“Everything is fine, I don’t know the track, the car, it is raining and we miss FP2, so a nice challenge”, joked the Russian at Imola yesterday morning.
New Nissan LMP1 driver Mark Shulzhitskiy was in fine spirits despite losing some vital track time in the Lanan Ginetta-Nissan after an FP1 incident involving his team mate Alex Craven.
“It is very good for my experience to get more laps in an LMP car before Le Mans and it is great for Nissan to give me this opportunity,” he continued. “Honestly I still sometimes cannot believe it happened like this. Such a nice surprise. I thought maybe I would do some testing if the circumstances were correct this year. I went to America and then we heard there might be some changes and then it was confirmed to me by Darren I would be at Le Mans. It is a big opportunity and I am really looking forward to it.”
The test at Nissan’s chosen test track at NCM Motorsports Park saw Shulzhitskiy sample the spectacular Nissan GT-R LM NISMO for the first time earlier this month and the 25 year-old was still somewhere within the postal district of Cloud Nine as we spoke!
“We had a good three days at Kentucky last week. The first day I didn’t do too much but then the second and third some progress. There were six of us there and we did a lot of laps.
“After driving the car it was interesting to just understand this brave car from Ben (Bowlby). Of course we need more time to continue the improvements. There is a big pressure for me because I have not been driving so long in LMP1. It’s all a bit crazy for me but I love it and driving the car was just an awesome experience, awesome.”
Plans now focus to the team re-locating to the UK for pre-Le Mans prep and then the test day in two weeks’ time. Mark will partner Lucas Ordonez and Tsugio Matsuda in the No.21 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO.
“I think Harry and Jann will shakedown the car somewhere in the UK. The third car is very close to being finished. The team fly over on the 17th of this month (today), I think. It will be a tough month for all of us and there will be lots of hard work. The team are full of high achievers and the motivation is very big. We will be working together to give us the best chance to do the maximum. The progamme is still very young and we are learning every day. We need to go to the test day and learn more and more so we are in best possible shape for the race week.”
Mark’s on-track experience of the Lanan Ginetta-Nissan has so far just amounted to 17 damp laps of Imola. Just after he handed over to team mate Alex Craven in FP1 yesterday the car suffered an accident at Variante Alta, colliding with the already spun Murphy of Mark Patterson and incurring some significant rear damage.
“Yes it is not ideal but sometimes these incidents do happen,” said Shulzhitskiy. “I was really impressed with the LMP3 car. The visibility from the cockpit is excellent and I was pretty comfortable straight away. Of course I need more laps and tomorrow we go straight to qualifying so it will be tough. My plan is to just get as many laps as possible and to test myself with Le Mans in my mind.”
Sam Smith
