Motorsport Update – Thursday

GRAND PRIX DU CANADA

With the controversy surrounding the Bahrain Grand Prix continuing to boil, and moves among the teams and drivers to call a boycott, it's easy to forget that this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix is set to push the 2011 race calendar to the backs of our minds – at least for a moment. Why? Well Montreal means drama in any language (which is good because not even the French can understand the Québécois), and with DRS and Pirelli tyres spicing things up the results on Sunday are going to be utterly unpredictable. Do not tear your eyes away from the screen for one second.

The surface of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is like sandpaper. Temperatures are usually high too, and this means we'll be seeing a lot of tyre changes and drivers lapping at perilously different speeds as some hit the sweet spot and others fall off the edge of a rubber cliff.

The FIA are introducing a double DRS zone for the first time, with chasing cars able to reduce drag on the long back straight and start/finish straight, which are connected by a tight chicane that has a habit of propelling world champions towards a concrete wall and an early bath.

Canada is one of those tracks that doesn't need help with passing opportunities, so there are concerns that two DRS zones are going to be overkill.

This track rewards underdogs. Here in Montreal both Robert Kubica and Jean Alesi recorded their sole victories, and Lotus-Renault GP's Nick Heidfeld has twice matched his best F1 career result of second place.

"It's great to be back," said Nick on arriving at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Thursday morning. "I came out a few days early to see the atmosphere and walk the city because it's just such a nice place. This race will be rather different to most as it's low downforce and our speeds will be high. We have a new rear wing designed to give us even more top speed. The corners are similarly slow to Monaco. We tend to have good straight-line speed so we will just see over the weekend how we look."

Vitaly Petrov will get back into the car on Friday for the first time since his Monaco crash, which left him with a bruised ankle. "You want to get back into the car as soon as you can after an accident like that," he says. "Montreal is not unlike Monaco, in that it's a street circuit, the walls are very close. Here there is a little more margin for error, but our preparation will be similar to Monaco and we have a lot of valuable data from that race. Nevertheless, the speeds here are much higher so the set-up will be different. The atmosphere here is special, and I remember from last year there were a lot of Russian fans."

INDYCAR AT THE TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Although a two race format has been used in Indy racing 18 times – the last time being Atlanta 1981 – Saturday marks the first time IndyCar has run two races in one day. It's going to be a long night for the KV Racing Technolgy-Lotus boys, or so they hope anyway.

Tony Kanaan might have appeared at the Texas Motor Speedway 11 times, but this is all new for him as it is for everyone else. "Texas Motor Speedway is a great place and I always enjoy racing there," says Kanaan, who is currently fourth in the title chase. "It's exciting for drivers and fans alike because you don't ever know who is going to win there until the last lap. For me, TMS is especially close to my heart since I won my Championship there in 2004."

Takuma Sato has had a terrific start to the season, although poor luck means he doesn't have the results to show for it. So far his best result has been his fifth place at the season opener at St Petersburg. "Last year [at TMS], unfortunately I had a mechanical failure so my race was very short, but the car was looking good until then so I believe we will have strong cars there this time too."

EJ Viso has had more than his share of bad fortune too, and is hoping to turn it around in Texas. "I think it is one of the nicest oval events and it is fun for the fans. There is plenty going on and they will get to see a lot of sparks. This track has the most amount of banking on the corners which on restarts means you have the opportunity to pass a lot of cars. It will be interesting to see how the two races on Saturday night work out. I believe it will be a positive thing and will attract a lot of fans, so I am excited for the weekend."

24 HEURES DU MANS

Qualifying is happening right now, so we'd best not disturb the Lotus Jetalliance team as they set about pushing the new Lotus Evora GTE up the grid. But here's what was said when we caught up with works driver and eight-times Le Mans vet Johnny Mowlem a bit earlier…

Mowlem on…..the return of Lotus to Le Mans: I can honestly say that I have been involved with (in my career 20 years) five or six major manufacturers getting involved in sportscars and this one to me is the most important and the one that I'm proudest of. One because it's Lotus and I was always a Lotus fan ever since I was a kid, you know the whole John Player Special Formula 1, Colin Chapman and Ayrton Senna and the fact that I've been able to be a small part of the development of the GTE car and Lotus' return to Le Mans as a Brit makes me really proud and the fact that everywhere I go and everything I read, not just in motorsport press but in national and international press, everyone's talking about Lotus and there's a real buzz around the brand. Not just what we're doing in motorsport but what Group Lotus is doing in road car terms and where the company is headed for me to feel a part of that is fantastic.

