This interview was conducted during the FIA WEC ‘Prologue test at Paul Ricard circuit last month – Hartmut Kristen is head of Motorsport at Porsche and therefore presides over one of the most extensive factory-backed sportscar programmes in the modern era with the new for 2014 LMP1 programme with the 919 Hybrid, a factory entered GTE Pro entry via the now factory owned Porsche AG Team Manthey and a Factory entered duo of coarse too in the GTLM class of TUSCC, where the team’s two cars have taken the top step of the podium both at Daytona and, in controversial circumstances, at Sebring too
You have an extraordinary Porsche race programme in 2014?
“Absolutely it’s definitely not the ‘usual’ thing you see from what is, after all, a fairly small company like Porsche with two factory programmes in a World Championship and a Works effort in North America too. The way though that the WEC is set up with LMP and GT racing it is definitely the right thing for Porsche to do.
“We have a long history in endurance racing. It took about 20 years in the early days of the brand to have the first overall win at Le Mans and I think it is now time to do that again!”
The (LMP1) team have been slightly lowering the level of expectation for year one?
“Absolutely but you have to go racing or you can never really tell where you are. When we are out there we’ll see whether we are competitive or not, and if there is work to be done to close any gap on performance or reliability then we’ll do it and come back stronger.”
“The second part of the programme with the GT cars is also very important, it is a big part of our history. We had good success last year with the new car at Le Mans and we have already had good success this year in the US. I think overall we will be in a much better position to compete for WEC race wins outside Le mans this year, that’s because of a lot of hard work from everyone involved, but, of course, the competition is strong and it always takes a little racing luck too.”
Beyond the factory efforts of this year there’s also the long standing customer programmes. That’s where we have been used to seeing your factory drivers race for a decade or more. There has been a change from the original plan for this year with a couple of current spec 911 RSRs already in the hands of customers (Falken Tire in TUSCC and Proton Competition in FIA WEC) that wasn’t originally intended was it?
“We had always planned to have cars available for customers but we have to make the car work and ensure that we had the capacity not just to build the cars but to support our customers, that, when you take into account the much bigger factory programme, was the major point of discussion.”
“That was a huge challenge and still is so the feedback here (at the FIA WEC Prologue test) from Proton is that they are very happy with what they see at the moment from the car. So far they are satisfied too with the support that they are getting. From that point of view so far we have done everything right, now we have to continue this way going forward.”
Might we see more customer 911 RSRs later in 2014?
“Yes definitely. As you can see from the Le Mans entry list there is another car for Patrick Dempsey again and there will be an entry for the ELMS.” (the new car replacing the 997 GT3 RSR currently fielded by Gulf Racing UK).
“We are working on others too but again our policy is NOT to sell as many as possible, but to sell as many as we can properly support. These cars are as complex today as a GT1 car was in the late 1990s and this is something that we are very careful to tell the teams to take into consideration before they make their decisions. It is not just about the money, to be able to afford to buy a car like that but also to be able to run it properly because otherwise the enthusiasm will be gone. That’s no god for them, and it doesn’t work for Porsche either of course. We want our customers to be happy, passionate about the product and the racing, and successful!”
Porsche has a fine history of marking the ups and downs of racing in a very appropriate way. Your film after your Le Mans win in the 50th anniversary year for the 911 was a fine example of that, marking the success, but making it clear that any celebration was permanently tarnished by the death of a competitor. It’s not remotely on the same scale but how is the feeling within the team after the controversies of the first two TUSCC races, and what can Porsche do to help the Championship to look at what needs to change for the better?
“You’re right that it is really different, and it is really difficult too.”
“The first point we have to remember before anything else is that this is a sport, not just a business. Today, wherever you go in Sport, whether it’s soccer, skiing or whatever there is more and more business involved.”
“But certain things cannot just be solved by thinking about the business side of the equation. You have to go back in your memories and remember how it felt when you were still ‘just’ a sportsman. I think that is part of it, part of what needs to be remembered. I never did like the words that divide ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ I am more about ‘professional’ and ‘gentleman’ driver and I think as long as we all understand that we all have the same goal but perhaps with an approach that is a little bit different and we don’t take it, let’s say, 150% seriously, just keep it to 100% I think that everything will be fine.”
