The door to the media centre opens from the podium at Bathurst, and the winning drivers from SunEnergy1 stream in. A boisterous Kenny Habul leads the charge, followed by a cheerful Luca Stolz. The hero of the last stint, Jules Gounon, trophy in hand, looks much more agitated, measuring his celebrations in what is a complicated and tense environment.
The Porsche drivers are next, looking almost sheepish as they take their seats, knowing that their well-earned second place is but a footnote in an epic conclusion to the race.
Mikael Grenier from GruppeM sits down, pointedly not making eye contact with anyone, while Raffaele Marciello looks ready to lash out at a moment’s notice. The final person to sit down is Maro Engel, and his face tells you everything you need to know about the end of the race. Brimming with barely contained fire, his eyes cut through the pack of reporters, myself included.
Gounon quickly addresses Engel, “I’m sorry,” but Maro waves him away as the reporters all settle into place around the front of the room.
The room is packed with tension, as the MC picks up the microphone and says, ‘lets get straight to it…’
***
Only a week prior, it was Maro Engel who was the last stint hero in the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes, taking the GTD Pro class at the 2023 edition of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, alongside Daniel Juncadella, Cooper MacNeil, and Jules Gounon. Engel fought his way to the front of the GTD-Pro field in a hectic final stanza after a late race FCY, seeing off challenges from Corvette Racing and Vasser Sullivan to win the class by just under 4 seconds.
In the immediate aftermath of that race, Gounon said “The team did a fantastic job, Cooper, Daniel, Maro, we all drove fantastically!”
The four of them, Engel, Gounon, Juncadella and MacNeil, stood on the podium together, claiming their first Rolex watches each. It was a stunning victory in one of the biggest races on the sportscar calendar.
***
Seven days can be a long time in sportscars.
A week later, the three Mercedes drivers – Gounon, Engel, and Juncadella – were in three different cars fighting for three different teams, late in the 2023 Bathurst 12 hour.
“It was amazing to take that Daytona win together,” says Maro Engel, reflecting on the 2023 race, while preparing for this year’s event. “Then the three of us were in three different cars [at Bathurst].”
All three had been entrusted with the final stints in their respective Mercedes AMGs; Gounon in the SunEnergy1 #75 car with Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz, Engel in the #999 GruppeM car with Mikael Grenier and Raffaele Marciello, and Juncadella in the Craft Bamboo #77 with Philip Ellis and Nicky Catsburg.
Come the final stint, a data-logger failure in the leading GruppeM car brought Engel back towards the pack with a lengthy pit stop. The SunEnergy1 team pounced, electing not to change tyres and returning Gounon to the track just 4 seconds ahead of Engel with an hour remaining.
“As it so happened,” continued Engel, “Jules and I were going for the win at the end of the race.”
The fresh tyres for Engel allowed him to drag onto the back of Gounon across the top, but the SunEnergy1 car was a rocket in a straight line, allowing Gounon to hold him off into the Chase. Lurking just behind, the Manthey EMA Porsche of Matt Campbell was gaining on the pair of Mercedes as they battled out front.
***
One of the fascinating things about sportscar racing in the current era is the relationships between drivers. They can be teammates one week and rivals the next. Factory drivers are placed around the world in World Championships, marquee events like Bathurst, Daytona, or the Nürburgring, regional championships like the GT World Challenge, or even national championships like British GT.
Even within teams, drivers chop and change and car crews swap around. Long time driving combinations are rare and held in high regard; the norm is arriving at a track with a new partnership almost every time.
Just this year in 2024, for example, Matt Campbell of Porsche has raced both with and against Laurens Vanthoor, sharing the #912 Manthey EMA 911 GT3 at Bathurst, while competing at both Daytona and Qatar in opposite Penske Porsche 963’s. In Manthey’s two IGTC races so far, only Vanthoor and Ayhancan Guven have driven both races, and both are in different Porsches this weekend at Spa.
This can cross brands too – at the Nürburgring, Christopher Mies and Dennis Olsen raced for Audi and Porsche respectively; this week at Spa, they race together in a Proton Competition Mustang.
Just this month, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel shared the #130 GetSpeed Mercedes AMG at the Nürburgring, and this week will be driving in different Mercedes AMG’s, Gounon in the #2 AMG Team Getspeed, alongside Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller, and Engel is in the #48 AMG Team Mann-Filter, with Lucas Auer and Daniel Morad.
Moreover, a career in sportscars sees drivers move teams, programmes come to an end, and new challengers poach talent from established brands. Just look at Audi Sport, the winding down of Audi Sport Customer Racing has seen many drivers move on to other projects, creating a spiderweb of former teammates up and down the field.
“It’s part of our reality, I guess,” comments Engel. “One weekend you could be teammates fighting for the same aim, and the next you could be racing against each other.
“That is the beauty and also the challenge of GT Racing.”
***
The last stint of the 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour is at a boiling point. After a few laps of nibbling at the rear of the SunEnergy1 Mercedes, and with the tyre quality advantage starting to falter, Engel sends the GruppeM Mercedes down the inside of the Chase. Gounon spots the move and turns in to cover the racing line.
Contact.
Engel makes a move on Gounon and there's contact!!
