Van der Linde “Building Up Confidence” in Macau Debut

Photo: Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee

Sheldon van der Linde said he’s been able to quickly build up his confidence of the Guia Circuit in his Macau debut with Team WRT and BMW.

The 2022 DTM champion set the seventh quickest time in Thursday’s opening practice for the FIA GT World Cup, which saw van der Linde end the session as the second-quickest rookie and ahead of a number of seasoned veterans.

“I have no words to describe this place,” van der Linde told Sportscar365.

“First of all it’s a privilege to be here; it’s been one of my dreams since I was 12 years old. It sounds so cliche but Macau was always a race I had my eye on for whatever reason, mostly in Formula 3.

“The likes of [Daniel] Juncadella, [Antonio Felix] da Costa, when they were all racing here in 2012-13; those were the golden years.

“Coming back here now with such a strong field after COVID is something I didn’t expect to do so soon. It’s obviously very hard to get that first chance when you’ve never had experience here before.

“I didn’t expect to get chosen for this race so soon, which I did, and I’m very thankful to BMW for putting their trust in me after two solid years in the M4 GT3.

“Now once you have one year under your belt, the next few years come slightly easier.”

The 24-year-old South African revealed that he wasn’t able to get any sim time prior to arriving earlier this week and has instead relied on knowledge from 2018 race winner Augusto Farfus, as well as a night-time track walk on Thursday.

“I had some very good advice from Augusto, my teammate,” van der Linde explained.

“We’re not in the same team this weekend but in the same car, which helped me a lot. Obviously he’s a specialist here.

“I did a lot of work yesterday with walking the track at midnight, last night, to try and get some traffic-free laps, looking at all of the bumps, curbs.

“I also looked at millions of on-boards from the R8, which WRT were here with three years ago. It really seemed to help a lot in the first initial laps as well.”

When asked what the most challenging aspect of the 6.12 km circuit is, van der Linde said it’s the mid-sector.

“I still wasn’t really sure which one goes left and right, to be honest,” he said. “That’s why yesterday, the track walk was quite important.

“Now it’s just about building up that confidence. I had some moments in FP1 which brings your confidence back three steps. Then it takes another two laps to build it up again.

“Hopefully I can build myself up to qualifying where the last lap should be the best one and that’s my goal, to be in the top-five.

“It’s obviously an ambitious goal. There’s so many good drivers here this year. A lot of them have been here for years.

“I believe we can do it and I’ve always been a guy who sets my targets very high. A podium would be a cherry on the top but we have to be reasonable in our first year as well.”

He added: “We need to see how FP2 goes and qualifying is everything here. I think on one lap pace, we really need to stretch it out for a top-five, which I would be very happy.

“You never know with accidents in the race, maybe slip onto the podium.

“But I don’t want to speak too soon. To be in the top-eight in my first session is already a massive tick off the bucket list for me for sure.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself and I can’t afford to crash now. I need the laps still.”

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