Charging into the points at the Home of British Motor Racing
Jeffrey Schmidt at the legendary home of British Motor Racing. The Swiss driver lined up in Silverstone for the fourth Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race weekend. Racing under the Formula 1 banner, Jeffrey turned up the heat after difficulties with a new engine in the race to secure a points-scoring finish.
Jeffrey, you’re in the points again with tenth place in Sunday’s race. How did your charge go from 16th on the grid to finish in the points?
I had to take a few risks in order to achieve a decent result from my grid position. That went quite well. I placed ninth in the championship for regular Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup entrants. The race was a bit crazy. I had to fight my way up through a group of British drivers. Those guys were very fast because they know Silverstone like the back of their hands. They really went hard at it, as they were not lining up as guest starters in the overall standings. So, I had to be even more careful not to get involved in a collision when overtaking. That went extremely well. I achieved the maximum, given my grid position.
P16 was your weakest showing in qualifying for more than a year, and there have been exactly 20 race weekends during that time. What was the problem?
We’ve now got a completely new engine after the engine trouble during the race weekend at the Red Bull Ring. However, these units sometimes need a couple of hundred kilometres of running-in before they give their full power. I noticed that in Silverstone. It was hopeless in practically every session – like fighting with one arm behind my back. It’s ages since I’ve ended up so far back. The engine issue was really annoying, because it had already cost me a possible podium finish at the Red Bull Ring.
What exactly were the problems with the engine at Silverstone?
I didn’t notice it so much in the car itself, because I had a few clear laps in practice and in qualifying and was therefore not in a position to make comparisons with other cars. Then we found from the data analysis that my fellow competitors had an advantage down the straights. I was almost two tenths of a second adrift on all the straights, which naturally adds up over a whole lap. So, I was at quite a big disadvantage, especially at Silverstone, as was evidenced by my weak qualifying result.
You will be racing again this weekend. How do you rate your chances in the Porsche Carrera Cup at the Dutch Zandvoort circuit?
I’ll be lining up again in Zandvoort with the engine which made things tough for me at Silverstone. It won’t be until afterwards that I get back my old engine which is currently being overhauled. So, the races in the Netherlands could be tricky. At any rate, I’ll do my best again there, you can count on that, for sure! Zandvoort is an old-school track, on which every mistake is punished. A proper circuit for real men! The track is very narrow and very dirty off the racing line because of the sand. You have to really watch out, especially when overtaking. I’m second overall in the championship, so I want to score as many points as possible again.
A lot has been happening away from the track, too. You went straight from the cockpit to the university examination hall. What have you been doing these past few days?
I returned home on Sunday evening after the race at Silverstone. I then sat my last big exam on Monday afternoon at university in Basel. It was all quite stressful but went well. I’m glad that I’ve now got this extra burden behind me and can focus 100 percent on racing. It hasn’t always been easy, having to do exam revision in the evenings on race weekends at the hotel. Combining racing as a pro and university was a lot of work, but I was happy to do it – after all, it was my choice. I never felt that I couldn’t be bothered. I just sometimes wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day…
