Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
This weekend, all eyes will be on Bahrain, as Porsche plans to keep up the pace in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), rounding out the finale with another impressive victory to its current five wins in a row.
After securing the constructors’ title in China earlier this month, Porsche’s 919 Hybrid Aussie racer Mark Webber told GulfWeekly that winning the finale in the Six Hours of Bahrain would be ‘the icing on the cake’.
The 39-year-old, who is leading in the drivers’ world championship title with 155 points alongside his teammates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley, would love to secure the accolade in the kingdom and make it a season of double celebrations.
He said: “The wins feel beautiful and the championship position just takes care of itself. Our processes and how we do our job hasn’t really changed. We want to get a really good result every time we race and obviously also in Bahrain to put the icing on the cake.
“Our first target is to get pole position and to get the point for that which will be important. From then on we have to make sure the car is running smoothly for the 6-hour race – we can’t afford a non-finish, of course the No 7 Audi can’t either. It’s in our hands and we’ve got to be very measured with the levels of aggression in our race.”
This is Porsche’s 13th constructors’ World Championship title in endurance racing. The German brand hasn’t won since 1986. Porsche has taken the title with 308 points ahead of Audi with 238 and Toyota on 137.
In the race for the drivers’ world championship title, Audi’s team of drivers – Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler – currently sit with 143 points, 12 behind Webber & Co.
Webber said: “We’ve learned a lot in our first season last year. It’s not always been plain sailing for us but the results we’ve achieved are testimony to the hard work the team has put in.
“It has been a two-horse race this year between Audi and Porsche. Toyota has struggled to bring a performance to the championship this year. Audi started very strongly but then we brought some changes and upgrades to the car because we knew we had to put the heat on Audi very quickly to try and get the championship back in our favour and that’s what happened.
“The car has been phenomenal and the team has worked very hard on the car and we’ve had a very good run in the last few races. None of those results happened easily, we’ve had some adversity along the way and we have had some tough moments from which we had to recover and that’s part of the team growing stronger and stronger.
“Our No 17 car has been very successful but it’s not over yet. For example, Shanghai is a classic case where the race could have gone either way right until the end. The results aren’t always displaying how difficult it was to get the victory.”
Webber is no stranger to racing success. He achieved numerous podium successes during his Formula 1 days driving for Red Bull.
His first F1 win was at the 2009 German Grand Prix and he went on to notch eight podium finishes by the end of the season. He added 10 more in 2010 and finished the season in third place, losing out to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final race.
Webber notched another race victory in the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, once again finishing third behind champion Vettel and runner-up Jenson Button. In 2012 he finished in sixth position. He then retired at the end of 2013 and subsequently joined Porsche on a long-term deal racing LMP1 sport cars in 24-Hours of Le Mans.
Webber, who was also a long-term director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, the Formula One drivers’ union, believes his years of experience in grand prix racing helped in his move to WEC.
He said: “It’s been a beautiful transition for me to go from F1 to such a prestigious brand and it’s also been beneficial for me to have competed in F1 and to have the knowledge of certain tracks we go to with the WEC.
“We can go to these tracks with a lot more experience with how we have to approach these circuits, how we set the car up and how we focus on certain areas that are ultimately going to give us the right results. It’s been enjoyable to be able to transmit some of that information to Porsche which is a very big brand and has a huge history in sports car racing.
“I’ve also really enjoyed working with my teammates Timo and Brendon in the car; the chemistry in the cockpit has been great.”
Webber has not been Bahrain’s favourite sporting son, having been vocal in his criticism of F1 returning to Sakhir after the unrest in 2011, but says he remains a fan of the track and is looking forward to returning to the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) and enjoying the atmosphere there.
He said: “Off the back of the last two races we’ve had, it’s good not to have to worry about the weather too much. The facilities are really good to work with and we know the track well because we do a fair bit of testing out there. I do enjoy the evenings in Bahrain; it’s always a good atmosphere with the palm trees.”
The eighth and final round of the WEC will be staged at the BIC in Sakhir on Friday and Saturday with the main event flagging off at 3pm and ending under floodlights at 9pm. Motoring fans can watch the action from the Main Grandstand and there will be an Open Paddock experience giving them a chance to catch their favourite drivers behind-the-scenes.
Aside from the FIA WEC, support races include the GP2 Series, GP3 Series, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East and the MRF Challenge.
There will also be a variety of activities, carnival games and entertainment for people to enjoy at the BIC vending area. The street theatre shows will feature the non-verbal Men in Coats, joined by The Trash Test Dummies. There will also be a reverse bungee ride and eight state-of-the-art GT simulators.
Tickets for the weekend cost BD10 and those aged 15 and under get in free.
For details visit www.bahraingp.com or call17450000.
