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06.12.2018
When it comes to any form of Motorsports, there’s always rivalry between teams. Garage 59 taking up AF corse or WRT. But the FIA Nations Cup is different. Here, drivers and their cars represent their country and defend their national honor against other nations. Alexander West was behind the wheel of a Garage 59 McLaren representing Sweden.
It’s a really cool concept that FIA has introduced. It takes away the classic competition between teams and pits countries against one another. It’s a bit like the World Cup in football when players who usually compete in teams around the world come together to represent their country. For this event I had fellow Swede Victor Bouveng as my teammate and we added a Swedish flag to the livery of our usual #188 McLaren 650S GT3.
It was the first time that FIA had organized an event like this and the crowd itself was slower than during a Blancpain event. It was a little confusing at times because the drivers who you are used to seeing race for a particular team in a specific car were suddenly there in a different car. The rest was pretty similar to a regular event but as I said, this was the first try and I think the concept is really strong and could make for great atmosphere.
It was a really tough weekend for us. We had a good qualifying race and I ended up sixth on the grid. The weekend was made up of three one-hour races, but in every single one of them we were taken out by another competitor. I think there were a lot of drivers who clearly didn’t have the experience to compete in an event like this. That was already clear during qualifying as I saw a lot of questionable driving going on. So, I hope that for next year there might be some improvements in the drivers they allow to compete.
I’d love to, but I haven’t made a final decision yet. As I mentioned, it’s a great concept but it needs a few improvements. It’s the little things that can make a huge difference, like the number of tires we were allowed to use. Five sets for the entire weekend just wasn’t enough. I’d also like to see SRO take over the whole organization instead of just providing support. SRO has done such an amazing job with the Blancpain GT series and you feel the difference in other competitions.
I’m currently in Fuji competing in the Asian Le Mans Series racing an LMP2 car, which is what I’ll be doing over the winter. After that, I’ll probably compete in a GT3 car again, but I haven’t decided exactly how and what yet.
