ELMS – A Word from The Champions 3 – Gary Hirsch - Keeping it in perspective

Q:  You've made a good step up in the off season ...How did the move from LMPC to LMP2 come about?

A: To begin with, it's been very satisfying because there was no guarantee it would happen.  Lots of factors had to be taken into account and fall into line, and the fact that they all did is in itself a great story.  Running in LMPC last year was very educational for me and a very good way of getting back into racing, learn the circuits and find out the best ways to manage endurance races. Honestly, I feel much more ready at the dawn of 2014 season to be in LMP2 than I was at the same time last year.

In making the transition from LMPC to LMP2, ORECA has since the end of last season been very supportive with different LMP2 teams.  Things happened gradually, and being a Swiss driver in a Swiss team seemed like a good thing, almost natural for me, but also for my sponsors. In addition, to be linked with Christian Klien at this stage of my career is a wonderful opportunity to continue to learn and develop.

Q: You have a great team?

A: The NewBlood project, which is where the name of the team comes from, will be great for the Swiss and I am very proud to be associated with this. This project is really great but be saying more about it in due course.  Christian is great; I've got to know Roman Brandela more recently because I hadn't met him before.  He has more experience in GT, but we hope to all reach the level together that's needed to win. So there's some good teamwork ahead and Benoît Morand (the team manager) is extremely committed and passionate about what he does. There is a very family atmosphere in the team that makes everyone want to give their all.

Q:  How were the two days of testing at Paul Ricard?

A: Actually we had already run the car previously and had got to know it pretty well, but it is true that for this official test we had a strict programme to follow. Even if two days is both a lot and not enough time, we did all we set out to. For my part, I worked on the set up and on race pace as opposed to Christian who has worked more on qualifiying. As far as I'm concerned, the car is great and a lot of fun to drive, it is very nice and it suits my driving style which is a very, very big plus. Regarding the team, Benoît is a fairly demanding person and that's what you need to get to the required level, plus we are surrounded by a very good team with an engineer who is awesome! Frankly, I'm happy with the people with whom I find myself this year.

At Paul Ricard I had the opportunity to drive at night for the first time. The car is great as far as headlights are concerned and that's really important. At first we didn't have the same points of reference and it's really fascinating to see all the lights on the dashboard like on a fighter jet; I will have to get used to all these things.  As there's not much opportunity for night driving, I made the most of this with the 24 Hours of Le Mans in mind.

Q: How do you approach the first race of the season at Silverstone?

A: I'm quite calm about it but there will be lots of battles because the other driver line ups are also well put together.  The level this year in the ELMS will be very high, with many top drivers, so we will have to give the maximum from the start.