EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Eastwood speaks on ELMS Silverstone expectations and what TF Sport are focusing on ahead of the race
Charlie Eastwood, Blake McDonald and Alec Udell - drivers of the No.33 TF Sport Corvette - head into the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Silverstone second in the championship standings, and just one point off the leading No.75 Porsche. DIVEBOMB's Aaron Carroll sat down with Eastwood on Friday evening to discuss the crews weekend so far, and the expectations for Saturday and Sunday.
The weekend began for the teams and drivers on Thursday with a series of test sessions to get everyone up to speed with the Silverstone circuit.
Eastwood was very direct about the pace the Corvette crew were able to find in those tests. When asked if the team had done any work on the setup overnight to solve those issues, he replied jokingly "We were s***e yesterday, so there must have been".
He continued "The wind made it quite difficult for us, even though we're in a GT car, our car seems quite sensitive to wind.
"But we've been doing loads of work throughout this season on geometry and this time last year, we were super quick here and we just went back to roughly what we had then just to try and see if that is what this type of track needs because there's not many tracks that are similar to Silverstone. It's so fast, flowing, really late apexes and the low speed isn't that detrimental, so we changed that [to last year's setup] and that was a massive jump for us."
A massive jump it was. The team finished the 90-minute FP1 session in fifth place in the LMGT3 class, three tenths off the ultimate pace set by the No.75 Proton car, their main championship rivals. Later in the day, during the Bronze driver test, McDonald finished the session top of the pile.
Approaching qualifying though, the Irishman thinks the team might be missing something. "We're definitely missing a bit of pace to the top few cars. This year, he [McDonald] has had one pole and he's had three seconds and the furthest he's been off [pole] is a tenth.
"There's a couple of really strong guys in the Bronze field in ELMS. He was the one that really pulled one lap out of the bag that got the peak of the tyre and was much quicker than his other laps. So whoever does that tomorrow is going to be in P1.
"We still have 25 kilos success ballast here. So, you know, that's probably worth three and a half tenths [per lap]. Realistically, that's probably what we're missing to the guys that have no success."
One thing notable about the LMGT3 class in the ELMS is how tight the class is. Every year there are multiple cars in contention to win the title heading into the final rounds. This year is no different.
The top two - Proton and TF - are only covered by a single point, on 53 and 52 respectively. But you only have to go back another five points until you reach the No.62 Iron Lynx Mercedes and the No.77 Proton Porsche, both tied on 47 points. The No.86 GR Racing Ferrari is another point behind after their win in Spa, with the No.57 Kessel Racing still in with a real shot from sixth, on 40 points.
That's six cars right there fighting for championship honours with just two races left to run in the 2026 ELMS season. This is something that Eastwood stressed, albeit with a catch.
"The thing with the ELMS is every single year there's about six people that can win the championship going into the last round. You basically just need to try - and I know it sounds stupid - get as many points as you can going into the last event.
"What makes it a bit of a catch-22 though is you get success ballast when you have a decent result. So what we actually seen last year is like we went into the last round in third with no success ballast.
"The leading Ferrari had 36 kg. So then they finished ninth. We won the race and won the championship. We just keep sitting in the back of that truck going around asking, What are the expectations and what are the priorities? Because, yes, it'd be great to get a win, you know, and that is, of course, the goal. But it's actually not as important as you think because if you have a bit less weight going into Portimão, you have a good chance of winning there.
"I think it's about staying out of trouble. Blake was just quickest in the bronze test. So we definitely seem to be in the hunt with the 25 kg that we currently have. We just need at least a podium at a minimum, I think."
That then begs the question, is it worth backing off a little bit to ensure that the car isn't overweight heading into the season finale? Eastwood thinks it's more about balance, and analysing each and every race as it comes.
"Ultimately, what you're constantly trying to do is win the races as slow as physically possible, which seems mental in motorsport, but that's the way that you honestly have to think about it.
"Even in the likes of Imola, once you get to the front, it's then just trying to manage the pace as best as you can to try and not get the biggest hit for the next one. There's a lot of analysis that goes into it.
"You'd probably be shocked at the amount that actually does go into it in the background, and we're just getting constant updates on that. At times, is it worth pushing to finish third to then have 10 kilos of success and then maybe going way too fast to try and get from fourth to third? There's a fair bit of analysis with it."
