Matthew Wilson: “Bathurst marked a milestone for Bentley”

A big novelty for the 2018 season, the Bentley Continental GT3 will take a new step in its career by being entrusted for the first time for a complete campaign to customer teams.

K-Pax Racing a d’ores et déjà démontré que la voiture savait s’imposer en dominant l’une des deux courses du meeting d’ouverture du Blancpain World Challenge America au Texas le mois dernier, et Team M-Sport, bras armé de Bentley en Europe et qui a contribué au développement, espère bien suivre cet exemple.

The Continental GT3 was also very close to claiming victory at the Bathurst 12 Hours, before a handling error on a command from Andy Soucek leaving the pit lane caused the English car to fall back down the hierarchy.

“I think we should have gotten on the podium, Wilson believes. According to our calculations, we would have been very close to theAston Martin. And with the pace that Andy Soucek showed, there is no doubt that he could have fought with the Aston Martin Vantage – R-Motorsport.

We had a good race, as well as in terms of strategy. But everyone makes mistakes. That's what I told Andy: we've made mistakes before and we've let the drivers down. It happens.

It's frustrating because we knew we were close. We raced at Bathurst before, without having a perfect BoP, being in difficulty, but there, the pace, the strategy… everything was good. You have to accept it. »

A performance which also allowed the Continental GT3 to demonstrate its qualities. “We clearly didn't have the expected result, but the pace was there and the car appeared in good shape, Wilson points out.

Since then, we have had renewed interest from client teams, which is good for us. This also happened after K-Pax's results in World Challenge America. The teams see that the car is good for Customer Racing.

This race clearly marked a milestone, with the cars finishing the race after 12 hours in almost impeccable condition. Which is a good sign. When you looked at the Audi R8 that won in 2018 at Laguna Seca, you could give it a polish and get it back on track. »

2019: first victory at Spa?

It now remains to be realized in Europe, the land of the car's debut last year. And also ground of the first successes of its predecessor. “I hope we win,” admits Wilson. We were close in 2018 (notably at Paul Ricard with the 2nd place of Gounon – Pepper – Kane, slowed down at the end of the race by a sliding engine cover).

We knew that last year would not be easy, as a year of development. We also did it a little differently from other manufacturers. Aston Martin started work on its new car before we started ours.

We then did a season of racing and we're making it available now. We know we have condensed development, but this shows that we know how to work on a short schedule.

There were some scenarios in the race last year where we discovered things about the car that we hadn't seen in testing. It was only after Paul Ricard or Spa that we managed to find the answers to this. »

Spa will be one of the major objectives for Bentley who is chasing a victory in the Ardennes after several missed meetings. Team M-Sport will field four cars to try to put their name on the prize list.

A strengthening of the program which is currently being prepared within the structure. “We have a real talent pool at M-Sport and we are going to do a sort of rotation up to Spa,” explains Wilson. Everyone has the same level of experience.

We spend a lot of time rehearsing pit stops, changing tires, brakes... We have started the process. This will require strengthening of staff and equipment. »

Bentley will also have to replace Vincent Abril, who left for AKKA-ASP in 2019. If Alex Buncombe has been confirmed for the Monza race, the British team has not yet made its choice for the next events.

“We will be in a position to run our drivers before Spa, and give them experience, Wilson says. Seb Morris and Rodrigo Baptista will already have their runs in British GT and World Challenge America. For the others, they will have the chance to be in the car before Spa. »