Corvette Racing drivers in the FIA World Endurance Championship Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone answered questions today from media members ahead of this weekend’s WEC Prologue at Sebring International Raceway.

📷 © Corvette Racing: Corvette #33 tests at Sebring December 2023.

NICKY CATSBURG, #33 Corvette Racing driver

AFTER WINNING LAST YEAR IN THE SEBRING 12 HOURS, HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO REPEAT THAT IN THE WEC ROUND?

“Last year was super nice, winning the race. I also remember the year before, we were incredibly close in winning it that year as well but a late-race crash with another competitor took us out of the lead. I cannot wait to drive the GTE-spec car again. I personally like it a little bit better than the GT3-spec. I cannot wait to try and win it without ABS; in general I just enjoy driving the GTE car a lot, so hopefully we can repeat that win from last year.”

📷 © Luc Warnotte: Brilliant P2 at 1.000 Miles of Sebring for Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner with their Corvette C8.R for their first full-season WEC campaign.

THERE’S ONLY AN HOUR OR SO OF DARKNESS IN THE SEBRING RACING, BUT CAN YOU GO THROUGH THE CHALLENGES OF RACING IN THE DARK AT SEBRING AND OTHER PLACES?

“Some places are more difficult than others, and I would say Sebring is one of the more difficult ones. Specifically, kind of Turn 10 through Turn 14 gets really, really dark and there’s one part where you really struggle to see how close to the outside of the track you are. Navigating there with traffic makes it very, very difficult because you just don’t see so much. We have great lights on the car but it’s not nearly enough to really see what’s going on. Then you have a lot of bright headlights in your rearview mirrors constantly flashing, which makes it very, very hard to see where you’re going. I must say that doing it more often does help you get better at it and to remain more calm.

“For example in the Sebring 12 Hours, you would kind of keep one driver for the end of the race and that driver would then also do more in the night practice so he is more prepared for finishing the race in the dark. I would say it’s the most difficult part of the race to do. If I had to compare it, the (Nürburgring) Nordschleife is very dark but somehow not as dark as Sebring, which is hard to imagine! The same goes for Le Mans. I always find that relatively easy in the dark. Spa-Francorchamps is more difficult again. I don’t know really why this is, but some tracks are just more difficult in the dark than others. Sebring has a lot of bumps everywhere. Already in the daylight it is difficult to see sometimes where you are, let alone in the dark. So Sebring is definitely difficult.”

ON BEING THE TEAM LEADER AS THE MOST EXPERIENCED DRIVER IN THE CORVETTE.

“It’s definitely going to be different. I was always the third driver at Corvette so I was filling in for the few endurance races – Daytona, Sebring, Petit Le Mans and Le Mans. So this is the first time I’m doing a full season with Corvette Racing with two new teammates. I feel like I’m the one with the most experience in the car, which is a first for me. It’s definitely going to be a change. But I feel with this team and the support I have from my teammates in the past years, I hope I can do the same job now for Ben and Nico. Ben is incredibly experienced in these races and Nico – I don’t want to raise the expectations too much! – but he was nothing but amazing in the tests that we did. I don’t feel like they will need too much help from me. It is a bit of a change for me, but we will be fine.”

BEN KEATING, #33 Corvette Racing driver

HAS YOUR ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR THIS RACE CONTINUED TO BUILD OVER THE MONTHS AND WEEKS?

“No, not at all. I would even say it’s greater than it’s ever been for several reasons. One is that it’s obviously my first race with Corvette Racing, and that’s enough anticipation on its own. Then in addition to that, it’s the only WEC race that is on home soil in the US, which puts a little more importance up there for me. Lastly, I would say that last year doing the double between the Aston Martin and the LMP2 in the 12-hour race, it was one of the most difficult and physical endeavors I’ve ever done. I’m hoping I prepare a little bit better for it this year. But I still have a little bit of that anticipation for how I will feel in the 12-hour. I’m not worried that much for the WEC race. So there are a lot of different reasons for all the anticipation building up.”

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IN TESTING PREPARATIONS WITH THIS CAR AND ADAPTING TO THE C8.R?

