By Richard Sloop - Motorsport.com
Lord Paul Drayson and his wife, Lady Elspeth Drayson, made the move from the LMGT2 class in Le Mans-style racing to the echelon of sportscar racing: LMP1. Drayson Racing campaigned their new LMP1 Lola Coupe at the recent Petit Le Mans event in Braselton, Georgia.
Paul Drayson. Photo by Richard Sloop.
Lord Drayson is both owner and driver of the Lola B09/60 Judd and in his non-racing life, he is currently British Minister of Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. He and Lady Drayson have been actively involved in the 'Green' movement, not just in the United Kingdom, but on a global basis.
Even during the very busy week leading up to the Petit Le Mans race, Lord Drayson met with Motorsport.com's photojournalist Richard Sloop at the Road Atlanta facility. The one-on-one exclusive interview follows on the heels of Drayson Racing's announcement that they would contest the American Le Mans Series in 2010.
M.com: Well, welcome back to United States in the new LMP1 class. I know you been planning on this step up for a long time and you put it together really quickly. Can you give us a little background on how you moved from an Aston Martin sedan GT to an LMP1 car?
Drayson: "We have always wanted to eventually move up to LMP1 and the primary reason for that is it is premier league of sports car racing and it's also the class whereby you have the most freedom in terms of trying new technology. We wanted to be a pioneer in introducing new technology for 'green' racing. The decision to move up to LMP1 this year came with the idea that by doing it now, we would be able to get to long races in (Petit Le Mans, Laguna Seca) and to sprint races (in Japan next month) before next season. We wanted to get a jump on next year. We have been afraid we might be getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. It's a bit unusual to change cars in midseason. We have just completed the Le Mans series in Europe. Dale White (team manager) and the guys have done a great job to put this together. Lola-Judd cars are so impressive. I am thankful to both Lola and Judd teams who were willing to put this together for us so promptly. They all got the car together in a few days; got it shaken down and amazingly here we are Road Atlanta!
"It's great to have our premiere here because it was a year ago that the inaugural initial 'Green Challenge' started. We were leading the 'Green Challenge' until we had a drive shaft failure. So to be able to come back to Road Atlanta in LMP1 car is a dream come true for us. What we want to do now is learn on this platform. We know the Lola chassis is very competitive, very reliable, so we have a good base to experiment with new things like, new fuels, energy recovery systems and new ideas about battery technology. We want to try new innovative technologies with a known platform. And get a real competitive pace out of it. Our mission is to be pioneering in 'green' racing with no compromise to the pace of performance. There's no excuse for going slower. This is racing! We have found that with everything we've done as a 'green' racing team, as long as you process approach it with that ethos, fans love it, it makes sense to people and we think this is very important for the motor sport, never so more than now. It's time from the motor sporting community to show that it's truly relevant.
Debut of the #88 Drayson Racing Lola B09/60 Judd at Road Atlanta. Photo by Carol Fogle.
"There's no doubt, being the Science Minister, I see the data everyday that the climate is changing. We have seen the growth of carbon dioxide emissions to the highest levels ever, which has led to temperature change. So we have to respond to that. Of course, there is legislation coming that will require car manufacturers to reduce the CO2 per kilometer. The difference, I think, motor sport can make is be this test bed for new technology. If you look at the history of motor racing, Jaguar's innovation of disc brakes, use of seat belts, a lot of that came from sports car racing. So we have a great legacy. I think that this continued pressure that's going on for better efficiency is consistent with racing.
"It is very important that motorsport doesn't underestimate this wave of concern that is coming and becomes part of the solution, doesn't close our ears to it. The best analogy I can give really is some of the problems which we have had in Europe relating to noises at circuits. If you look at the problem that Spa has at the moment, you can't ignore these things. The message really needs to be, if motorsport really takes on board the need to be relevant by pioneering 'green' technology and sets an example by which gets people interested in the solutions which makes going 'green' racing quite exciting and cool, not dull and boring. I think the leadership of the American Le Mans Series has shown that by in working with Michelin, setting up the Green X Challenge, working with the EPA, Department of Energy, that that is the way forward and I'm really delighted to be here back in the States being a competitive part of it."
M.com: How do you see the difference between the 'green' movement in the United States and that of the UK and the rest of Europe?"
