Joining newly crowned DTM champion Thomas Preining and a number of young works drivers, 31-year-old Rene Binder accepted the invitation to visit Bahrain to test a hypercar for the first time, taking out in his case, a Proton Porsche 963 LMDh. He told me how it all came about: “It happened quite simply following a conversation I had to do with me contesting the Asian Le Mans Series with Proton Competition and from team boss Christian Ried knowing that we are interested in the hypercar class, at least as a medium-term project. It was a terrific experience, for which I am very grateful, and it was also interesting to make comparisons with the LMP2, which technically, of course, is designed to be much simpler and does not have as many complicated driver aids. I found a couple of things particularly interesting to observe. The hypercar feels incredibly drivable over the first few laps. I felt comfortable straightaway and thought that I could perhaps even drive it for five hours straight without a break. However, things got a bit more complicated when it came to squeezing the last tenth of a second out of it. You need a good understanding of exactly how the hybrid system functions as regards braking and you must follow the engineers’ instructions to the letter. I think I would be able to do much better after an in-depth training session, but my long runs were absolutely fine as far as I’m aware.”
Austrian driver Binder will be back in the cockpit in early December for the season opener of the Asian Le Mans Series in Malaysia. He told me: “I won the title along with Ferdinand Habsburg and Yifei Ye when I was last there two years ago. I have quite a few positive memories of Sepang, you know. I’m now with Proton Competition, so Giorgio Roda and Porsche works driver Julien Andlauer will be my teammates this time out and I am pretty certain that as a crew, we can even be among the front-runners.”
Organised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) as the Asian counterpart to the European Le Mans Series, the Asian Le Mans Series has been contested since 2009 when it was introduced as a racing series for Le Mans prototypes and Gran Turismo cars.
This year’s Asian Le Mans Series will feature five 4-hour races to be held at Sepang, Dubai and in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina circuit.