Richard Bradley and KCMG have come of age this year and like any upstart youngsters challenging the establishment, their journey has inevitably ruffled some feathers – most notable at Fuji when the team was on the receiving end of what many perceived to be a gross transgression of justice. But to lay the hurdles the team has had to leap at the foot of one round would be a footnote in what has been an equally challenging and rewarding year, as Richard explains.
“It’s been a tough challenge given the car was only ready in March. We suffered at the beginning of the year with weather being against us at Silverstone, Spa and the Le Mans test day” says Bradley.
“The good thing is that we have a very talented team. We work very hard and that’s why we’re reaping the rewards. Since practice one at Le Mans we’ve been very hard to beat. We won at Nurburgring and the only reason we didn’t win in Austin was due to the full course yellows – our rivals gambled because that’s the only way they could beat us. That’s the way the dice rolls, but if you make your opponents gamble then you must be doing something right.”
The implementation of the Virtual Safety Car has been welcomed by many in the WEC paddock, but like any strategy, Bradley believes there is always room for improvement.
“I think it needs some refinement” he says. “The whole reason for having the VSC in the first place was the inherent unfairness of the safety car. But I think if there’s a full course yellow you should only be able to put for one lap of fuel only. Everyone laps within a lap or two of each other as it is so you’re very unlucky to get caught out within one lap of your window. Then everyone has their fuel and the race director could look at it as everyone has their fuel and we can go racing again.”
Running to a set pace also serves up its own drawbacks, but it’s an area that Richard maintains is under constant revue.
There are complications” he adds. “It’s very difficult for us running carbon brakes in that we can’t keep the temperature up using a constant speed. We go from normal operating temperatures to less than a hundred degrees which is very, very difficult. Also the pick-up on the tyres becomes a big issue. In Austin, I had so much pick-up after my ten-minute full-course yellow that we couldn’t take the wheel off in the pit-stop which lost us ten seconds.
There’s definitely progress though. Eduardo Freitas [WEC Race Director] listens to our feedback and we email him quite a lot so he’s very good like that.”
KCMG have gone from chasing G-Drive in the LMP2 championship standings, to defending a lead and then chasing once again. You could forgive a driver for becoming fixated on the point-score, but Bradley’s game plan has been unswerving from the opening round at Silverstone/
“We haven’t really had the lead until Le Mans and at Austin we had to come from the back, so I’m not so worried about it” admits a nonplussed Bradley. “At the end of the day, you win every race, you win the championship. That’s my way of looking at it.”
Being based in between Bangkok and London, Richard has probably clocked up as many miles as his GT contemporary Fernando Rees, but as Richard explains, Asia is becoming more and more important for drivers hoping to make a career out of the sport.
“Touring the world is very small now. I’m constantly hoping on aeroplanes. If I stayed in Europe I wouldn’t be racing” Richard soberly admits. “Asia’s becoming much more of an opportunity and I think it should be looked at very seriously given that’s where the money is and where the manufacturers are heading. In Europe if you win you have to take the next step which costs around a million more dollars. Some people in Europe could live their entire life on a single season budget for GP2. That’s a serious amount of money.”