Exclusive interview with Renè Rast: “I am honored if people think that I am one of the best GT drivers”
15 Agosto 2014 - 19:54
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Renè Rast, born the 26th October 1986 in Minden, is one of the best GT drivers worldwide and we caught up him for an interview.

Renè, in the last few years, achieved many great results and begun to show his talent in the Porsche Supercup, which won for 3 years in a row, and the Porsche Carrera Cup in Germany. After all this results he decided to move into a brand new car, a GT3 Audi, racing for team “Belgian Audi Club Team WRT” in the Blancpain Series winning this year both one round of the Sprint Cup in Zandvoort and the 24 Hours of Spa. Renè Rast is also an endurance racer, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2012, took part to the 2014 12 Hours of Bathurst and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“Many people think that you are one of the best drivers in GT. How do you deal with such an high pressure?”download (1)

It is not really a pressure for me, I am honored if people think that I am one of the best.

You won 3 Porsche SuperCup championship in a row. What is you opinion about that support Series that follows F1?

The Porsche Supercup is one of the best schools you can have as a young racing driver. It teaches you so many things, things which are important for your following years. There you learn to work with every single detail, you cannot change many things of the car so you need to find performance somewhere else and in the end if you understand how to get the best out of every single detail you learned a lot.

Actually you are driving an Audi GT3 LMS Ultra. Which are the main differces between an Audi and a Porsche?

A GT3 car is a bit different because it  has more driver aids, like ABS and traction control which means you need to use it properly. Also a gt3 car has a lot more downforce which gives you later braking points and higher corner speeds. But both cars are difficult to drive fast. The Limit is very small.images

The Blancpain Series is becoming a solid reality in GT. This is year you are racing in the Sprint Series and you are in 3rd position. What expectations do you have for the next 4 rounds?

After our win at the last race weekend of the Blancpain Sprint it would be nice if we could repaed that. But in Zandvoort the rain helped us a lot to win this race. It is a tough series with many good drivers so its never easy to be in front.

 This year you raced both at Le Mans and at Spa. Is it different to race against people with the same car (at Spa) and with different classes as at Le Mans? How do you deal with that?

Le Mans and Spa are of course different kind of races. In Spa it is very difficult to pass other cars because they all have more or less the same straight line speed as your own car. So in Spa you have to take more risks because you need to brake later as the other cars to overtake them just before a corner. In Le Mans with a Lmp2 car you can pass the slower GT cars on the straight but you also get passed by faster Lmp1 cars. So you need to keep your eyes more in the mirrors compared to Spa. Both are great races, for me Le MANS was a big highlight this year first time for me in an open LMP2 car and I was allowed to take the start and the finish which is a big honor.

At the last 24 Hour of Spa we saw many crashes involving many Gentlemens. What do you think about letting race driver with almost any experience in night or endurance races?24 Hrs of Le Mans, France 10-15 June 2014

It is not only dangerous for them but also for the drivers around those Gentlemens. In my opinion there should be a rule which says that the Gentleman must not be slower than a certain percentage of the leader . But if you do this it will be difficult to fill the fields up and to finance the GT3 racing.

I remember that at the beginnig of the season you raced with Audi at the 12 Hours of Bathurst. It is a spectacular track with massive elevation changes, maybe the best semi-permanent track for GT racing. How was your experience?

Bathurst is one of my favorite tracks. It reminds me a little bit to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, many elevation changes and fast corners. It is a big challenge for a new driver to get to speed right away.

What are you plans for the end of this season and 2015?

The plan is to finish the german GT Championship the ADAC GT Masters where we can still win the Championship and of course the Blancpain Sprint.

Last question, realted to your job as tester of the racing game Project Cars coming out this November. Do you like it? Was it difficult? Do you think simulation games can be useful for professional drivers that cannot afford a professional simulator?

Project Cars is for me the best preparation for a race weekend or just in general  to learn tracks or get used to racing. With the physics it has and of course the graphics it feels so real and of course it is a lot of fun to play. In my opinion simulations belong to a good preparation for every racing driver, especially during the winter time you stay in the rhythm and learn some new techniques which you need in the future.