Maxime Martin and the Major 24 hours races
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ NLS3 2022
CRR: We saw you at the Nürburgring for NLS3 with David Pittard driving an Aston Martin Vantage. Is the plan to run the 24 Hours of Nürburgring (N24) with AMR/TF Sport?
Maxime Martin: We’ll do N24. We didn’t participate in the qualifiers weekend because my teammates were in Spa for the WEC race and I was in Pau. The lineup is Nicky Thiim, Marco Sorensen, David Pittard and myself.
AMR and TF Sport, who is running the car, were in the qualifiers weekend with two other AMR Drivers who are not going to drive N24. The team had to be there because of the regulations.
CRR: The car was eighth that weekend. How does it influence the position on the grid?
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ Qualifiers Weekend 2022
Maxime Martin: to be fair, I don’t really know because it is so complicated. Depending on how you qualify, in which position one ends the races, and several other parameters, you are qualified in the top 30. That is the real target; everything is done to achieve this goal.
Being in the top 30 gives you a blue light which helps in the traffic because the slower cars know we are a fast one AND you can start more in front of the race which in N24 is very important as there is no safety car, and that makes it a very difficult race, as every second you lose, you’ll never get it back. Being in front for the start of the race is very important; if you start P20, with 19 cars in front of you, you are already 30” behind the leader in the first lap.
I think with the qualifiers weekend we are not in the top 30 but we can still make it during the qualifications of N24. It is going to be tough because there are many very competitive cars.
CRR: What surprised us in NLS or the qualifiers weekend, is the gap between the top 10. Contrary to WEC or IMSA races where the GT cars end a 24 hours race with a margin of seconds!
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ NLS3 2022
Maxime Martin: Mainly because we have no safety car which enables cars to “re-pack”. Every second you lose you’ll never get back except by pace, but everyone is very close. Traffic, slow zones and double yellow also increase the gap. So it is quite normal to have big gaps in N24.
When you look at the last WEC race, they had 3 red flags. They maybe raced for four hours. Out of the four hours they had 2 safety cars so, in the end, they raced for a bit more than 3 hours.
It is like TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, these last years it has always been very close at the end. Because every time you stay in the lead lap you always get back with the safety car, which makes the race very interesting. In the end, when we look at the big picture, we are doing a sport mainly for the manufacturers, for advertising purposes. The more show you have, the better it is for the advertisers. The Americans understand this very well. They make sure the race is good until the end. In terms of performance, it is maybe not the best, but if you look at it from a marketing point of view, in terms of interest for the people watching, I think it is more interesting to have a race where, one hour to go, nobody knows who is going to win than when you have a leader who is 3 minutes ahead so that we know, he is going to win if nothing happens.
CRR: Another thing about NLS and N24 is that there are so many cars in the pits. How is it organized?
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ NLS3 2022
Maxime Martin: It is not! Not really anyhow. We don’t have privileges like having the blue light on the track. You just must reach agreements with the teams sharing the same garage. The top GT3 cars are not sharing. The fuel pumps are just the same fuel pumps as in a gas station. You must agree with the other teams that you may use it when the car has to pit. A lot of cars are running but just want to finish the race. If they have to wait for 30” because we are using the pump, they don’t really bother that much. If there is an issue because the pump is used, then you may always use another one. There is no fuel station that is yours.
It is not really organized; it is just agreements between teams.
CRR: There are four major 24 hours races around the world. You already won Spa and Le Mans. Listening to you it sounds like you really want to clinch N24.
Maxime Martin: Aaah! I have been second way too many times. I think two or three times, very close. I’m the “Poulidor” of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
CRR: Which one is the toughest?
Maxime Martin: For sure Nürburgring is the most difficult to win, to finish. So much traffic, so many things can happen because of the track and the weather, that already finishing is difficult. To finish in a top position is even more difficult. For me, Nürburgring is definitively one of the most difficult, together with TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ NLS3 2022
TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa is very difficult these days because you have 65 cars which are all the same, same performance. In theory, all the 65 can win even though we know we have the PRO and the AM cars but that is more driver-related. That traffic is also very difficult because they go as fast as you on the straight especially now with the ABS in GT3, which I think is wrong, but that is my personal view. Everybody can brake in the same place. It is intense because each car you pass is an intense moment, whereas in Nürburgring, most of the traffic consists of a lot slower cars. But then there are 165 cars that are fighting in their own class.
For sure Nürburgring and Spa are the more difficult ones.
The Nürburgring track is very difficult, and the weather is always tricky but then you have the slow traffic which forces you to cool down because you have no other choice. Spa is intense all around the clock.
Daytona is definitively the easiest one in terms of driving even though it is going to be a fight until the end because of all FCY. If you are one or two laps behind you can still be winning.
Le Mans is in the middle. There are 3 safety cars; you must be close to the leader to be with the same safety car. If you are one safety car behind, your race is over unless the leader has a problem. The track makes it easier with a lot of long straights.
Next parts of the interview: “Maxime Martin embracing the future of electric car racing” will be published June 15th and “Maxime Martin from WEC to IMSA” to be released June 21st. Stay tuned.
