Corvette Racing: how teamwork is central to 2023 WEC success
At the recent 6 Hours of Monza – round five of the FIA World Endurance Championship – Corvette Racing scored enough points to secure this year's LMGTE Am title.
This feat was made even more impressive as the trio of Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone and Nicky Catsburg took the GTE Am crown with two rounds of the championship, Fuji and Bahrain, still remaining.
Keating was quick to explain during the post-race conference that it was a team effort and FIAWEC.com heard from Marc Maurini, Corvette Racing programme director and WEC team manager who echoed Keating’s comments.
“During the Monza race, Kyle (Millay, chief engineer), Ben (Johnson, technical director) and others from the engineering team in Canada were able to remotely connect to telemetry, timing and scoring, our engineering and strategy tools, and our team intercom,” explained Maurini.
“Prior to the green flag in Canada, the IMSA team was providing input on strategy through real-time communication with the engineers on the pit wall in Monza… It is not uncommon to see certain individuals in IMSA for one event and at the next WEC race. Any lessons or procedural updates from either series is shared across the programme through singular operations and engineering meetings at the programme level.”
Team driver Catsburg also emphasised how team comradery has helped the No. 33 Corvette Racing car take three WEC victories this season and one second place finish. With a 78 point advantage and only a maximum of 67 still available this season, it’s impossible for any of their competitors to catch them.
“It's pretty cool that although we were a world apart, we are always there supporting each other. It shows how small of a group this is and how tight-knit we are as a team,” explained Catsburg. “We were all very happy for them to win the race. We were watching on the live stream and cheering for them over the intercom system. It was a super-nice way to end the weekend."
Despite Corvette Racing’s dominance at the top of the standings, the battle for second and third place still rages with only two points separating the all-female Iron Dames crew and the No. 25 ORT by TF entry.
The FIA WEC will now take a short summer break before the season resumes with the 6 Hours of Fuji in Japan in early September.
