It’s only June, yet DSC is quickly running out of fresh adjectives to describe Laurens Vanthoor. To this point it’s been a monster of a year for the Belgian-ace, whose highlights include finishing first at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, first at the Monza Blancpain Endurance and first in four of the six Blancpain Sprint rounds, along with multiple podiums.
Despite this it seems his year is just getting started. It was therefore only right that DSC had a proper chat with the Hasselt native about his 2015 campaign and beyond. Last year’s Blancpain GT champion has continued his upward trajectory, yet he’s just as hungry for more.
Arguably his season so far in the Blancpain Sprint Series has been most impressive. Partnered with up-and-coming Dutchman Robin Frijns in WRT’s #1 Audi, the duo have won four races in a row at the time of writing, dating back to the round at Brands Hatch. The opening round of the season at Nogaro saw the pair unable to take part in the races after Frijns had a shunt which wrote off the car. But the recovery has been impeccable; they’ve won every Sprint Series race they’ve started together and from pole position too.
Frijns has adapted extremely quickly to GT racing this year. Winner of the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 championship he has outright speed, but sharing a car with a teammate and in a very different racing environment is no easy task. Robin and Laurens are no strangers to one another though, so the transition has been smooth.
“With Robin, it’s pretty clear that he’s an exceptional driver. I’ve been driving against him since go-karts, we used to fight with each other there,” he explained. “When he signed the deal to drive with me at WRT his goal changed, he wants to become an Audi works driver and make a living out of it. I said to him: ‘look, if I can do it, you can too.’
“It’s great because we’ve known each other so long, we speak the same language… literally. We haven’t had to go through a phase of building a relationship because it was already there; in fact, we’re like a married couple, and have become that way pretty quickly! We know how to move forward, because looking back, we went through days when we almost hated each other as competitors.
“The thing that stands out with Robin is that he’s very critical of himself, he wanted to be right on the pace the first time he got in the R8, and it certainly didn’t take long for him to get there. GT racing is different, the level in the Blancpain is pretty high in my opinion, much better than the GT talent five years ago. I’m trying to help him where I can, all the things are in the right places now for us to win the championship.”
Away from the sprint racing side of his season, helping develop the new 2015-spec Audi R8 GT3 car has been another major focus for Laurens – one which has already rewarded him for his efforts. This year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours saw him claim his first victory alongside Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, and Nico Muller in the car’s maiden twice-round-the-clock race.
In what was a hard-fought battle, the gap to the second placed Marc VDS BMW Z4 was just 40 seconds when the Audi crossed the line. It was a remarkable win for Laurens; winning the Spa 24 last season was will stay with him forever because it was on his home turf, winning at the ‘Ring will too, but for a different reason.
“It was a very special win. I love driving there because there’s nothing in the world which comes close. I raced there for the first time in 2013, which was also my first year with Audi and the N24 was one of my first big events with the marque. It was the worst race of my career. It was the first time I had driven there and I was quick, but I didn’t respect the Nürburgring, instead I was going for it like it was just any old track.
“I crashed the car during the race, the team repaired it during a red flag, then I crashed it again. You can imagine how ashamed I felt,” admitted Laurens. “It was difficult and it took me some time to get over it. I thought for a while that weekend that Audi might have kicked me out.
“But it all changed when I drove that circuit in mixed conditions this year, when I was unable to see much because of the yellow headlights. Only then did I learn what it means to drive at the Nürburgring. It’s about surviving, not trying to improve lap times or go out of your comfort zone, it was just me and the car and it needed to come back in one piece. That mindset is something I didn’t have two years ago.
“The #1 car crashed after my stint that night, so we went on and won. I’ve never been so emotional, because having that one on my CV is so big.”
For Vanthoor it was also a landmark race because it was the first time he’d driven a car having been involved in helping a manufacturer develop a car during its inception.
“We all had our doubts going into the race, because the car was so new,” he said. “But so much preparation went into it, and it all went extremely well. The first 1000km testing the new car were phenomenal, I don’t think it had a single issue. In the weeks leading up to the race we started to have some small niggles, but Audi reacted very well by ramping up the testing, it was intense.
“I did a lot of days with the car, like many of Audi’s drivers,” he explained. “We all had to sit down and advise Audi what we would like the car to be cockpit-wise, that sort of thing. They were really intricate, we were able to make specific and special demands. Having us drivers help like that allowed them to evaluate, because we could explain first-hand everything we didn’t like about the old car. It’s a customer racing car, that means so much had to be considered.
“It was interesting to be a part of that, it’s another reason to be proud of that win.”
Vanthoor also took part in the Bathurst 12 Hours – winning the Pro-Am class and finishing second overall – as well as competing at Le Mans alongside Kevin Estre and Chris Cumming in Oak Racing’s #34 Ligier.
This year’s Le Mans 24 Hours was his prototype race debut, and despite the Ligier not finishing he showed very promising outright pace throughout the week despite such limited running time. Like René Rast before him, Vanthoor hopes to step up to LMP1 from GT3 at some point soon; it’s part of a long-term goal he has which requires him to come back for more.
“Someone said to me that no driver in history has won the Daytona 24 Hours, Le Mans 24 Hours, Nürburgring 24 Hours and Spa 24 Hours over the course of their career. I researched it, and that person was correct, so why not try?” he laughed. “I’ve already won two of them so I’m halfway there. First I need to get to LMP1, which is a goal, it’s something I want to do when I’m ready, and I’m in the perfect place. I think I have a fair shot, but I still need a bit of luck, I need to be given a chance.”
He still has the rest of the season to think about before that’s possible, and it looks like he’ll remain one of the clear favourites to win the Endurance, Sprint and overall GT title. Winning the Spa 24 Hours for a second year in a row is also on the cards. To be blunt, if the second half of 2015 is anything like the first who knows what he’ll have achieved?
“To be honest,” Vanthoor concluded. “I didn’t see this coming. In the off-season I set myself goals which I plan to achieve. After last season winning the GT championship in Blancpain and the Spa 24 Hours I was cautious this year because I wasn’t sure I could top it. I didn’t want to be greedy and ask for too much out of myself and my team. You have to factor in that nothing lasts forever, I’ve had an amazing start to the year, but that could all change, I’ll have bad races here and there, I can’t win every week. If you believe no-one can beat you, you’ll fall on your face.
“At the moment though,” he chuckled. “Things aren’t going bad!”
Stephen Kilbey
