Vesti Was a “Sponge” in First Year With Action Express

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI

Frederik Vesti said he’s been the “sponge” within the Action Express Racing Cadillac team in his first year of GTP racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The 23-year-old Dane, a Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 test and reserve driver, was drafted into the Whelen-sponsored Cadillac V-Series.R entry for a seven-race program this year, largely around the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and IMSA round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

While the 2023 GTP championship-winning squad got off to a challenging start to its campaign, Vesti and co-drivers Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken won the final two races of the season, which helped full season pilot Aitken vault to second in the drivers’ championship.

Speaking with Sportscar365 on the eve of the ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Vesti expressed his satisfaction for his first year in the top prototype class.

“It’s been a true pleasure racing in IMSA,” he said. “I got my first taste at Petit Le Mans last year in a P2, but already then, I knew I had the contract with Whelen Cadillac for this year.

“They’ve been really welcoming. For sure having Earl and Jack as my teammates has been really beneficial. They’re both extremely experienced and quick drivers. There’s been a lot to learn from them.

“I think in the team they call me the ‘sponge’ because I’m just taking on board a lot of stuff.

“I still consider myself relatively new in the endurance world. It’s my second season but having grown up in the formula ladder, all the way towards Formula 1, it’s definitely quite a shift when you then make the change to endurance.

“It’s also a good shift in many ways. It’s a lot of challenges, the racing, especially the traffic is something that’s a big question mark when you make the move.

“Overall the season wasn’t exactly what we’d hope for. Obviously it helped a lot with the win in Indianapolis. We worked a lot towards that.

“It’s been on the cards for a while. It just didn’t line up. But finally in Indianapolis we managed to get that first win, which has given us a lot of confidence moving into next year.”

While regularly getting seat time in Mercedes-AMG’s F1 car, having just recently come off FP1 duties in last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Vesti admitted his uphill learning curve in coming to grips with the Dallara-chassied Cadillac LMDh car.

“This car is really complicated,” he said. “You’d think a Formula 1 car is complicated but this is very complicated in a different way.

“I know the Mercedes F1 car in and out… Everything I know since I’ve been a part of it for the last five years.

“Coming to this car has definitely been a challenge. We have some of the same systems but we also have different ones.

“Just learning how to use them at the right time and remembering everything, because it is quite a different thing.

“Also the racing, I remember back in Daytona, my first laps in the race was from the lead in a restart with Nick Tandy behind me! It’s not easy, and he’s done this for I don’t know how many years and won almost everything.

“That challenge has been one of the coolest things this year. Every time I’m in the car, I’m learning something. That gives me a lot of motivation.”

The 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship runner-up, who undertook a full season of European Le Mans Series racing with Cool Racing last year, said his base understanding of the Cadillac has “come up a lot” since his race debut in January.

“At Daytona, I had to drive with a margin because there was always new things like cold tires, out laps, that’s just incredibly different compared to the F2 or F1 level just because there’s no grip.

“Those small things that make a big difference in the race, I can just push the limit closer now, so my window is bigger for performance.

“That comes with experience and it comes with learning through the racing. I’ve made a lot of steps but there’s still more steps to come and that’s just exciting.”

Formula 1 Experience Helped Transition to LMDh

Vesti said he’s convinced that his seat time in hybrid-powered F1 machinery has helped him get up to speed in the Cadillac LMDh car, suggesting that others who just have GT or LMP2 experience would initially struggle.

“It would definitely be a huge challenge if you only came with LMP2 experience into one of these cars,” he said. “That would be a list of at least ten things that you’ve never heard about before that you’d need to start exploring.

“At least with 80 percent of that I’ve worked with before. It’s just how it interacts with this car specifically that’s been a challenge.

“If you come from a GT car or a LMP2, it’s a massive challenge getting into one of these GTP cars. They are a bit like a spaceship to be honest.”

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John