GT – Vanthoor: “A permanent fight against oneself”

The first round of German VLN was mourned by the death of a spectator following Jann Mardenborough's Nissan GT-R GT3 goes off the track. Present on site to debut the latest iteration of the Audi R8 LMS, Laurens Vanthoor was very marked by the tragedy and recalled that the German track always constitutes a challenge in its own right where danger is permanent.

“On the Nordschleife, we know that we have absolutely no room for error. There, there are no large clearance areas to catch you if you were too optimistic. If you miss it, is it the wall? As a pilot, you feel like you're delivering a permanent fight against oneself. On the one hand, you want to attack as much as possible all the time. On the other hand, your survival instinct pushes you to slow down... When I was told that the accident had taken place at Flugplatz, I immediately made a face. As its name suggests, Flugplatz is a place where you take off lightly. The speeds reached at this location are very high and leaving the track there can have very serious consequences, as we have unfortunately seen. When a driver dies on a circuit, it's already a shock because we say to ourselves that it could be us. But we assume the risks we take. In this sense, the accidental death of a spectator is perhaps even more cruel? » indicates the Belgian.

Following the Mardenborough accident, the DMSB (Deutscher Motor Sport Bund), equivalent of our FFSA, initially had temporarily banned certain categories of cars including the GT3 and GT4. A meeting will be organized next Tuesday to find solutions to improve security on the Nordschleife.