“I got to do a few laps on the Rookie Test Day after Bahrain. I got to do 10 laps exactly; we were more focused on testing Silvers and watching Nico go fast around Bahrain. When I first got in the car at Bahrain, I know looking at it that it’s a mid-engine car, so I kept trying (think about) how I’m supposed to drive this car. Am I supposed to drive it like a Ford or like the Porsche or like the Ferrari, those being other mid-engine cars. I will say that I was quite disappointed with my performance in Bahrain. I came back and looked at the data and realized that you drive this car completely differently than any of those. So while I was leaning on my experience of how to go fast in all those other cars, I wasn’t able to find it. Then fast-forward another couple of months and we went testing at Sebring. It was incredible. The speed came pretty quick for me, I would say. I felt very comfortable in the car, and I feel like I made some huge steps in learning how this car likes to be driven. It’s significantly different than all the others. For me personally, it’s taken a little bit to get used to. I’ve been in a turbo car for the last couple of years, and the big V8 has a lot more torque instantly at low RPMs than having to wait for that big turbo to wind up, so you don’t have that lag which takes a little while to get used to. The year before, I was in the Porsche RSR and again it doesn’t have the same level of torque that a big V8 has. They all have slightly different handling characteristics.

“After Bahrain I was worried, but after Sebring I’m excited! I made the transition and was really happy with my performance after the test. After that, I’ve been testing in the LMP2 there as well, and I feel there is a decent crossover between the two cars at this particular track. I’m ready.”

AT THE SEBRING TEST, HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU GET IN THE CAR?

“I don’t remember a specific lap count. The three of us were all there, and we all got quite a few laps.”

TALKING ABOUT THE PROGRESSION OF THE GTE FORMULA SINCE YOU STARTED RACING IN GTE AND HOW THE CARS HAVE MOVED ON.

“I’ll say this specifically for GTE Am, because that’s what is important to me and that’s what makes this class special. As all of you are aware, in every GTE Am car it requires one Bronze, one Silver and one either Gold or Platinum (driver). What I love about the GTE Am class and racing the GTE car is that it doesn’t have ABS, as Nicky started talking about. It really separates the Bronze drivers between those who can drive well without ABS and those who can’t or struggle with it. The difference in laptime gets to be larger based on the skill that you acquire over time. That’s one big piece of it for me, specifically in GTE Am. I don’t think you saw that big of a difference in GTE Pro. The thing I’ve loved about it for years… what really got to me about racing in GT3 is that there were all these BoP changes all the time. You never knew if you were going to have a chance or not to do well in the race. I didn’t like spending dollars, and blood, sweat and tears at a track not knowing if we weren’t going to have a chance.

“What I really love about the GTE Am setup has been that all of the BoP is set off the Pro class from the previous year. We’re racing a previous year’s car so we rarely get BoP changes in GTE Am, and they allow the rewards weight or success ballast to level the playing field. Clearly if you get 40 kilos in the car, it’s going to cost you a half-second a lap at most of the tracks we go to, but you can still have a chance and you can have a competitive car. Lastly, I love racing with a confidential tire. The Michelin confidentials are just that good. It’s so nice to race with a tire that has been built and designed around your car and different circumstances. I’m going to be sad to see it go, is my answer. I’m sad to see GTE go. For me personally, it doesn’t have anything to do with the GT3 cars. It just has to do with the class. I think you’re taking something away when you add ABS and every driver out there can be a hero in every brake zone.”

📷 © Luc Warnotte: Corvette Racing got their first win in the WEC championship with Milner and Tandy at 6 Hours of Monza 2022. Read more here.

YOUR TIME WITH TF SPORT THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS WHILE MOVING ON TO CORVETTE RACING.

“That team is special. They are great people. That’s hard to walk away from. It’s hard to walk away from that much success… second place at Le Mans and second place in the championship (in 2021) and then a win at Le Mans and winning the championship in the second year. Clearly we were on a roll. But I pay for all this by selling cars, and I don’t sell Aston Martins. I’ve got nothing bad to say about TF Sport other than they are not racing a Corvette!”

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN RACING A GT CAR AND AN LMP2 CAR IN THE DARK?

“There are three major things that make Sebring difficult at night. One is it is so flat that it’s hard to get a reference of what you’re looking at it. Yes it’s dark, but it’s no more dark than any of the other tracks that Nicky mentioned. It’s just really flat, which makes it hard to get a reference of knowing exactly where to turn in, exactly where the brake point is, exactly where the exit of the corner is and those kinds of things. The other two things that come to mind is that we are going to have the largest Hypercar field that we have ever seen in the World Endurance Championship. My only protest in the Hypercar class is that the LED lights that they have when they flash are unbelievably bright; they’re ridiculously bright and they will blind you. It’s not as bad when you had three or four cars there to contend with. Knowing that we are going to have eight or 10 of those going around the track, it’s going to mean that you’re going to have one of those behind you more often. That is going to make it quite a challenge.

