With race wins in both the ELMS and WEC, and an LMGT3 title clinched in the former a few weeks ago, rapid Irishman Charlie Eastwood’s second season as a Corvette factory driver has been a memorable one.
And his 2025 racing season has the potential to reach new heights on Saturday night. Eastwood and his teammates, Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy, in the #81 TF Sport Z06 LMGT3.R, are 24 points off the leaders from Manthey 1st Phorm with eight hours of racing to go in the WEC season and 39 points up for grabs.
The 8 Hours of Bahrain is an event that has produced its fair share of thrilling title deciders over the years. With a circuit layout that’s tough on brakes, a track surface that’s notoriously tough on tyres and an eight-hour format that opens up the strategy books, championship contenders need to be on their A game to finish the season on a high note.
Becoming a WEC champion would be the realisation of a dream for Eastwood, who has come close on multiple occasions over the past five years but never quite had the results fall his way.
Despite the gap in the standings to overcome and the strength of the opposition in the class, he is confident that he and his teammates have what it takes at their disposal to cause an upset. Leaving aside a blip in form at CoTA, the #81 trio head into the final race high on confidence after stringing together a strong set of results over the past four races, with a win last time out in Fuji, and podiums at Le Mans and Sao Paulo.
“We’ll see a lot of strategy playing out because of the surface, with teams gambling with half sets or single left-rear tyre changes,” he told DSC, looking ahead to the final race. “And because of the transition from day to night, it changes the level of deg.
“If you can create a gap, unless there’s a long safety car, it’s hard to catch a car that races off into the distance, so you see a lot of teams giving Bronze drivers lots of new tyres early on. You often get FCYs, but if you lose a minute early, the chances of a pro making that up late on are slim to none. It’s a tricky race to manage, but the Corvette is strong there and strong on tyre wear, and it’s a circuit where you are rewarded if you have a tyre advantage.
“But there’s a chance you have to roll the dice. And in a title battle, you need to be solid, you need to keep it clean. The hardest element is not getting overexcited at the start of a stint and killing the tyre.
“The dynamic in our team will play a part,” he added. “It has been really good between us this year. It stems from a guy like Ben Keating, because he’s a winner, and it’s been great to work with him and see his thought process. We haven’t had any tension, and Dani and I get on super well. And looking wider, there’s so much sharing between all the Corvette teams during the year.
“We’ve seen in the last few rounds that the manufacturers in GT3 have been so close, and it’s been about execution, which is great. And we know that with TF, the execution is what the team nails more often than not, and at Corvette, the rate of development with the car in two years has been insane.”
When the sun does set on the WEC season, the work doesn’t stop for Eastwood. In addition to plate-spinning high-level programmes in the WEC, the ELMS and IMSA with Corvette this year, he’s been working with the Cadillac Formula One programme as a simulator driver, as part of an expanded role within General Motors. Sim driving for F1 teams is a side to his career that’s done as much for his reputation in the industry as it has for his level of knowledge and ability.
“I’ve been doing it (with Cadillac) since March. Not loads because I’ve been doing ELMS, WEC and bits of IMSA, and it’s not straightforward with children and a wife, but it’s such a cool project to be part of,” he said when asked about his packed work schedule. “It’s such a challenge because of the timescale, confirming an entry in October last year to having cars on the grid in March next year. Because of the uncertainty of getting the entry, they couldn’t commit the spend, let alone employ people in advance.
“Setting up a GT3 programme would be tough in that time, let alone an F1 programme. Seeing people get hired and seeing the resources going into it to make it happen, it’s crazy. But there are a lot of driven people from multiple companies that have come in that banner.
“It’s cool to work on from the start too, because when I was at Mercedes (F1), they’d won multiple titles, while Cadillac doesn’t have a single lap of data to work with. At Mercedes, I was going in each day, and if I didn’t learn a bucketful when I left, it was a bad day. Now, it’s a role reversal, because I bring the knowledge to the project as a lot of top-level people there have incredible experience, but for some in Charlotte at the GM tech centre, it’s maybe only NASCAR projects, and that couldn’t be much further away.
“It’s moving at such a rate and scale, who knows where it’ll be in a year, two years.”
What does this all mean for his career goals and future in sportscar racing? “It’s all up for discussion,” he added.
“I have my own aspirations on track, there’s no driver who doesn’t want to be in Hypercar, for instance. But I’m loving my time with Corvette. I’ve asked the same question because I want to add as much value to General Motors as I can, so if that means doing every race under the sun with Corvette, then great, or if it means 50 days in the sim with Cadillac F1, I don’t mind.
“Of course, I’d love to stay in WEC as a main programme, but if I am deemed to be valuable on the F1 side, then I can go in that direction. There are loads of options and paths, it’s just trying to find a balance.”
Featured image courtesy of DPPI
