Born in Lichfield, less than an hour drive from Silverstone, Black Falcon’s Adam Christodoulou is relishing the prospect of racing on home turf this weekend at Silverstone.
The 23 year old is quickly carving himself a very good reputation in the PRO-AM class after a stunning drive at Monza netted the Black Falcon Mercedes a superb 3rd place after starting well down the grid. We spoke to Adam as he prepared for the big weekend to get his aims and objectives for the second round of the Blancpain Endurance Series.
You and your teammates (Steve Jans and Klaas Hummel) should be in a good spirit in getting results at Silverstone this weekend, after the 3rd place in PRO-AM at Monza?
“Yes. I think Silverstone will be a bit harder than Monza, just because of the combination of corners. It is a bit more complex than Monza. At Silverstone there might be a little more difference in times than we saw at Monza last month. I believe that the Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 is going to be good though, with the downforce it produces so I am looking forward to driving there. And I the BOPs changed a little bit as we have 10 kilos taken off so it could look pretty good for us. I am looking forward to being there; I haven’t raced there for probably two years. The last time I raced there would have been in the McLaren, as I was doing the development for them in 2011. “
Being an instructor does it actually make an advantage because it is a fairly technical track, isn’t it?
“Yes, I think it will be a slight advantage. It will just make things a bit easier to get data for the team and just talking to the other drivers in the car and it always help to know the track a bit better. But Klaas (Hummel) and Steve (Jans) are very fast drivers and I expect that we will be fighting for another podium. The Mercedes at Monza just proved that it is a better car in race than in qualifying, so as long as we can improve our qualifying it should make things a bit easier for the race if we stay out of trouble”
The consistency and the combination of decent pit stops and good pace lead you to the top 10 at Monza didn’t it?
“Indeed. We qualified 39th overall and it seemed to be a disaster but finally during the race we could stay out of trouble, the safety car helped us a little bit with closing the gap with the cars ahead and then one by one we just made our way forward. Among 60 cars I think we were 51 for the top-speed trap times. I think at Silverstone it will be less important because there will be more high-speed corners like Copse, Becketts and Stowe, so I think the Mercedes will be in better shape all-round. “
How are you finding the Pirelli tyres?
“The tyres are great. You just have to deal with the grip that you’ve got. That is a strong point of the Mercedes. It seems to be excellent on fuel and also the tyre degradation is very good. I think that is just part of our consistency. I think that is where we had an advantage on the other cars, when they started to get slow towards the end of their stints.”