections – Pro and Am?
“Well that would put a pin on it wouldn’t it?
“Amateur? What is that? It is certainly someone who doesn’t get paid to do what they do, somebody who does it for the love of the sport and it’s not their profession. It would be a clear distinction, and it would also be a much clearer distinction for young hotshots coming up that don’t have a long resume of results, they would still though be Professional drivers because they are getting paid.
“Again the Nissan Academy comes to mind here. The guys are getting prep to the point where, by the time they show up in an LMP2 car, they are effectively a real Pro. That story can only be told a certain number of times and really now should be accounted for within the rules. There is now, and has been for a while, a system, a clever system at that but a system, where they are churning out guys who WILL arrive at that result. It is getting around the system because these guys are NOT amateurs.
“It has go to the stage now that not only do the rules allow it to happen they now encourage it to happen because they have an assured route to success for these guys, and have been very adept at maximising the publicity for that.”
Then we move to the situation in North America for 2014. As someone who has competed there, supported it, funded it, what is your perspective about what’s going on with the new Series?
“I think that the kind word is that it has been, and to a great degree still is, a cluster****. It is a complete mess. I haven’t talked to a single person from a single team who is entirely happy with the path they are taking or the moves they are making.
“Some of that perhaps is because, let’s face it, it’s a thankless task. I don’t envy Scott Elkins one little bit but you also have to look at the timeline. How long have they been in the prep for this? I’m not a rules designer so maybe this does take 2 years to get right but it seems like we are out there very late and late to a degree where programmes are just being backed off.
“I talked to most of the team owners that were interested in running P cars and are interested in talking to Gentleman drivers. Again then we have the same problem in TUSC that budgets have gone up by 40% from 2013 ALMS to 2014 TUSC because you are running so many more hours.
“As I said earlier there are very few teams, just a small handful, able to absorb that without courting Gentleman drivers.
“The problem is that we are just not at a stage were you can commit to anything at that sort of level with confidence. I mean who is going to say – “Yeah I’ll run the full season in an LMP2 car,” only to rock up at Daytona and either find themselves over 2 seconds off or they get a DP in their head! It’s too late!! And that’s just so sad because there are so many other aspects of TUSC that are incredibly attractive to Gentleman drivers.
“I think that the WEC this year, the amount of travel that you have to do to compete at just these 8 events are prohibitive for some. It is hard to make that work against the activities that, let’s face it, pay for us to be here!
“So what do you do? Well look at the ELMS, they don’t really go to premier tracks. It feels second tier. TUSC? That doesn’t feel second tier, they are not at the WEC level but neither are they at the level of the ELMS, they go to absolutely premier tracks, in fact I think they have more premier events than even WEC, so there are so many parts of it that are fantastic but the damage is being done by self inflicted wounds!
“There are some, a very few but some, Gentleman drivers that have enough money that they can commit whatever the issues but for the vast majority of us, and I am certainly in that bracket, we can’t afford to just turn up somewhere, paying the very big numbers that we do, for it just to be a mess – Because if you do, and it turns out to be just a waste of time and a waste of money you just feel stupid and let’s face it that doesn’t tend to be the mindset of the kind of guy who is in the situation to make that choice.
“We didn’t have to be in this situation, it doesn’t feel like we had to be in this situation, people can’t commit because there is just so much uncertainty, and near silence for most of the year leading up to the tests a few weeks back.
“Then you look at what has been done (to the DPs) a couple of winglets, a tunnel, a rear wing and a power boost. Really!! I mean take a look at my team this year (OAK) they are a constructor as well as a race team and if they have a part that doesn’t work as it needs to, is broken, whatever, at the next race it is fixed!
“Of course I understand that there is a degree more complexity here but race teams are pretty used to rapid turn around. It is not a one and a half year cycle.
“Look at Porsche. They show up with a car that is completely uncompetitive, by a stroke of luck they win Le Mans and then they show up at the last race of the year with an upgrade package that has been worked on for what, 2-3 months? It has new aero, new subtleties everywhere and it goes straight to the front of the field. That’s the part I can’t reconcile, the lateness of a ruleset and the ability of the teams.
“Even worse though is that there is no communication so you are left with this speculation. Leave an information void and you’ll get rumours, and in the situation we have had in sportscar racing in North America those rumours won’t be positive, conspiracy theorists love it!
“I would say this, as an interested observer and potential stakeholder who can afford to step back as an outsider I do not envy anyone who actually has capital invested in car, crew and equipment. Those guys can’t afford to just sit it out and the way they are being treated isn’t fair, and it isn’t smart for the health of the sport.
“I’ll be clear, I am not a DP guy, I think the figures that have been quoted for the upgrades are vastly exaggerated. Personally I think the DPs should have been scrapped and they should have concentrated on the P2s, a much more modern platform, readily available with a competitive chassis and engine marketplace, cars with shelf life and international relevance and, most importantly of all, we know they are safe.
“The shunt at the DIS test was just plain scary and I have not met a single guy that has driven both a DP and a modern LMP car that hasn’t come to the conclusion immediately that the DP was very poor in comparison unless they were currently on the payroll of a DP team! And as soon as they aren’t their story changes!
“But therein lies the major problem – That should not be the story, it should be about all the cool stuff that’s going on, new teams, new cars, close competition and a great, great calendar. The void though allowed this to happen, and almost encouraged it.
“TUSC has all the cards. If they could play them right then they would have the biggest and the best sportscar Championship in the world.
“From the perspective of most Gentleman drivers though the sport is in competition with a huge number of other possible ways to spend what is a very large amount of money, a nice vacation, nice things to have, or indeed other sports. It’s a very fragile balance.
“The encouragement for the rulemakers is that when they get it right the numbers grow massively, look at the success of LMP2 in its early years of the current formula. They found the right ingredients to make the platform right for a good long while, amazing growth and excellent quality in depth.
“Then you see how quickly things can disappear when things are not right, look at the ELMS last year, it crumbled so quickly and when you see it happening in real time, as someone who loves the sport it is like being a spectator to a train wreck, horrifying.
So what is going to be the deciding factor for you as we approach the 2014 season?
“Stability is hugely important and clarity too. Stability though takes time to prove. the only way you build that confidence is through transparency and clarity. Tell us what the rules are, don’t have ‘shadow’ rules over driver ranking systems and for TUSC just figure it out before the week we are supposed to show up.
“Right now I should be excited about Daytona, it’s one of THE great races and I haven’t done it before and, I’m NOT excited, as we sit here today there’s a very good chance that I won’t be there not because I’m going to another race but just because I’m not going and that doesn’t seem right does it?
