Harry Tincknell - Looking Forward to Racing at the Red Bull Ring

Q: After winning in 2015, second in 2014 and pole positions in each of those races as well, the Red Bull Ring seems well suited to the Gibson-Nissan.  What makes the track special for you as a driver?

“I’ve always seemed to go well round this track and for me the setting makes it special. It’s one of the most picturesque tracks I’ve been to with the mountains in the background and the circuit is so fast and flowing it makes for really good racing. We’ve had good results here in the past and last year I managed pole, win and fastest lap, but we’re under no illusions that the competition is really tough this year.”

Q: How is ‘new boy’ Guido Van Der Garde settling into the team with you and Simon?

“He’s doing really well as expected for an ex F1 driver and former World Series by Renault Champion. It’s great having him in the team and he’s a really nice guy who likes a laugh so he fits in really well with Simon and myself. Obviously endurance racing is a bit different to single seaters and I’ve been helping him a bit with the transition, especially traffic management, which is key to having a quick race average with 35 plus cars on the grid this year. He’s obviously super quick and all three of us push each other on to find that last bit of lap time.”

Q: How is the 2016 season going so far for you and the team? How competitive is the LMP2 class this year compared to previous seasons?

“It’s going really well we dominated our home race at Silverstone and made the best of a tricky race at Imola to finish second. We’ve come close to the championship the last two years and this is the best we’ve ever started a season and of course the aim is to be third time lucky. The P2 class has got progressively more competitive since I entered it in 2014, and the standard was already high then. The coupes, especially the Orecas are very fast this year and we really have to give the Gibson hell to keep up but we’ve been doing our best so far. I think people like Mike Conway and Brendon Hartley have shown there is life after Formula One and a lot of good young guys are switching to LMP2 earlier now then they used to. Guys like Paul Loup Chatin are making a name for themselves and you have factory drivers like Olivier Pla and myself along with big names such as Giedo, Mathias Beche and Nico Lapierre all in LMP2 in the ELMS this year. It’s a high level.”

Q: You are leading the championship by 13 points after the first two races.  Does this put more pressure on you as a driver going into the third race of six?  Do you think about the championship at this stage or are you just concentrating on one race at a time?

“Absolutely not, I haven’t even thought about it to be honest. Of course I would rather be leading the championship than not but we’re only 1/3 of the way through and a lot can happen and probably will if the past few years is anything to go by. It’s a really exciting championship from that point of view and it’s going to fiercely fought for. It really is session by session at the moment, maybe at the end of the Ricard race I’ll sit down, have a look at the championship and think, right what do we need to do to win this.”