Aston Martin Racing this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, and British driver Darren Turner has been with the team since Day One.
Here he talks about the weekend at Silverstone ahead, and his great working relationship with his team mate Stefan Mucke. The duo will be behind the wheel of the No.97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 in the LMGTE Pro category.
What does it mean to be an Aston Martin works driver at a British race such as the 6 Hours of Silverstone?
I’ve been part of the team now since it started 10 years ago and grown with the team. It always feels very special being a British driver getting into an Aston Martin, as I think it must be for an Italian driver getting into a Ferrari works car.
The company is only 20 miles away from where I live, the team is 5 miles away and I’ve got really close ties with the people involved as they’re all local as well. It feels like part of my family, and very special for me to have been involved for this length of time. I’ve enjoyed the highs, the wins and have also had to deal with some of the lows along the ways. But that’s what makes the team great, that inner strength to deal with the bad times as well as the good. I feel very much at home there and have some friendships from it that will last a lifetime.
Is there any pressure being the senior statesman?
I don’t think there’s any extra pressure. When I started with the team I was the younger driver in the squad alongside Rickard Rydell, David Brabham and Peter Kox who were all established sportscar drivers. I learnt so much from all of them – you don’t realise it at the time but you’re just picking up ideas from them. It’s only now at this stage in my career, which is where they were when I started, and I see the younger drivers coming up through the ranks at Aston Martin, that I realise that I have to help them just as Ricky, Brabs and Peter did for me.
When you move away from doing single-seaters or any sprint racing you soon realise there’s a bigger picture going on and, whether you’re a superstar or not, it’s only relevant if you’re going to get a result.
You’re only going to be able to do that if you’ve got all the people in the team working alongside and with you, and that’s the same for your team mate. To be open, free and honest with it all is part of being a good sportscar driver and I’ve enjoyed that.
The younger guys keep you on your toes as well. They come at it in a completely different way – they are fresh, hungry and want to do fast laps all the time. From the technical side too, they analyse things in a different way and you’re learning as well.
I feel at a good stage in my career, I’m confident in myself and I know my abilities and limitations. I’m comfortable with that and that gives you a good, broad view of everything and you’ve got to get on with your job.
You’ve established a solid working relationship now with Stefan Mucke – how do you complement each other or are you very evenly matched?
Over a lap, and over the year if you look at the averages, we’re very similar. It ebbs and flows depending on the circuit and lots of other parameters such as tyres, weather and so on. You get to the point where you have a lot of trust in your team mate because you know sometimes he’s going to be quicker than you due to circumstances, and vice versa. I’ve been very lucky because I’ve enjoyed the time with my team mates past and present both in and out of the car. It was fun being team mates with Tomas Enge for many years, Brabs too, and now Stefan for the last four years.
He and I had known each other for a number of years in the same team but had never been in the same car and there was a bit of jockeying at the beginning to know what he was like, him sussing me out too, but over the years we’ve rubbed off on each other in a really good way. We spend a lot of time with each other over a year and we’re really good mates with quite a few similar interests. We both like scouring e-Bay for old cars and dreaming of workshops to do them up in and he’s now a very good friend.
On the circuit I trust what he says 100% and that he’s not trying to do anything to be detrimental to me, and that’s the same with me for him. You have to compromise at times but it’s a proper partnership, we have belief in each other’s ability. There might be times where I’m struggling with a circuit or a session and he’s due in the car but he gives that up to offer me more track time and that works in the other direction as well. Ultimately the goal is to ensure that as a pairing we’re going to do a really good job over a race distance – everything else is irrelevant really.
Fiona Miller
Photos: 1) Aston Martin Vantage V8; Darren Turner is Aston Martin Racing's longest serving driver; Darren Turner (left) and Stefan Mucke - team mates for the last four years.
