Drivers Reminisce Ahead of Final Race for GTE Platform

This weekend’s 8 Hours of Bahrain marks the final race for the popular GTE platform which is being replaced by LMGT3 in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series next year.

Whether it was a flat-out competition between all-professional driver lineups or a place for wealthy amateurs to compete on the global stage, GTE provided a stern challenge for those behind the wheel considering its relative lack of driver aids compared to GT3.

The class has a long history, with its roots dating back more than 20 years including the period when it was called GT2 from 2005 until its renaming as GTE in 2011.

Ahead of the category’s swan song, and building on last year’s recollection of the GTE-Pro class, Sportscar365 spoke to drivers in the Bahrain paddock who raced cars built for the GTE platform to hear about their memories and lasting impressions of the era.

Christian Ried – Sole remaining ever-present WEC driver with 12 GTE-Am wins

“I was super happy and it was a great time with those cars. Everybody in the paddock enjoyed those cars and it’s a shame that it’s coming to an end, but it is what it is.

“The championship itself, WEC and ELMS, also IMSA, are really great championships. It’s very professional and organized [well].

“We have really properly developed race cars. Tire-wise, always running the top spec from the manufacturers, it doesn’t matter if it’s Michelin or Goodyear, or Dunlop in the past. It’s always the top level of the material you have, and it just makes the car so great.

“Also how the level driver-wise increased in the last years, it’s amazing to see. It makes it special, fighting with the best Bronzes in the world, the best Silvers and the best pros.

“When we started WEC in 2012, for sure the level was not there, so you really have to convince people to join the championship. The ACO did a really great job on this and you can see it right now with LMDh and Hypercar.”

Richard Westbrook – Represented four brands and had an extensive career in IMSA’s GT Le Mans class

“Lots of people use the term ‘the Golden Era of GT Racing’, and they’re not wrong. You have to pinch yourself when you look back at years like 2017, 2018 and 2019.

“You had this train of GTE-Pro cars at Le Mans… 20 cars nose-to-tail for 24 hours. It really was an arms race with manufacturers and everyone being so close. There were top brands in there.

“I was fortunate enough to drive for four manufacturers during that period – Porsche [in GT2], Corvette, Ford and Aston Martin. It really was a special time, there’s no doubt about it.

“It will be something that people will look back on in 20 years time and a father will tell his son a story of how he was at Le Mans during that time, and the kid probably won’t believe it! It was that close… just intense racing from start to finish.

“All that transferred to IMSA racing in the States and also in WEC. I was fortunate enough to be in the IMSA category for a number of years, and it was just ridiculously good racing.

“Every track you went to, you didn’t know who was going to win. If you weren’t in a position to win, you weren’t going to finish 30 seconds behind. It was that close.

“It was all down to strategy, driver performance on used tires, lots of fuel mileage… it had every ingredient to make classic sports car racing.

“It’s something that I doubt we will ever see again. I think fans related to it because for instance, someone could own a Corvette road car and they’d be cheering on the Corvette Racing team. It was the same with Aston Martin, Porsche and Ford. It really struck a chord with fans.”

Thomas Flohr – Bronze-rated driver who spent six seasons in GTE-Am with AF Corse

“I started in 2017 and there were five cars in GTE-Am. Consistently, the competition became higher and higher.

“Last year, the Pro cars disappeared [from WEC] so Am got even more prominent. I’ve never seen the like, competitive-wise.

“I think the real special part about this was that, for me, the GTE car is the real racecar.

“There is no ABS and there is a level of driving required which really pushes the driver to perfection. There is very little assistance in the car helping you to get there.

“I think that development over the years has really helped me to become a better driver because with every season I was able to learn a little bit more and get faster, and really understand the limit of the car.

“On the one hand, I think it’s a bit sad that the new cars will be much more aero-supported. There is the ABS coming in and so on. [Ferrari is] moving from V8 to V6.

“But like anything, you’ve got to embrace the new. That chapter is over. It was a long six seasons with the 488, which in the end was the most successful GT car Ferrari has ever built.

“I am very honored to have lived through that phase and I’m looking forward to the next phase, which is the 296 GT3.”

Harry Tincknell – Le Mans GTE-Pro winner with Aston Martin who raced three different types of GTE car

“All the cars drive so differently, but ultimately there are different cars winning on different weekends. But they all produce the lap time in a different way.

“The Porsche, you have to rag the car really, really hard to be super aggressive. The Aston is the complete opposite. You need to be smooth with the car. You’re not oversliding it at all and obviously its strengths were on traction and power down.

“And then the Ford GT was sort of somewhere in the middle. Very good aero, very precise. But ultimately, [it] probably was designed a bit too good, so we had less power.

“We could always do the lap time, but raceability when you had traffic was tough.

“Now in this era where we’ve just got GTE-Am, the level is still very high. You might not have the biggest names in terms of the Kevin Estres and stuff in the car, but Julien Andlauer, [Alessio] Picariello and the junior guys are still super strong.

“For sure, it’s the end of an era, but all good things come to an end.  I think what’s replacing is ultimately going to be really good as well. You’ve got more variety with more manufacturers and stuff like that. But for sure, I’ll always remember these moments.

“I was at Rennsport Reunion not long ago and Monterey Car Week. So hopefully at some point in the future, our cars will be there and we can get to drive them.”

Ben Keating – two-time GTE-Am champion with TF Sport and Corvette Racing

“What I loved about GTE-Am is that you had a Pro class, and all the BoP was set based on the Pro class in the previous year. So you didn’t have a need for these big, sweeping changes from week to week to week.

“They knew where the cars were, and you always knew that you had a chance instead of being pencil-whipped by the technical team. Going forward with no [LMGT3] Pro class, they won’t have that information. I have faith they’ll do a good job, but it’s going to be tough.

“You’re not going to have the ability to do well every weekend, whereas currently we have the ability to perform well, which I really enjoy. I spend a lot of money and a lot of time to be here, and I don’t want to go into a race weekend without feeling like I at least have a shot at doing well. I really love that about GTE.

“I love that the tire from Michelin is designed specifically for each individual car. That’s a big deal to have a tire designed for your car, and the Michelins that are on the Corvette are different than the ones on the Porsche, on the Ferrari or on the Aston Martin.

“That’s a really big deal for the performance level of these cars.

“I really love in GTE-Am, every car is required to have a Bronze, a Silver and either a Gold or Platinum. With how the WEC handles safety cars, you don’t get them very often. So my time in the car matters racing in GTE.

“I really like that, and I like that these cars don’t have ABS. I feel like that the big separator between Bronze drivers of who has the skill of braking without locking up and still going fast.

“When everyone has ABS like they will next year, you step on the brake like an 800-lb gorilla and let the computer do the work. It makes everyone a hero in the brake zone. I’m a little disappointed that that skill will be going away from GT racing.

“The cars are so well-designed. Most of the GT3 cars are designed to be customer cars. All the GTE cars are designed to be pro-level race cars. There’s just a little bit little extra in every way.

“I love that. It’s definitely a skill that you have to develop, and it’s been a lot of fun to develop the skills to be fast in these cars.”

Daniel Lloyd and Davey Euwema contributed to this report