June 12, 2024 • 8 mins
The longest race in motorsport is underway this week - 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Very few people would be more excited about that than Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave...
.... But one of those people would be Kiwi driver Brendon Hartley, because he's in the race, looking for his fourth Le Mans win. He spoke to D'Arcy on Sportstalk.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk z'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's that time of the year again where motorsport fans, well,
they stay awake for twenty four hours, especially if you're
a driver. The twenty four hour of lamar up and
running before you know it, and we're joined by a
man who's picked up the trophy. What are we doing now?
Three times Brendan Hartley, four times World Endurance Champion as well.
You've got a handle on the savine, haven't you?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, morning mate, how are you if?
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I've got a handle of Yeah, a lot of experience now,
I've worked out the other day. I've been doing it
since twenty twelve and I only missed one year, So yeah,
a few a few lamon's under my belt. Been luck
enough to send on the top step three times. But
it's if anyone's for anyone who's following those already. But yeah,
the competition this year is incredibly tough. So we've got
twenty three or twenty four cars in the top category,
(00:57):
sixty two cars on the whole grid.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
But so many cars in the top category is incredible.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
A lot more, a lot more manufacturers turned up this
year with Lamborghini, BMWRA Persio, Porsche US and the Twilda.
I've probably missed a few there as well. Did I
say Porsche? I think I probably did. They've wanted a
few times as well. So it's going to be incredibly
tough to win this year. But you're hoping my experience
and my team's experiences is going to give us the edge.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
We spoke of this last year, Brandon, and it's good
for the sport that suddenly all of these marks have
climbed back and again, it does make it more of
a challenge. Are you reveling in this? Do you think
there's something that you like even though you're down the
standings somewhat? Is this good for you and your team?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Look, I'm loving it.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
We won the World Championship again last year, but we
missed out on Lamore, which I think if you could
reverse those roles, and if I look back at last
year and I say, if we could have won the
More but we didn't win the World Championship, I think
I would have taken the More. So this year is
not going so smoothly, particularly on our car. I think
we're fifth or sixth in the championship at the moment
we haven't had the best starts of the season, but
(02:02):
it's double points for Lamore, and as I just said,
it's you know, a lot of the priority goes on
onto it. I'm I wouldn't say, I'm you know, everyone says,
what's your expectation, Well, you know, there's no expectation, But
I would say we have some confidence that we had
the test day on Sunday, which which went smooth. I
did the third fastest time of the day and our
and our twitter g zero ten two porchs in front
(02:23):
of us. So Porche looks very quick too, so does
the Cadillac, which is a manufacturer. I forgot to mention
just before, with Elbamba, one of a fellow countrymen driving
the car and the Ferrari, I think, look, there's good,
there's gonna it's gonna be hard to know who's got
the fastest car.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
But Lamar's such a long race, so many things can happen.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
And as I said before, I think that the experience
from our team we've been here the most well. I
think our team is the longest standing, you know, in
this category without fail so a lot of continuity and
with drivers as well, so I'm hoping that's going to
give us some form of edge.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
But you never know what can happen in this race.
But I do believe we'll.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Be able to hopefully fight for some steps on the podium,
and and if if luck and luck goes away, and
also everyone does their job correctly, we might build us
down on that top step.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Brendan Hartley joining us at a Twitter gazoo racing ahead
of the twenty four Hour of Lamont coming up this week. Ken,
you talked about the amount of entry. Surely this increases
the complexity of the twenty four hours team fold. The
amount of different cars, different classes, different drivers all out there,
all over the track, they just add to the can
(03:29):
I call it excitement, Brendan.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
I mean it's it's massively exciting. I think there's a
team photo today with all the cars on the grid.
I mean it's yeah. I mean, I've got my hair
standing up just talking about it. It's going to be
it's going to be an electric atmosphere when we line
up on the grid on Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I don't think it changes out. I'm just thinking about
the approach of the race.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Probably doesn't change a lot, you know, since I've been
doing Lamar, it's been a twenty four hour sprint, So
someone say, like, we are pushing these cars to the
limits for twenty four hours. There's always a bit of
risk management and traffic, So I think if the competition
heats up kind of halfway through the race at the end,
I think we'll we'll start seeing a lot of people
take a lot more risk than we're used to in traffic,
so hopefully there's no big accidents.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And also I think track position becomes way more important.
