Question & Answer with Matt Griffin & Johnny Mowlem

Matt Griffin, No.52 Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia:

Q:  What will make the difference between you and the other title contenders this weekend?

A:  “It's difficult in a championship like this to create a difference because it's very competitive and there are lots of good drivers and teams.  Honestly I think we are lucky to be with Ram Racing; the professionalism they've shown and the strategy calls they've made this year have been fantastic.  I think the edge will come from what the team give us both in the car and the strategy.  Of course, the reality is that we're not looking for a big advantage over the other teams, we're looking to have a clean race and get through it and focus on the championship.”

Q:  Will you run your own race or will you have to react to how others are doing in the race?

A:  “I think we'll have to look at what others are doing and what their strategy is.  At the moment our plan is to stick to our own strategy, but that usually works for the first ten minutes of the race and everything changes.  Ram will be able to react very quickly to what's happening so that should help us.  This season Johnny and I have been the benchmark so I think what you might see is the others reacting to us and, I think that if it goes down that road, we'll be very strong and make our own race.”

Johnny Mowlem, No.52 Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia:

Q:  What will make the difference between you and the other title contenders this weekend?

A:  “I don't think that anything will make the difference between the cars, but I will say that the engineers and the team have done a fantastic job this year.  We seem to have hit the ground running here, much better than we did at the last two races, and both Matt and I feel immediately that the lap time seems to be there.  It's not perfect, but we should be as quick as anyone or quickest.  We had to work a bit harder at the last two races.  I'm very comfortable we'll have a great race car but, in the race itself,  the one thing I'm worried about is that the LMP2 cars are actually slower than us on the straight and I think it's going to create a bit of a bottleneck going into corners like Signes.  We are going to have to be very careful about how we use traffic and our mirrors because ultimately we stand to lose a lot if we mess up.”

Q:  Will you run your own race or will you have to react to how others are doing in the race?

A:  “One thing I've got going for me is that I'm quite experienced!  In this situation I know that I tend to back it down just a tiny bit.  I know I need to look after the car and that we need to get to the finish but that doesn't mean I'm not going to be out there trying to win the race.  I want to win, the team wants to win and I think we have the car to do so.  If I'm really honest I'm probably going to be a bit cautious.  Normally, if it was me and Nick Tandy in the cars at the end, like in Austria, I'd be going at it hammer and tongs but probably not this time around!”