Gounon goes off at The Chase and the incident is under investigation #B12hr pic.twitter.com/6IqKyjMkPs
— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 5, 2023
The SunEnergy1 car spins backwards through the grass while the GruppeM Mercedes runs wide. Engel comes back onto the circuit; Gounon smashes the throttle, completing the spin and returning to the track, somehow still ahead of Campbell in third.
Engel pushes on to make a gap, but the stewards hand down a pit lane drive-through penalty for the contact, dropping the GruppeM car back to third. In the dying stages, Gounon holds off not only Matt Campbell in the Porsche, but the recovering Engel, to take the win. The gap between the top 3 at the end of the race? Less than one and a half seconds.
Gounon’s win was an incredible Bathurst 12 Hour three-peat, and secured back-to-back wins for SunEnergy1, Kenny Habul, and Luca Stolz.
As soon as Jules gets out of the car in victory lane, Engel is the first one to approach him. The pair share a hug, and a few words before Engel departs and the SunEnergy1 team arrives.
According to Engel in the post-race press conference, those words were “Congratulations, you’re a 3-time Bathurst winner.”
***
The atmosphere in the press room postrace was incredibly tense. Jules answered the first question with a direct apology to the GruppeM Team;
“First I have to apologise to Maro,” said Gounon post-race. “Last week, we won one of the biggest races in the world [Daytona] and this week we fight hard to win a race and unfortunately we have contact.”
Kenny Habul echoed his teammate. “I’m sorry for Maro, and Miki (Grenier), Lello (Raffaele Marciello), they’re good friends – We’re all good friends.”
That didn’t pacify the feeling in the room, with Raffaele Marciello speaking one sentence through the press conference.
“I promised AMG that I wouldn’t create any messy media so I will not speak.”
***
Jules and Maro have known each other for a long time, and have a self-admitted strong friendship outside of motorsports.
“Maro is a friend more than a teammate,” said Jules at this year’s 12 Hour. “I’ve known him since I was a kid – when I was 17 my godfather introduced me to him.
“He was an Idol when I was a kid.”
Engel responds in kind.
“We’re very good friends, not just very good teammates. We have massive respect for each other.”
Reflecting on the end of last year’s race, both Jules and Maro share similar feelings to the circumstances leading to the contact: It was hard racing, and that was the important part.
“We both went for the win there,” says Maro. “I struggled a bit with the straight-line speed, but I tried to make the move. He did everything he could, maybe turned in a little bit earlier, and in the end, it came to contact.”
“It’s a very uncomfortable situation as a friend,” echoes Jules. “I would have much rather to have touched with somebody else.
“At the end of the race, dying stages, to win, you fight until you crash. And that’s what happened.”
“There was nothing malicious or wrong in any sense,” clarifies Maro. “It’s totally understandable from both of us trying to go for the win.
“Obviously as a friend I’m happy [for Jules], but I really wish that in the future I could take a Bathurst win as well.”
***
Talking to drivers up and down the field about battling with former teammates, fellow factory drivers, friends, and even family, a few different responses were common.
For some, they don’t think about it at all: Asking Raffaele Marciello, now at WRT BMW, whether he had concerns racing his old teammates was met with a firm “No.”
For others, like Laurens Vanthoor, it’s part of the playing field.
“As you get older, you get that more and more. You’re driving against people you raced with or even your brother!
“Once you’re in the car – you tend to say you don’t have friends because you’re racing them.”
For Gounon, it’s a fine balancing act.
“Friendship on track is always something difficult because you meet on track and we’re all racers.
“At a point, there’s a limit between friendship and going for moments of history, like winning Bathurst, or any other race.”
When asked if it’s something to think about when in the driving seat, Jules was cagey in his response.
“It depends. If there’s 10 hours to go, there’s no moves like [the contact in 2023]. But, if there’s 30 minutes to go… it’s visor down and no matter who is in the car, you have to pass.”
And, for an event as prestigious as the Bathurst 12 Hour, all bets are off.
“I think, to win Bathurst,” Jules said in the 2023 post race press conference, “you would sell your mother.”
“I apologised to my mum for saying that,” Jules chuckles, a year later.
For Engel, in a career filled with highlights, Bathurst is still one missing from the reel.
“It’s been a big aim for me since I came [to Bathurst] the first time,” Engel says. “I’ve had poles and been in the mix but the win is missing… you put your best foot forward, and try to execute the race as best as possible, and hope the Mountain comes to you.”
***
The last to speak in the post-race press conference in 2023 was Kenny Habul, offering his thoughts on the contact as the tension in the room simmered.
“It’s my car, and we were leading. And I saw it going backwards through the grass, and I wasn’t upset.
“[Engel] has to do that. That’s what he does. And sometimes we’re teammates, and that’s what I want him to do when we drive together.
“All of us are good friends, more than friends. But that’s what you’ve gotta do.
“I had no animosity at all when I saw my car spin through the gravel because that’s what we do. That’s what we all do.”
Reflecting on that conversation, Gounon adds;
“There’s no apologies [between Maro and himself]. We are both two professional drivers, chasing our dream.
“When it comes down to winning the race, we try our best, whatever it takes.”
And at the end of the day, for all of the drivers, up and down the paddock, they are paid professionals, doing their job for their team as part of that race in that event.
Teammates, friendships, and in some cases family ties, get put aside when the helmet is on.
