Heinrich “Prepared A Lot” for Macau Debut in Strong Start

Photo: FIA

Laurin Heinrich said he “prepared a lot” for his debut on the Macau Guia Circuit, which proved to pay off after an encouraging Free Practice 1.

The newly crowned IMSA GTD Pro champion laid down the second quickest time of the session, trailing only seven-time Macau winner Edoardo Mortara in the rain-impacted running around the 3.803-mile street circuit aboard his No. 88 Schumacher CLRT Porsche 911 GT3 R.

“It’s a very magnificent circuit,” Heinrich told Sportscar365. “I did two track walks; one yesterday and one the day before. Yesterday the one was wet so that maybe helped!

“It’s a public road, even when you do the track walk, you can barely walk because it’s a four-lane highway in some points.

“It’s really greasy and dirty, even with some cars driving, it’s not really cleaning up.

“We also had quite some track evolution and some driver evolution even because everyone’s learning and getting up to speed, even the ones who have been here before.

“I prepared a lot, to be honest. I was so happy to finally get out on the real track because I can put the sim and videos aside and work with my own stuff, my own data and my own videos.

“That helps.”

The 23-year-old German believed the wet nature of the session may not have necessarily played into his favor but could impact his experience later in the weekend, with dry weather expected for the two races.

“To be honest, I think the rain spreads the field out a bit more because in general the gaps are always a big bigger in the rain,” said Heinrich.

“This was the first wet session since for as long as people can remember, at least for GT cars.

“I think it equalizes a bit the track knowledge advantage of what others have.

“For me, everything is new. If the Free Practices are wet, I go out in a dry qualifying, it will be new again.

“I just take it from session to session, try to do a good job with the team and improve myself also.”

When asked what his goals are for the remainder of the weekend, Heinrich said: “Everyone comes to Macau to win.

“I would be lying if I wouldn’t [want that]. But obviously the expectations as a rookie are not as high if you’re a multiple Macau winner.

“Maybe that helps. I can take an easy approach. I can go step by step, have a good learning curve.”

Top Result Would Be “More Rewarding” With All-Rookie Team

Heinrich said the entire CLRT team, which typically races in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, are rookies to Macau, like himself, which made his run in FP1 all that more rewarding.

“Obviously I have a good team around me,” he said. “I work with them already in GT World Challenge Europe.

“The team is also new to Macau. We’re all rookies. We are a full rookie team.

“It’s a full CLRT team. We are not supported by Manthey. There are no Manthey engineers, no Manthey mechanics.

“I’m really happy because it’s a really small team that works really hard to bring such a quick car.

“If it works out like it did now, it’s obviously much more rewarding.”

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