Mowlem on….what Lotus means to him: Well they say that all boys have decided before they're 10, what their favourite marqque is and for me, the car I had on the wall, was a British Racing Green Lotus Esprit Turbo and that's always been the car I wanted and always been the iconic picture in my minds eye – it represents the ultimate racing sports car. When I was a kid I dreamed of the Le Mans 24 hours and racing there and I think if you asked most people who have no real interest in motorsport, they'll have heard of F1, they'll possibly have heard of the Indy 500 but they definitely will have heard of Le Mans because that race transcends just motorsport, it becomes something bigger than that and when you're there it becomes you can really appreciate that you are a small part of history every year whether you're a spectator, a mechanic, an engineer, a driver – it's just an incredible atmosphere – it's an iconic event. It's a hugely important part of what motorsports is – nearly every driver wants to do it, you only have to look at the numerous famous F1 drivers and world champions who want to compete and win at Le Mans and for Lotus the brand value that's attached to their return to Le Mans and the 100,000 Brits that will be heading down there to be able to see Lotus come back to Le Mans is just priceless.

Mowlem on…..preparing for the ultimate endurance race: I've been working quite hard because as a driver you need to really prepare yourself and time your preparation perfectly so that you peak at the race. Le Mans is one of the most mentally challenging tracks to race in terms of the speed. So the mental concentration required of a driver there is higher than any other circuit that I've raced at. Physically it's not quite as demanding as some other circuits but mentally it is just because of the high speed and the length of time that you're at those high speeds. I've been training really hard to bring myself to the peak of mental and physical fitness, I feel prepared. I've done a lot of cardio work, a lot of visualisation for example, when I'm rowing, I'll row ten kilometres on a rowing machine at a pace that keeps my heart rate in the 159's 160's so quite difficult and I'll close my eyes whilst I'm rowing and literally visualise laps of Le Mans whilst I'm rowing. I'll drive the track in my head and it's amazing – after a minute of doing this I can feel the actual excitement of racing there – I find myself rowing harder, faster just by visualising myself driving at Le Mans – it's really amazing, I feel stronger just by thinking about it.

Mowlem on….his co-drivers: James Rossiter, Jonathan Hirschi and I make a good team – we work very well together. Obviously James is a fellow Lotus factory driver and we work well together. I think James is out there to prove himself, he's at the beginning of his sports car career and my career has been going a while now and if there's one thing that I know that I can bring to the team apart from my technical expertise and experience of Le Mans, I can bring James and Jonathan back a peg because to win at Le Mans you can not be out there perpetually out there opening yourself up to taking risks, I'm not suggesting that you should just be plodding along either – you should drive as fast as you possible can but there's a real knack to driving at ten tenths whilst not taking a ten tenths risk and it sounds crazy but there's a real fine balance and if you go out there and you spend 24 hours putting the car in the way of risk be it you trying to carry too much speed through a corner or you not waiting in traffic or you just thinking it will be ok 'I'll make it' you will end up not finishing the race and that's something I've learnt the hard way and that experience is something I can bring to the team.

Mowlem on….the beast that is Le Mans: Everyone knows that we are at such an early stage of the cars development and we're not going to be out there on pole position, but I think if we run at pace, ultimately, our strength is in how we approach the race – forget the other competitions, we are competing against the track, Le Mans itself. I learnt that the second time I did Le Mans, the first time I did Le Mans, I ended up on the podium and I though 'this is easy', but the second time, I lead the race, we were running in the wet for most of the race, I did a four hour stint at night, I was aquaplaning, the windscreen wipers weren't working, it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a race car, I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to keep the car in one piece and at the end of it all, the sun was coming up, I got out of the car at about 8 in the morning and thought yep we've cracked it, we were fifth overall, leading the GT1 class and I thought yes we've sussed it and half an hour later I heard over the radio that the engine had blown and I thought then that Le Mans had thrown the very worst it could through at me, it can't get worse than torrential rain in the middle of the night, it can't get worse but it did.

That experience shows you that you're not racing anyone else, you're racing yourself and you're racing the track. If you don't respect Le Mans then she'll bite you. Big time.

Mowlem on….the Evora GTE: The Evora looks great, sounds great and let's hope it goes great.

Mowlem on….preparing: As I've got older superstition has gone out of the window, I'm far less now than I was – that comes with confidence. I'm a big supporter of the adage fail to prepare then prepare to fail.

Mowlem on….racing for a living: I have been fortunate enough to earn a living out of motorsport for the past twenty years. I got into motorsport because I loved it and some of that love went away in the middle of my career when I became so obsessed with success that I stopped enjoying it. Now it's really important to me to be successful, I still have a huge hunger to win but more importantly I really want to enjoy the journey towards that success. I want to enjoy my surroundings, soak up the atmosphere which is why for me, being with Lotus at Le Mans is just such a great experience. I just think about it and feel happy. That's enough for me.