Drayson: "I think that in the rest of Europe, laws have been passed, for example, which would set a date by which all cars manufactured and sold in Europe have to operate at a maximum level of CO2 emissions. There is a first limit of 130g per kilometer coming in 2012. The next will require all cars sold in Europe to have less than 130g grams per kilometer after 2015. People are talking now that by 2020 legislation will require cars to be below 100g per kilometer. Now what I think is different at the moment is these laws are being passed which are prescribing what has to be done.
LMGT2 #007 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage at Sebring 2009. Photo by Luis Betancourt.
"I think what's great in America is that then rather just say that someone may not just do something; what's happening here is, people are being able to find solutions which encourages people to change through what's being done in the American Le Mans Series. People here have seen the oil prices go up and down. Americans are concerned with energy security. And I think energy concerns are greater in the United States than Europe. We all share the same problem of how much we import. It doesn't matter, if we had an infinite supply of oil, we can't keep chucking this carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If you look at the CO2 emissions curve, it has changed and gotten steeper since 1960. Although, at the moment, the majority of these emissions are coming from the developed world, North America, Europe, China and Asia, it accelerating faster than the planet just does not have the capacity to sink this amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Transportation is about 19% of total emissions so we really have to do something about this.
"I'm a firm believer as a politician and as a racer, it's not about telling people 'you can't' do something, it's not about people making people feel guilty. That's not going to work. You've got to inspire people and make them want to do it and that's about using the techniques we've known for some time. It's about about marketing the benefits and the benefits come from science and engineering. Particular cars, because they have a strong bond on people, which isn't something they will never want to give up. Having the freedom, the ability, to go when and wherever you want; people are not willing to do without their cars. So the car industry has got a challenge. They've got to find how they can use technology to produce cars that are desirable as people want and have all the features that people want, but at same time considerably more efficient and dramatically lower on emissions.
"For example, if you look at the heat signature of a car; I was talking to a bunch of school kids last week; we talked about the Jaguars at Le Mans and asked the kids to look at the pictures of the cars with their red hot glowing brakes. I asked, 'Where does all the energy go'? I said to the kids, 'imagine how many breaks are being used at this moment around the world and think of all the energy that's being wasted'. We can't just lose this energy. It's the same as the energy that's lost through exhaust. All the heat expelled from cars is amazing. So we need to think about 'kinetic energy recovery systems' in terms of hybrid, whether it's mechanical or electrical, we've 'hard paid' for it with the gas that we put in the tank. So we need to make it more efficient, which will bring fuel costs down. It's an attitude thing. It all comes from marketing. If you look at the Corvettes running around the racetracks on E85 fuel, they are cool...and fast! People are not going to buy cars with poor performance. The challenge is to make cars that are cool, fast and efficient!
#88 Drayson Racing Lola B09/60 Judd: Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Robert Bell. Photo by Richard Sloop.
M.com: You mentioned that you talked to a class for kids. Does this have to do with the decal on your car 'Science -- So What - So Everything'
Drayson: "Yes, it is all about, in Britain, we have a shortage of scientists and engineers. We know that our future depends upon turning the great sciences, that were good at as a nation, into businesses and products that can grow. We estimate that over the next 10 years there will be 2.7 million jobs requiring skilled scientists and engineers. What we have found from our research is that we need to open people's eyes about how science is in everything. So when I talk about my racing, the science of speed, things like 'what is downforce', 'what allows the car to go around the corner fast', 'what is drag', 'what's the trade-off between downforce and drag', we start a discussion of science. I like to explain to people about David Beckham's curve kick and show them how science allows him to kick the ball the way he does. It's interesting.
"Science is about noticing stuff. It's about knowing facts and the principles behind things, of course, but what I have noticed as the Science Minister, is that when you talk to well known scientists or Nobel Prize winners and ask them what got them interested in science, they all share the same interest of 'why'. I remember one scientist I spoke with who as a young boy, remembered walking down the street and noticing that the leaves that were in the shade of the tree were a different shape than the leaves that were in the sunshine and 'I just asked why'?"
M.com: Curiosity?
