Newey targets maiden podium at Silverstone ELMS

Harrison Newey has set his sights on claiming his first podium finish in the European Le Mans Series in his first sports car race on home soil at Silverstone this weekend.

The son of Formula 1 technical icon Adrian Newey, Harrison rose the motorsport ladder in single-seaters before turning his attention to sports car racing for the 2018 season, making his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut back in June.

Newey has been focusing on the European Le Mans Series so far this season with the APR Rebellion Racing team, scoring a best finish of sixth place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria last month, but is aiming for the podium at Silverstone this weekend alongside Gustavo Menezes and Ryan Cullen.

"It’s my one and only race of the season in the UK and I’m aiming for a first ELMS podium. Silverstone is without question one of my favourite race tracks around the world – definitely in my top-three," Newey said.

"We’ll run high downforce so will pull pretty big g-force but it’s not too much of a physical track. I’ve spent time in the gym so am feeling ready for the challenge.

"We’ve made massive steps forward since the ELMS opener at Paul Ricard in terms of the way the team is operated and results are starting to show on the track. I didn’t know the team at all and had never worked with Ryan or Gustavo.

"My first experience of driving the Oreca 07 in the dry during a day session was in qualifying and so I was very happy to go sixth fastest on my ELMS debut. I was very happy with my pace in the last race at the Red Bull Ring and was in a fight for a podium but gambled on tyre choice, going onto ‘inters’, which ultimately proved to be the wrong decision but it was a positive race for the entire team."

Newey is pleased with his adaptation to sports car racing after moving away from single seaters, noticing some similarities between the two.

"I made my sportscar race début last October having previously tested an LMP2 car just once the previous year having raced single-seaters up until then. I adapted pretty quickly and felt comfortable driving a sports-prototype almost immediately," Newey said.

"Obviously these cars are heavier and ‘softer’ but it’s a high downforce car so driving them are not too dissimilar apart from the carbon brakes. Tyre management was new to me, something I’d never had to consider in Formulae 3 or 4, as well as dealing with traffic and the car performances of the different classes."