“The other thing that isn’t thought of very often is that there are quite a few pavement changes at Sebring. It goes from concrete to asphalt to sealed concrete. It’s one thing when the bright Florida sun is shining down on all the track, it can get really hot. But when the sun goes down, each one of those pavement surfaces changes quite a bit. I think it changes the handling of the car quite a bit. The only thing that matters obviously is the end of the race. This is more of an issue on the IMSA side of things because of the safety cars and more time in darkness. But I think it’s wise to do a lot of setup work and a lot of running night practice specifically because you have to make sure you have a car that is set up to do well when the sun goes down because the track changes a lot more than you might think.”

ON WEC BANNING TIRE WARMERS FOR THIS YEAR WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE OF NOT HAVING THEM IN IMSA. DOES THAT GIVE YOU AN EDGE OVER THE OTHER BRONZE DRIVERS?

“I hope so but we will see. I think everybody is going to be learning a lot, and it’s a great question. It’s going to be one of the major challenges for all teams in WEC. I feel like the confidential tire we are running is designed to be heated, and it’s designed to be warm when you take off. I think about at Le Mans in the night when it’s cool outside and you have a safety car period or a long full-course yellow, it’s really, really difficult to get those tires back up to temperature and back up to where they’re hot enough that they are in the right operating window. Sometimes I wasn’t able to get them there, especially at Le Mans where you have the long straightaways. It can be a big challenge to get the heat back in the tires. So when you’re starting off from ground zero of having an absolutely cold tire, it will be a big challenge for all the teams to get those tires up to temperature. Yes, I think it’s an advantage for me. I enjoy watching all the European teams, especially in LMP2, come in for the 24 Hours of Daytona. They’re all used to having tire warmers and they go out and spin in Turn Three very often because they’re not used to what it takes to deal with cold tires. I think it’s easier on the GT cars than the prototypes, but I think we’re going to see quite a few more issues and incidents with all the classes as everyone gets used to what it’s like to go out and deal with cold tires. It’s a significant change. It’s interesting to me that we’re getting this significant change in the last year of the class; maybe they’re saying it’s the first year of Hypercar. It’s interesting. I think it’s less of an issue, in my opinion, with the customer tire that a lot of the teams are running. It might be less of an issue with the Goodyears on the LMP2. I don’t know. I just know that my experience in the night at Le Mans would suggest that it’s pretty difficult to go out on a confidential tire that’s cold. I think we’ll see more teams running a softer compound, seeing if they can get away with doing a double-stint on a softer compound just because that may be the only tire they can figure out how to get heat in over a stint. It’s going to be an interesting change for this season.”

NICO VARRONE, #33 Corvette Racing driver

EXPECTATIONS FOR SEBRING IN YOUR FIRST RACE IN THE CORVETTE C8.R.

“First of all, this will be one of my best experiences ever. To be joining Corvette Racing is a dream for me to be part of a factory team with Ben and Nicky. It will be amazing. I’m really excited about it. I did some laps in Bahrain and Sebring, and I was really comfortable with the car. I personally enjoyed driving the Ferrari GTE, but with the Corvette I feel there is something special in the first moments. It suits really well my driving style. We have a really good lineup and a really good car. I hope we can have a clean race, a clean weekend and take the most out of it.”

YOU COME OFF WINNING LMP3 AT DAYTONA, SO HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT BE LEARNING ALL THE PROCEDURAL CHANGES LIKE FULL-COURSE YELLOWS AND CAUTIONS WITH THE WEC VERSUS IMSA?

“That’s a good question. Last year, I raced in the ELMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so I have experience. I didn’t do a full season in WEC but doing races in both championships helped me quite a lot. I don’t think it will be a big change for me. I feel ready for the challenge. I think I will have to learn a bit more on my side to know more about the car and to know what the car likes, setup changes and other stuff that will be new for me. We have a long season ahead and the Prologue this weekend, so that will help me a lot to get up to speed and try to be the best version of myself.”

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE CORVETTE AND FERRARI GTE CAR THAT YOU’VE DRIVEN BEFORE.

“I was really impressed at the Bahrain test. As Ben said, I was trying to use all my experience with the Ferrari and put it in the Corvette, and it wasn’t working on the first outing I did. I was really struggling with low-speed corners with some oversteer. I worked with the engineers on the data, and they told me it was a completely different way of driving. Once I started working on it through the laps and over the runs, I really improved on it. I have to say it’s a different concept to drive it and you have to get used to it. And when I got to Sebring, I already had this experience from Bahrain and I got used to it. It wasn’t a big challenge for me because I got used to it really quickly. Because of my driving style, I liked the way of driving it. But it’s really different to other cars I’ve driven in the past.”

📷 © Luc Warnotte: Bad luck for Corvette Racing, Nick Tandy and Tony Milner who had to stop for a five-second emergency service for fuel under a red flag at 6 hours of Spa-Fraancorchamps 2022.