You know, in the past, you were just focused on
your own race.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
You would worry about the others and just try and
maximize that twenty four hours. But I think now with
such close competition, I think strategy will be a bit different.
We'll always be trying to figure out how we can
get in front of the competition. With strategy, pit stops,
maybe a risky dive up the inside. So look, it's
going to be exciting for everyone, And I don't know
if exciting is the right word for driving. Sitting behind
(04:38):
the car, we've got a lot of stress and fresher
but you try, and you try and remind yourself how
privilege you are and enjoy the little moments as well.
I'll be taking on qualifying, which is probably the highest
stress point of the weekend. From my perspective, putting low
fuel and new tires and going from all out attack
on Quali lap.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It sounds like the most fun for a racers.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Surely it's not always fun actually, but yeah, it's hard
to describe the.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Very dynamic the way the drivers actually work. And you
were just touching on that before. Who drives when and where,
what the order is in is going to be more
so during the race itself, the ability to chop drivers
in and out or is it more set in stone
like it has been previously.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I think we'll have a we'll have a game plan.
You know, sometimes that can change. But I think again,
I think our approach won't be that different from from
the past. And yeah, we normally have a pretty good plan,
but we have to stay flexible as well.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
As far as the car itself and the expanse of
the category. What's actually changed mechanically in this car? What
are we looking at the difference between last year and
this year.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Very little has changed. I mean, the alligation of rules
haven't changed.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So we'll have you know, we've had a few updates
actually not really, not really anything you would see visually.
We've got a different paint scheme, looks a bit like
a Batman bill nownce it's black rather than white.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And then you know, we're refining.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
All our tools at every race every year, so a
lot of electronics on the car. How that these full
drive hybrids work set up as well? You know, you learn,
you're always constantly learning how you can optimize the set
up and get the most out of the package.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You have, so various more details from outside.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Some of the other cars have have some bigger updates,
and we have completely new cars on the grid as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So Britain Hartley joins a program looking ahead to the
twenty four hours of Lamar on the hyper car level
that he is in. I don't know what name they're
going to use next, Brendan biggest believers as it is.
Surely you have advantage though, in the fact that your
team's manufactured these cars before. You know, I suppose the vagaries,
all the suppleties of the nuances of this class over
(06:50):
twenty four hours. How much does that count for?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, I think the experience from Tita is important. It
didn't work out for us at Lamore last year. We
were seconds, but as you say, you know, to Ita
has been here. I think since twenty twelve, they've been
back at Lamore at the highest category. They're there only
manufactured that stayed the entire time, and there's a lot
of people in the team that have stayed, so that
that continuity and it makes up for a lot. You know,
you generally don't unlearn things, so the other teams have
(07:15):
been catching up. I think we had a clear advantage
in some areas last year where the other teams have
been been clawing that back. But we're trying to keep
improving as well, like like I just said before and
car set up or optimizing systems drivers. We're getting older,
but hopefully not slower more wise, so yeah, hopefully we
haven't lost all of that advantage that we did have
(07:36):
last year.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
But jump from six hour races up to the twenty
four but still not even just on halfway through the season,
you've still got high hopes of challenging up the top
over top of these pesky newcomers.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Brandon, Yeah, I think we've got a good chance to
test that showed that we were fighting at the pointy end.
I think we'll know a bit more after qualifying tomorrow
where the real pace of everyone is. But I'm quite
quitely confident we're going to be at least fighting at
the front.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Wicked can't wait too. I won't sit through the whole
twenty four hours because I simply can't. I just haven't
got capacity to do that. But chopping in and out,
and let's hope we get a sensational finish with you
guys right at the front of course. Three times Lamon
one or four times World Insurance Champion Brendan Hartley, thanks
so much for your time, get in there and cause
I ruck us my friend chairs Mate.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Talk soon for more from Sports Talk, listen live to
News Talks. It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk z'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's that time of the year again where motorsport fans, well,
they stay awake for twenty four hours, especially if you're
a driver. The twenty four hour of lamar up and
running before you know it, and we're joined by a
man who's picked up the trophy. What are we doing now?
