I ran into Tommy Erdos in the podium area after the race and we were laughing and I asked him how it was going and he wished me congratulations and I replied that ‘yeah it was ok, we got third'. He turned to me and said ‘Listen, I've been here 13 times and this is the first time I'm stood here – you should be very, very, VERY, pleased with what you have got. There are others who have been here for decades and haven't been in your shoes' and that was a real wake-up call to me to have a better appreciation of it all. I think if you do something for the first time and do well at it, then you sometimes just think ‘Well this is the way it is'. He reminded me that half of the cars aren't even there at 6am and I was there at the finish and on the podium and should count myself lucky. And he was right.
Q:
Into 2007, what is the programme in place?
Chris Niarchos:
Well it's going to be the FIA GT championship and also Le Mans again. Both Tim and I would like to do other driving, Tim is a professional driver and is involved with other contracts but I think he would like to do a bit of LMS and get back in a prototype which he really enjoyed. But our focus is
FIA. The new format within the championship with two hour races will be interesting and will change the dynamics of the races a lot. We have a restricted gearbox package for this season where they are unchangeable, so where as before we could go to a circuit and change the gears and alter them to suit a circuit, we can't any longer. I think the experienced drivers will show their cards very early and be quick, but for me, with the shorter format, I'll probably end up with the middle stint – so Tim will do an hour or 45mins, then I'll do 45mins in the middle and Tim will sprint to the finish – which is the way it should be.
Obviously, I'd like to do more and start the odd race in FIA just to gain the experience. What I found is I tend to come on in the middle of the race as, particularly when I've had less experience and maybe on circuits I'm not familiar with, I can follow someone and then it clicks and I can peel time off my lap-times. Tim and I are very buoyant about the year ahead although the team, in terms of its overall line-up for all of the races, hasn't been decided yet – we are working out some variables in terms of who is coming on board and drivers but the nucleus of the team has been together for four years and I don't see that changing.
Q:
With a years of experience of many of the circuits in FIA and with experience of Le Mans, how confident are you of a successful season?
Chris Niarchos:
Pre-season it's very easy to be confident and say we went here and did well and went there and did well, but we have a proven package and I can't see Tim in particular ever being out of the top three and I'm surprised when he is as he's blindingly fast. For this year there are new challenges. AF Corse are back and we believe with four new drivers, there is the new 997 Porsche which will be very competitive and I understand will have some factory drivers in those seats, so it will be tough. At Le Mans there are 15 entries in GT2 and nobody turns up to Le Mans who doesn't know what they are doing. There are probably 40+ quality drivers in those 15 entries.
