Two legendary race tracks within six days. Two challenges mastered with flying colours. Exciting days lie behind Benjamin Mazatis. Last Monday, the 18-year-old had the opportunity to complete a Porsche Carrera Cup test in Hockenheim before travelling to the VLN race on the legendary Nürburgring-Nordschleife just a few days later.
At the finale of the VLN Endurance Championship, the ‚Green Hell‘ lived up to its reputation 100 per cent. The famous Eifel circuit offered some of the most difficult conditions for the 132 starters in the four-hour race. A special challenge for Mazatis, who was contesting only his second race ever in this series. With his Pixum Team Adrenalin Motorsport, he started in the BMW M235i together with Andreas Winkler and Christoph Magg.
In qualifying, the heavens opened their floodgates and made driving a major challenge even for very experienced drivers. Mazatis opted for a safe approach and slowly worked his way towards the limit. He only had two laps at his disposal and the resulting lap time did not have to hide behind those of his experienced team-mates.
The trio started the race in twelfth place in the CUP5 class and steadily worked their way forwards. Mazatis took over the BMW M235i for the middle stint and put in an experienced performance. As the track dried out faster than expected, the driver from Bruckmühl had to change from rain tyres to slicks after just two laps. The additional stop set the team back again. The BMW M235i with the starting number #668 finished the race in eleventh place in its class.
4 questions for Benjamin Mazatis
Congratulations on your baptism of fire on the rain-soaked Nordschleife. Please describe the conditions from your perspective.
During my stint, it wasn't really dry and not really wet. The track was very greasy and it felt like there was oil and other things everywhere. The conditions were definitely not easy. I got a few tips from my team-mates about where I should drive more carefully. It's important to keep a cool head on the Nordschleife. There's no point in pushing like crazy and risking an accident. That's why I've been slowly feeling my way round and gradually gaining more experience in the rain.
You were on your way to a good result, but had to turn off for an additional stop. How did that happen?
The mixed conditions made the tyre decision really difficult. Two other cars in our team had already stopped and changed to dry tyres. In the past, I've always been very strong with slick tyres on a drying track, so I was very optimistic. However, the other drivers said that it was still very difficult on the track. That's why my team decided to play it safe and put rain tyres on our car again. This choice really was the faster one at first, but after just two laps it was so dry that I could barely cool the tyres down and we had to make an additional stop on slicks. That probably cost us around three minutes and was impossible to make up due to numerous yellow and Code 60 phases.
How satisfied are you in general with your second VLN appearance?
Just looking at the result, I'm obviously not completely happy. Without the additional pit stop, much more would have been possible. But the team's safety decision was absolutely understandable. I'm very happy with my driving performance. I managed to push the car to the limit despite the difficult conditions and I didn't make any mistakes. Of course, I'm still missing a few per cent on the Nordschleife, because this race track requires experience - and that's exactly what I'm going to gain!
We need to take a look back. You were invited by Porsche to complete a test in the Porsche Carrera Cup, a German GT3 one-make cup. How did it go?
Firstly, of course, I would like to thank Porsche for this great opportunity! It was great fun and went really well. I used the first of my two sessions to familiarise myself with the car and adapt my driving style. In the second session, it was full throttle! Unfortunately, we couldn't use the lap times from the Carrera Cup race the day before as a reference, as we were driving on the motorbike track without the hairpin bend. Compared to the other drivers, however, my lap times were very strong.