Victor Martins after his WEC debut at Imola: "I'm going to have to analyze a lot of things"

What are your main takeaways from your first weekend in WEC ?

It was a good weekend overall, even if the final result (11th) is a bit frustrating. I'll focus on the positives, though, as I had plenty of time to get more comfortable in the car. It's the first weekend, so I'll have to analyze a lot of things, like how I managed my weekend. Personally, I need to arrive fresh, understand where I could have prepared better, manage my time better—whether it's analyzing data, videos, my teammates' stints, not spending three hours in front of a screen before getting in the car, warming up properly, and so on. All these points are extremely important. On track, we had pace; that wasn't the issue. It was more the small mistake (penalty for not respecting the safety car procedure) that put us behind. I think we'll review the strategy to see if we can do better at Spa, but overall, it was a good race.

What was the most difficult thing for you to manage?

Traffic management. It was my first race in EnduranceI'd never driven any other cars before; I'm going straight into Hypercars, so there's a lot to learn and discover. I'm pretty happy with what I showed on the track, but I'll have three weeks to analyze things before the Spa race (May 7-9), watch the race footage, the onboard cameras, and see where I can improve. With the cold tires, I already feel good. Right from the Prologue, I was quite comfortable and I was able to analyze with my teammates what I could do better.

Is it difficult to start on a circuit as twisty as Imola with so much traffic?

At Imola, you either overtake before or after the corner; there aren't really any fast corners where you can make a difference compared to a GT car. At Le Mans, in the S-bends PorscheWe'll be able to overtake a few cars on the outside! At Imola, you either overtake before or after, so you have to anticipate, conserve energy, and overtake at the right moment, when you feel it's possible. I don't think it's the most complicated thing, it's just different from other races. I'll still have to learn at Spa and Le Mans; it'll be new again, but good preparation will do the trick!

Interview by Valentin Glo, in Imola.

ALSO READ > In Imola, Alpine Peugeot moves forward, Peugeot falls back