Eastwood spoke quite a lot on the success ballast in this championship, showing how important it is to try to manage during the season. Ultimately though, it is about trying to get as many points as possible.
"There's two aspects to it. There's balance of performance and the success weight. Ultimately, success weight is a positive because it means that you've had a decent result. BOP weight or BOP hit, let's say, is a negative."
Despite setting the team up worse for the next round, the Corvette driver sees the ballast as a good thing, something to signify that the team and the car do have the pace to win. Even now with an extra 25 kg, McDonald topped the Bronze test, so they're not out of it by any means just because they've got the extra weight.
Similarly to balancing success ballast though, there's also the dilemma of a good points scoring race, or pushing on for a spot on the top step of the podium. With two races left, and only one point off the top of the table, it's something that's playing on the minds of the TF Sport crew.
"With only 13 cars in the field a DNF is a complete disaster. If you have a DNF here tomorrow, you're done. You're not winning the championship. It's as simple as that. Because there's so many other people that are going to have points and then before you know it, you go from being favourite to win it to finishing sixth. It's so tight.
During Friday's running there were already a couple of crashes between a few of the cars. The No.34 Inter Europol, No.99 AO Racing and the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari were all involved in a substantial crash at Becketts in FP1. In the Bronze test the No.27 Nielsen Racing LMP2 Pro/Am car collided with the No.86 GR Racing Ferrari too, sending the latter into the gravel at the end of the session.
Just from Friday's running, it's visible to everyone how important traffic management will be in Sunday's four hour race, and particularly keeping everything pointing in the right direction.
Eastwood stressed the importance of this, but also said he had faith in himself and his teammates to bring the car home in one piece.
"With the LMP2s and LMP3s, there seems to be a massive time difference between us [GT3s] and them here because it's such high speed and there's so much downforce. Even in practice, we've had three decent shunts between P2s and GTs.
"So that only gets worse when you come to the race. The good thing is Blake and Alec are both super sensible in that regard and thankfully, I don't shunt it that much myself. Keep our nose clean, but try and just get a podium at a minimum."
The pace difference between the top and bottom class at Silverstone is much greater than it is at other tracks on the calendar. When compared to the LMGT3s, the prototypes - LMP2s in particular - find their lap time in the high speed corners.
At Silverstone, there is absolute no lack of those. Copse, Maggots and Becketts, Stowe and Abbey all require high downforce to be taken quickly. This dynamic leads to the GT3s being over 15 seconds slower every lap.
"It just seems like they're [LMP2s and LMP3s] so fast here. For example, in Imola, it's super tight so it's harder for them to pass, but it feels like because they're not that good at low speed you kind of see them for like three or four corners where here, you might start the lap and before you know it, they're trying to pass you on the exit of Becketts and you're like, I didn't even know you were behind me!
"19 P2 cars passing you every seven laps, that makes it pretty difficult. I feel like that's probably one of my strengths. I've obviously done this championship in P2 for three years so I see both sides of it and I kind of know all the places that they're going to pass and I have a good idea of where I have to let them pass or try and defend in the GT. The more difficult the traffic, the better."
Fighting through traffic and making sure he loses as little time as possible, while also keeping it between the white lines is something Eastwood relishes. Especially as the Pro driver in the No.33 line-up, he makes sure to impart that wisdom and skill to his teammates.
"We've been doing a lot of analysis between me and Alec in Spa because our ultimate lap time and our best lap was quite close but the actual stint average was a bit bigger and it was literally just traffic management.
"The thing is that people have a misconception of oh yeah, you just race your own race and let them get past you but there is times that it is better to just lift off down the straight so then they don't try and dive bomb you into Eau Rouge or whatever. I have a pretty clear thought process and I build it up over the practice.
"Once I start to see okay, when they're this far behind they are going to catch me here and when they're this far behind they're going to try and pass me here. You're trying to basically just sit in your mirrors the whole time and go like, right, this is how I'm going to break down these next five P2 cars. ELMS is honestly more about the traffic than it is your ultimate lap time."
Doing all of that while going over 250 kp/h, while having your own in class battle and for four hours at a time is no mean feat. Add in the British climate, and you might have a wet track to deal with too come Sunday.
McDonald will be qualifying the car later on today, setting the No.33 car up for the race tomorrow. A podium at the minimum is Eastwood's goal, but what will their rivals have to say about that?
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