The 2006 Champ Car Atlantic grid grew another four impressive entries this week with the announcement of the Forsythe Racing Atlantic programme.
ERIC MAUK:
Thank you for joining us. We have a very exciting line-up as we bring on the new four-car Atlantic programme put together by Forsythe Championship Racing. We are joined by the four young men that will pilot the Atlantic cars this year, Leonardo Maia, Richard Philippe, James Hinchcliffe and Andreas Wirth, and they are also joined by the general manager of Forsythe, Neil Micklewright. Thank you for joining us.
First of all, Neil, it's a very big undertaking. You guys obviously have a long and successful history in the Champ Car World Series, but this is a big leap in a new look Atlantic series, and not just to take one or two cars but you go in with four cars and attack this thing. Tell us about the thought process behind it.
NEIL MICKLEWRIGHT:
Well, obviously we're very excited about essentially the rebirth of Champ Car Atlantic; recognising the ladder system for young drivers coming up hopefully leading up to Champ Car is very important. We looked at what an exciting series it is, what we think it can be for open-wheel racing in North America in the coming years, and decided that if we were going to get involved we wanted to get involved in the most professional and the biggest way possible.
That led us then to look and see what talent was actually available out there and look for the best drivers, and it became pretty apparent that there were quite a few very good drivers out there, and we narrowed down the list of the people that we'd like to work with and ended up with four young men as opposed to two. We've been lucky enough and fortunate enough to conclude deals with them.
ERIC MAUK:
Tell us about the structure of the team. It's obvious that you will need a few new people to handle this stable. How do you go about building this squad?
NEIL MICKLEWRIGHT:
Essentially most of the people are now in place. I think obviously we're a professional race team. The Champ Car team will continue to run with its full standard personnel, so we have brought in extra people in order to run the Champ Car Atlantic programme. It's a crew of about 20 people, including the engineers, et cetera, and at this point we have about 16 or 17 of those people already on board.
It will run separately, will be under the same building, under the same guys, and one big happy family.
ERIC MAUK:
Talk about a very compressed time frame to get this thing up and running. You get delivery of the cars, open test California Speedway, the Fontana Road Course out there the 21st and 22nd of March and then kick things off at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach the second week of April. That's a very short amount of time.
NEIL MICKLEWRIGHT:
Certainly that is a challenge. What we were able to do, though, once we decided several months ago that we were going to get involved in Champ Car Atlantic again, we went ahead and started laying the groundwork for an awful lot of the things that were going to be necessary. Really the only thing that we're waiting for now is the new car to be delivered in early March.
Later this month we'll be doing some practice at Sebring, just essentially just to give these four young men another taste of driving, try and get them in tiptop condition, et cetera. So certainly there are challenges, but as a race team that's already established in Champ Car as previous champions in Atlantic, we pretty much know what's necessary, what we need, and we've got some very good people who are working on that and are putting everything together. Right now everything is either on or ahead of schedule as far as it all coming together.
Don't forget, as well, that with the experience that we've had in the past of running multi-car teams, we were operating in Champ Car as well as Indy Lights and Atlantic, so this isn't something we're just coming out of the blue. We know how to put these things together and hopefully do the best job anybody can do.
ERIC MAUK:
Even more recently you ran a three-car Champ Car programme, the first time in 10 years that any team had done that, and you did that very well. Let's talk to the four young men that are going to be driving these cars. This is a very talented line-up of race car drivers, each with strong pedigrees, and as Neil said, he was looking for some of the best talent out there and you've got to think that he found a good cross-section of that as we'll find out as we talk to these guys.
Leo Maia is 2003 Barber Dodge Pro Series champion, won six races and seven poles that year and went on to what was then called the Infiniti Pro Series in '04, ran a couple of Atlantic races in '05 and spent much of the last year pounding the pavement in the Atlantic Champ Car paddock trying to ensure your future, and you've got to be happy with the way things turned out.
LEONARDO MAIA:
I couldn't be happier. You look at the history of Forsythe Racing, and to be a part of it, it builds your confidence as a driver, makes you feel comfortable. You know that they're going to do whatever they can to help you out and to win. They're totally dedicated to winning. Really it's a situation that's really new to me where they just said you drive the car and we'll do everything in our power to make sure you win. I mean, you can't ask for anything more than that.
ERIC MAUK:
You drove the Atlantic car a little bit last year, drove a couple of events at Cleveland but now you attack the season with an entire new team and an entirely new race car. Talk about the challenges and coming into a new situation with a brand new race car.
LEONARDO MAIA:
It's going to be tough but it's going to be tough for everybody. There's not going to be really any advantages other than track knowledge from the guys that raced last year. I don't know how many are coming back. Andreas will definitely have an advantage over some of the guys there.
Having a new car is great, especially on our team. We have a four-car team, we can do a lot of testing between the four of us and really get it dialled in. We're at a great advantage with that new car. So far everything is looking good with it. I'm really happy and anxious to get going.
ERIC MAUK:
I imagine that it helps your confidence a little bit that you've got knowledge of the Champ Car tracks from 2003 when you had some success in the Barber Dodge Pro Series so you know a little bit about what you're getting into.
LEONARDO MAIA:
Believe it or not, the tracks kind of change when you jump into a new car. Things happen a little bit quicker so your sight picture is a little bit different. It's definitely tough. I did the Atlantic race in Cleveland, and that was a lot tougher than I was expecting it to be.
I mean, it's the same track but it's almost new because you're in a completely different car that's got so much more downforce than a Barber Dodge, more horsepower and a big step up in every respect. To be driving a new car like that on a track that you've driven before, it may sound -- I know it's the same track and car, but it actually sort of changes the track and how you drive it. It's definitely challenging, but at least I know where to turn left and right. That's the one advantage I do have.
ERIC MAUK:
Joining us on the phone from Germany, he'll be coming to Indianapolis to do his seat fitting at the end of the week, Andreas Wirth, and Andreas, as Leo alluded to, ran nearly the full season in the Atlantic championship last year, finished 6th in the overall championship, he's the 2004
BMW champion, 11 podiums in 14 races.
