Maxime Martin embracing the future of electric car racing
First win for Maxime Martin during the second weekend of the new FIA ETCR championship. Before heading to Hugaroring Maxime shared his enthousiasm about his new team (Romeo Ferraris) and new car (Giulia ETCR).
CRR: You surprised many people by committing yourself to a completely new series with Romeo Ferraris’ team driving a Giulia ETCR for the FIA ETCR championship. Tell us about it.
Maxime Martin: Yes, yes it was a surprise for me also. It is quite new, new for everyone. It is a promising championship, it is its second year, the first year within FIA World Cup, which is quite an achievement to be an FIA world championship after one year only: FIA ETCR
It is a surprise for me as well because I have been racing forever in GT and endurance. I have done DTM where you are alone and it is more sprint races but my thing is more endurance and GT.
So to come to electric races and do 3 to 4 laps races is for sure quite different than what I am used to. I think that electric is more and more there, so at the end to have one foot in electric and to be at the beginning of electric with the level of drivers present as well as to be able to help the Championship grow by being there with other high-level drivers, to develop the Series, to develop the cars, to be able to get to a more normal type of racing with electric cars, it is quite interesting.
It is completely new, it is a new challenge, a new technology which makes it also interesting because one learns a lot of other things than what I am used to. And I think it is also nice to have a different reset as a racing driver. It is a completely different way of driving than any GT car. It is also interesting from a racing driver's perspective because you must adapt. Being able to adapt yourself, being able to adapt to different types of cars, different series, and different tires makes you a better driver.
So, in the end, overall, even for sure it is surprising from the outside, it is interesting. I hope the championship can grow.
CRR: Is the Romeo Ferrari team supported by Alf Romeo?
Maxime Martin: it is a private team. They have been running Alfa Romeo’s for many years with Giulietta in TCR and WTCR. They have always been building the cars and so on. They have a big past with Alfa Romeo.
The project here is totally private which makes it again interesting, coming back to the human aspect we discussed earlier. It is a small family manufacturer with less money and less involvement than Hyundai or Cupra. They performed pretty well the first year; we see that we are very competitive, we are part of the game which is quite interesting for a small group of people compared to Hyundai and Cupra. To be part of a small family team is very important for me.
CRR: How many races are the championship
Maxime Martin: 7 in total. We had Pau and we’ll run in Istanbul, Budapest, Jarama, Vallelunga, Zolder beginning of July, and then Korea.
CRR: Is there another championship you are competing in?
Maxime Martin: Yes, I do GT World Challenge Endurance Championship. So I’ll run the 24 Hours of Spa in the frame of that championship. So with GTWCE, IMSA, FIA ETCR, NLS3 and N24, I’m fully booked.
CRR: Maxime ended P9 with Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen at the last 1.000 km of Le Castellet (GTWCE) driving Beecham Aston Martin Vantage.
