I started my 2024 season with the Bathurst 12 Hour. That came off the back of winning all three races in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia there last year, and we won our class. An endurance race is always tricky, so it was great to do it with an awesome team around me in EMA Motorsport.
I adapted quite quickly to GT3. You have assists, so you’ve got to understand how they work and how they help you. I also had the dynamic of not driving flat-out for 30 minutes, which was new territory for me, so I was delighted do a faultless job – and to come away with the Pro-Am class win was the cherry on top.
A dynamic I hadn’t seen before was the pitstops and the team working well together over a long race, and it brought out a new passion for me seeing how hard the mechanics and engineers work. To repay them with success and to see the joy on their faces is probably something I took more satisfaction from than standing on the podium and collecting my trophy.
Then the Carrera Cup Middle East was in preparation for the Supercup and the Carrera Cup Germany programmes, and that went very well, with three wins out of four with Lechner Racing. That’s a series that I thoroughly enjoy.
Cup racing in recent years has been competitive and, with the amount of driving that the competitors are doing and the level that they’re competing at, it’s fundamental that you do a dual programme to be fresh in the car and to optimise that one lap in qualifying. You only have 30 minutes, so where you start on the grid has the biggest impact on your result.
I had the luxury of doing Carrera Cup Germany with Allied Racing. One highlight was round one alongside the World Endurance Championship at Imola, walking away with two wins. I hadn’t done the double on a weekend in that series, so that was one to add to the list of accomplishments.
Supercup with Lechner also started at Imola, where I qualified and finished second. There really wasn’t much opportunity to take the win, and it’s so important to take the points and not take any risks.
The points scale is very biased towards the top three positions, so you have to take these points and swallow a bit of pride. Finishing second was a good feeling at Imola, but Monaco and Red Bull Ring, where we finished second both times, really annoyed me.
Silverstone, where I finished fourth, is one that’s going to remain with me for a little while. It was one of my dreams to win my home event, but we were missing a bit of pace to another team and the win wasn’t realistic. I’m sure every successful racing driver will have events where they feel they could have done a better job or they should have got a better outcome, and that weekend I did everything in my power to get the best result.
Bathurst was a real eye-opener for me, in an environment where everybody is working towards the same goal. It changed my focus
In the end, the outcome of both championships was finishing as runner-up. Knowing how competitive they are, it’s not a bad achievement. My goal this year was to walk away with absolutely zero regrets, and I felt I maximised every weekend to the best of my ability.
We had the greatest number of wins in Germany, we were the only car in Supercup to finish in the top five at every single event, and we were on the podium more times than any other drivers. It would be nice to end my time in Carrera Cup cars with four championships, but winning two titles and finishing runner-up twice is not bad at all.
Ultimately, my main goal was to see it as a stepping stone. I’m not content with just becoming a champion in one series, I want to see how far I can test myself in other cars, other machinery and other championships. The Carrera Cup is a comfortable environment, but I want to explore more of what the sport has to offer.
Bathurst was a real eye-opener for me, in an environment where everybody is working towards the same goal. It changed my focus and shifted my passion towards endurance, where you have to work collectively to reap the rewards. I take a lot of satisfaction in that, and I realised that this is where I want my career to end up.
It’s an exciting time. I don’t think I’ve ever found myself almost wishing the winter would pass by, even after such a busy year, but I’m motivated to get it started. What will come at the end of this year and into next year is something that as a young boy I would have dreamed of.
The British Racing Drivers’ Club and the SuperStars programme is something that I’m very passionate about, and I realise the significance of being a full member and being one of a limited number of drivers that can say they’re a SuperStar. To continue to be representing that is always a big honour and privilege.
Achieving the Gold Star last year was a nice thing to tick off the bucket list, as not many drivers in the BRDC have even been close to that, and to win it again this year was another big privilege. My name will be on the wall at the BRDC forever, and it will be there twice, which is even better.
