Garage 59 McLaren on pole after Fuji setback: "We're not flipping the car upside down"

The #10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 was set for a feel-good victory at the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji last month, leading the LMGT3 class with 30 minutes left. True to the team’s recent run of bad luck, two late incidents brought out a safety car that wiped out its advantage and ended its chances.

GT REPORT sat down with Antares Au and Marvin Kirchhöfer on Friday to discuss the team’s outlook for Barcelona and whether the lessons from Fuji can help in another race under threat from the weather.

Extra laps, extra experiments

Au has raced at Barcelona before in GT World Challenge Europe but admitted he “wasn’t very good” on his last visit. A test at the track last week and simulator work have helped, and he also picked up extra laps in practice as teammate Tom Fleming was away on Friday on GT World Challenge Europe duty at Portimão.

That extra track time allowed the team to explore the car’s performance window. “The team is allowed to do more experiments, with setup changes and driving adaptations. The pace looks promising, the car’s fast. We are working on the incremental details of the car’s setup.

“If I’m telling you we’re not flipping the car upside down, things are not too bad.”

The weekend has started well for the #10 McLaren, with Fleming claiming LMGT3 pole in Hyperpole earlier today, a timely boost for a team looking to turn its fortunes around after Fuji.

Learning to race in traffic

Au believes traffic will play a major role on Sunday. His biggest lesson this season has been learning when to give way and where to defend. “It took me seven rounds racing this championship to understand what they mean by taking everything by stride. You’ll just have to ace every turn, no matter how the car feels, and just do our thing.”

Bouncing back from Fuji

Kirchhöfer agreed the car looks competitive, though he stressed there is a long way to go with rain forecast for Sunday. Running without Fleming on Friday was a hurdle, but he called it a positive start for Garage 59 and is looking forward to the race.

“The past few races have been tough, especially the last one – we just had to roll the dice there, given the strategy. But it is what it is. We had a few bad rounds now, but we’re always here to win races and not to finish somewhere in the mid-pack, so I am proud of the team and the effort we’ve put in this season so far. We’ll definitely give it another shot this weekend,” Kirchhöfer said.

Ready for the rain

On the weather, Kirchhöfer told GT REPORT he has no preference between wet and dry conditions, while Au is confident the McLaren can handle the rain. “I can’t control the weather. There was a time when I was with Porsche I would hope for it to rain every single weekend. I have to accept the car offers a different set of tools I have access to. But I think we will be alright.”