Drayson: "Yes! That curiosity of why and then, wanting to know the answer. That's where the motivation and interest in 'Science -- So What -- So Everything' campaign comes from. It is getting over to people that science is like art, it's out there, it in everything and is really interesting stuff. You can tell a child that 'you have more cells in your body than there are stars in the universe' and they go 'really'? And you go, 'Yes, it's true'! We want to inspire parents to encourage their children to be interested in it. In effect, recognizing that for the United Kingdom to be a successful country, it has to be good at science and it has to be comfortable with doing science. It's not about making science 'elitist', but it's about making science for everyone, hence the logo on the race car."
#88 Drayson Racing Lola B09/60 Judd: Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Robert Bell. Photo by Richard Sloop.
M.com: Great...Now a fun question...You're about to start your new ride in a LMP1 car. Tell us a little bit about how exciting is?
Drayson: "Everybody has told me how amazing and fast these cars are and if you have been a GT driver and have seen these cars fly past you and now you're in one of those cars and you're coming down the main straight and now I'm passing everyone else, that's really cool!
"What's really different is, the car is incredibly stable. It's just amazing. As the trees are rushing past at this increasingly fast rate and I'm in my mind saying, 'Wow', it's a bit distracting. I'm so amazed by what the car is able to do. The car has way more ability to turn through a corner than I think it does. I say to myself as I turn in, 'that's a bit fast' and it just goes through and I think, 'Well, next time, I'll try it a little bit faster'. And you just keep going faster and faster; it's kind of the addictive; that's the best way I can describe it. The feeling of the g forces on your body, the faster you go, the more you get that 'fairground ride'. You know, the 'big dip' feeling on a roller coaster ride. Like here at Road Atlanta, when you come out of the esses at the bottom of the hill at Turn 10B and come up the hill over the top, under the bridge and you're flat out, the car goes completely light. Your stomach gets left behind and then you come down and you hit the dip in the turn, your head and neck are straining from your helmet through the hard right-hander. This is such a challenge. It's a blast! The the best way I can describe it is, it's like being on a roller coaster ride with the ability to steer it!"
M.com: Could you also say that when you are racing in a GT car you are always waiting for it to catch up with you and now that you're in a LMP1 car, you're trying to keep up with it?
Drayson: "That's exactly right! You just know the car has all this capacity and you haven't gotten there yet. I'm the slowest driver in the car at the moment. What I've got to do is get up to speed as fast as I can. I also know that when you get up to the limit of grip, it is a very narrow line. Therefore, the differences; let's say you're in a GT car and you're at the limit of grip, the car slides and you feel it coming and you can catch it. It has a lot of weight and you're used to getting good speed out the car. So you get used to driving on that edge with the whole thing holding on by its fingernails. But with an LMP1 car, it's not like that at all. The point of which the car has grip and it's planted with all that down force and then you go over the line is quite a narrow line. Like driving here in the wet, it's very precise and when it goes, it goes really quick."
#88 Drayson Racing Lola B09/60 Judd: Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Robert Bell. Photo by Richard Sloop.
M.com: Is there anything else in the world you rather be doing right now?
Drayson: "Absolutely not! This is it, right here, right now!"
M.com: Good luck.
Drayson: "Thanks, mate..."
Drayson Racing's next challenge will be at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the ALMS season finale, the daylight-to-dusk race Saturday, October 10th on the famous 2.238-mile circuit with the downhill "Corkscrew" turn.
Unfortunately heavy rains in Georgia returned to the area after a few days of sunshine during the 1,000 or 10-hour race which forced the IMSA officials to shorten the event.
Drayson Racing's Team Manager, Dale White commented, "Despite the rain and the limited running at Petit Le Mans we were able to take away more information than we could have in two weeks of testing. We'll bring that to Laguna Seca with much higher expectations as a result of the strong performance of the car. If anything, I think Laguna will prove a better fit for the Lola-Judd than Road Atlanta was. Thus far, the strategy of coming out early with the prototype is working out better than we could have hoped."
The weather will be cool in the Monterey, California area but at this time, rain is definitely not in the picture. Drayson is one of the two drivers in the team's prototype; Jonny Cocker, a two-time British GT champion and endurance racer will be have his turn in the Lola-Judd.
Discuss this article in the Motorsport.com Forums channel: LEMANS ALMS
No comments:
Post a Comment