Vesti: “Useful” Rookie Test Speeds Up Learning Process

Frederik Vesti believes his test outing in the Cadillac V-Series.R during the FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test will help accelerate his learning process as he prepares to join Action Express Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The 2023 FIA Formula 2 runner-up joined Chip Ganassi Racing for the post-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit, sharing driving duties with Charlie Eastwood, Daniel Juncadella and Earl Bamber, one of his WeatherTech Championship co-drivers next year.

By his own admission, the test marked Vesti’s first time driving the Dallara-chassised LMDh car, having previously gained experienced in single seaters, LMP2 and GT3 machinery.

“It’s very different to what I’m used to,” Vesti told Sportscar365.

“It’s a lot bigger, it’s a lot heavier than something like a Formula 2 car. The driving style is also a bit different.

“But straight away from the first lap I felt very comfortable in the car which is something that’s important as a driver so the confidence was high.

“The fine tuning is now what needs to be done on the driving style because for sure it’s different.”

Vesti made his WeatherTech Championship debut at October’s Motul Petit Le Mans as a late stand-in for Eastwood at Tower Motorsport, has competed with Cool Racing in the European Le Mans Series and raced a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

He also retains a reserve driver role with the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 operation and stated that competing in F1 remains ‘the goal.’

“But at some point, you have to continue driving,” said Vesti.

“I can’t just sit on the bench as a reserve driver in Formula 1. I really want to be driving.

“That’s why I did Spa with AMG. It’s why I’m here with Cadillac and will be next year in IMSA.

“I’m genuinely really excited about that because as a driver, I’m used to driving almost every week. And then when you have a year like this where you don’t drive much, it’s very frustrating and I don’t learn the same amount as I could.

“So that’s why I’ve decided to join Cadillac in a very exciting program.”

To that end, Vesti hailed the rookie test opportunity as a good chance to kickstart his learning process with Cadillac, which will continue when he joins AXR at this weekend’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway.

“This test, the focus was just learn the systems, get going in the car,” Vesti said.

“So when we rock up in America, we are ready to test properly without having to go through too much stuff. I think that’s going to be useful for our first test.”

Vesti admitted he has had to go through a ‘mindset shift’ since joining endurance racing, noting that he has to be more “proactive” in his approach and placing a greater focus on self-improvement.

“So I’m used to the somehow spoiled world of Formula 2 and Formula 3 where you are the center of everything as a driver,” he said.

“Of course the car is important but because it’s equal machinery, everything is centered around the driver.

“You have engineers just looking at data for you, there’s guys looking at video. Everything the engineers do is to make the driver faster.

“Here it’s a lot more the driver’s job to be improving and I think Earl [Bamber] is a good example of someone who is extremely professional and who has done this for a lot of years and is just very good at understanding how to improve.

“So I need to shift my mindset a bit from having everything done for me in F2 and starting to be proactive and knowing in which direction I need to look to improve myself.

“Because there won’t necessarily be someone saying, ‘In Turn 1 you’re doing this and in Turn 2, you need to do this.’

“That’s something I need to know and that’s where I can lean on someone like Earl and Jack [Aitken], who has a lot of experience in this world.”