Three times Brendan Hartley, four times World Endurance Champion as well.
You've got a handle on the savine, haven't you?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, morning mate, how are you if?
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I've got a handle of Yeah, a lot of experience now,
I've worked out the other day. I've been doing it
since twenty twelve and I only missed one year, So yeah,
a few a few lamon's under my belt. Been luck
enough to send on the top step three times. But
it's if anyone's for anyone who's following those already. But yeah,
the competition this year is incredibly tough. So we've got
twenty three or twenty four cars in the top category,
(00:57):
sixty two cars on the whole grid.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
But so many cars in the top category is incredible.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
A lot more, a lot more manufacturers turned up this
year with Lamborghini, BMWRA Persio, Porsche US and the Twilda.
I've probably missed a few there as well. Did I
say Porsche? I think I probably did. They've wanted a
few times as well. So it's going to be incredibly
tough to win this year. But you're hoping my experience
and my team's experiences is going to give us the edge.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
We spoke of this last year, Brandon, and it's good
for the sport that suddenly all of these marks have
climbed back and again, it does make it more of
a challenge. Are you reveling in this? Do you think
there's something that you like even though you're down the
standings somewhat? Is this good for you and your team?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Look, I'm loving it.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
We won the World Championship again last year, but we
missed out on Lamore, which I think if you could
reverse those roles, and if I look back at last
year and I say, if we could have won the
More but we didn't win the World Championship, I think
I would have taken the More. So this year is
not going so smoothly, particularly on our car. I think
we're fifth or sixth in the championship at the moment
we haven't had the best starts of the season, but
(02:02):
it's double points for Lamore, and as I just said,
it's you know, a lot of the priority goes on
onto it. I'm I wouldn't say, I'm you know, everyone says,
what's your expectation, Well, you know, there's no expectation, But
I would say we have some confidence that we had
the test day on Sunday, which which went smooth. I
did the third fastest time of the day and our
and our twitter g zero ten two porchs in front
(02:23):
of us. So Porche looks very quick too, so does
the Cadillac, which is a manufacturer. I forgot to mention
just before, with Elbamba, one of a fellow countrymen driving
the car and the Ferrari, I think, look, there's good,
there's gonna it's gonna be hard to know who's got
the fastest car.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
But Lamar's such a long race, so many things can happen.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
And as I said before, I think that the experience
from our team we've been here the most well. I
think our team is the longest standing, you know, in
this category without fail so a lot of continuity and
with drivers as well, so I'm hoping that's going to
give us some form of edge.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
But you never know what can happen in this race.
But I do believe we'll.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Be able to hopefully fight for some steps on the podium,
and and if if luck and luck goes away, and
also everyone does their job correctly, we might build us
down on that top step.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Brendan Hartley joining us at a Twitter gazoo racing ahead
of the twenty four Hour of Lamont coming up this week. Ken,
you talked about the amount of entry. Surely this increases
the complexity of the twenty four hours team fold. The
amount of different cars, different classes, different drivers all out there,
all over the track, they just add to the can
(03:29):
I call it excitement, Brendan.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
I mean it's it's massively exciting. I think there's a
team photo today with all the cars on the grid.
I mean it's yeah. I mean, I've got my hair
standing up just talking about it. It's going to be
it's going to be an electric atmosphere when we line
up on the grid on Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I don't think it changes out. I'm just thinking about
the approach of the race.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Probably doesn't change a lot, you know, since I've been
doing Lamar, it's been a twenty four hour sprint, So
someone say, like, we are pushing these cars to the
limits for twenty four hours. There's always a bit of
risk management and traffic, So I think if the competition
heats up kind of halfway through the race at the end,
I think we'll we'll start seeing a lot of people
take a lot more risk than we're used to in traffic,
so hopefully there's no big accidents.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And also I think track position becomes way more important.
