New team and new car for Eastwood: “My first feeling is that the Corvette is very strong! »

The year 2024 is that of change for Charlie Eastwood: after five years spent at Aston Martin, the Irishman changes everything by joining Corvette. At the start of the 24 Hours of Daytona aboard the brand new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, with the AWA team, the 28-year-old driver is still in the learning phase, having only been able to complete around twenty tours before landing in Florida.

“This is very new to me. I only left Aston Martin in November, and I arrived in December [at Corvette], so I only had a few days of driving before Christmas and of course during the ROAR, he explained. My first feeling is that [the Corvette] is very, very strong! It's a really good car when you have to drive it to the limit. With a lot of GT3s, we have to resort to under-driving and it's very difficult to find the balance whereas here, we can attack with the Corvette. It's a brand new car, but we have a fantastic foundation in terms of mechanics. Now it's up to the team to find the final performance points. »

“Arriving with a new car at what is like the SuperBowl of motorsport is a lot of pressure! However, thanks to the development process carried out beforehand, it wouldn't feel like this is the car's first race. She looks like she's been running for a long time.", specifies the Corvette driver, visibly happy with his first sensations with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Daytona, a valuable apprenticeship ahead of the WEC for Eastwood

Charlie Eastwood, who will be aligned this season in WEC with the TF Sport team, believes that whatever can be learned at Daytona will be essential in understanding the car ahead of the 2024 campaign. “In the WEC, when we go to circuits like Fuji, Qatar or Le Mans, some cars are comfortable in all conditions. Fingers crossed that we can perform well. TF Sport received the two Corvettes in its workshops, we will do the first tests just after the Asian Le Mans Series in Dubai, and then we will head straight to Qatar. It's going to go very quickly, but for me and Dani [Juncadella], it's a good thing that we're here, because we're learning a lot here.", underlines the Irish pilot.

Although he is quite optimistic about this first race weekend with Corvette, Charlie Eastwood is very cautious about his predictions. According to the Irishman, the AWA team – which is discovering GT3 this season – still needs to progress and get used to GTD. “It's complicated to place the performance of each car here. For our part, we just have to control what is possible to control. You have to find the best balance that best suits each driver and not make mistakes. [The AWA team] comes from LM P3, and there are a lot of differences with GT3: pit stops, brake changes, etc. If we have this under control, I think we could win. But we will see, during the race, if we can win or not. »

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