You know, in the past, you were just focused on
your own race.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
You would worry about the others and just try and
maximize that twenty four hours. But I think now with
such close competition, I think strategy will be a bit different.
We'll always be trying to figure out how we can
get in front of the competition. With strategy, pit stops,
maybe a risky dive up the inside. So look, it's
going to be exciting for everyone, And I don't know
if exciting is the right word for driving. Sitting behind
(04:38):
the car, we've got a lot of stress and fresher
but you try, and you try and remind yourself how
privilege you are and enjoy the little moments as well.
I'll be taking on qualifying, which is probably the highest
stress point of the weekend. From my perspective, putting low
fuel and new tires and going from all out attack
on Quali lap.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It sounds like the most fun for a racers.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Surely it's not always fun actually, but yeah, it's hard
to describe the.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Very dynamic the way the drivers actually work. And you
were just touching on that before. Who drives when and where,
what the order is in is going to be more
so during the race itself, the ability to chop drivers
in and out or is it more set in stone
like it has been previously.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I think we'll have a we'll have a game plan.
You know, sometimes that can change. But I think again,
I think our approach won't be that different from from
the past. And yeah, we normally have a pretty good plan,
but we have to stay flexible as well.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
As far as the car itself and the expanse of
the category. What's actually changed mechanically in this car? What
are we looking at the difference between last year and
this year.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Very little has changed. I mean, the alligation of rules
haven't changed.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So we'll have you know, we've had a few updates
actually not really, not really anything you would see visually.
We've got a different paint scheme, looks a bit like
a Batman bill nownce it's black rather than white.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And then you know, we're refining.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
All our tools at every race every year, so a
lot of electronics on the car. How that these full
drive hybrids work set up as well? You know, you learn,
you're always constantly learning how you can optimize the set
up and get the most out of the package.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You have, so various more details from outside.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Some of the other cars have have some bigger updates,
and we have completely new cars on the grid as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So Britain Hartley joins a program looking ahead to the
twenty four hours of Lamar on the hyper car level
that he is in. I don't know what name they're
going to use next, Brendan biggest believers as it is.
Surely you have advantage though, in the fact that your
team's manufactured these cars before. You know, I suppose the vagaries,
all the suppleties of the nuances of this class over
(06:50):
twenty four hours. How much does that count for?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, I think the experience from Tita is important. It
didn't work out for us at Lamore last year. We
were seconds, but as you say, you know, to Ita
has been here. I think since twenty twelve, they've been
back at Lamore at the highest category. They're there only
manufactured that stayed the entire time, and there's a lot
of people in the team that have stayed, so that
that continuity and it makes up for a lot. You know,
you generally don't unlearn things, so the other teams have
(07:15):
been catching up. I think we had a clear advantage
in some areas last year where the other teams have
been been clawing that back. But we're trying to keep
improving as well, like like I just said before and
car set up or optimizing systems drivers. We're getting older,
but hopefully not slower more wise, so yeah, hopefully we
haven't lost all of that advantage that we did have
(07:36):
last year.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
But jump from six hour races up to the twenty
four but still not even just on halfway through the season,
you've still got high hopes of challenging up the top
over top of these pesky newcomers.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Brandon, Yeah, I think we've got a good chance to
test that showed that we were fighting at the pointy end.
I think we'll know a bit more after qualifying tomorrow
where the real pace of everyone is. But I'm quite
quitely confident we're going to be at least fighting at
the front.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Wicked can't wait too. I won't sit through the whole
twenty four hours because I simply can't. I just haven't
got capacity to do that. But chopping in and out,
and let's hope we get a sensational finish with you
guys right at the front of course. Three times Lamon
one or four times World Insurance Champion Brendan Hartley, thanks
so much for your time, get in there and cause
I ruck us my friend chairs Mate.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Talk soon for more from Sports Talk, listen live to
News Talks. It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.