Berkshire racing driver prepares for world famous 24-hour race
22-year-old Phil Hanson from Sunningdale is taking part in the classic Le Mans 24-hour endurance race
Last updated 19th Aug 2021
A 22 year old racing driver from Berkshire will take part in one of the world's oldest and most famous races this weekend.
Phil Hanson from Sunningdale is defending his title after becoming the youngest driver to ever win the Le Mans 24-hour race last year.
He says whilst he's proud to have won last year it was surreal experience:
"I won Le Mans in the only year there were no fans so it was a bit of a shame in that respect you know looking down from the podium there wasn't that typical sea of people cheering, and the fact the race was held in September meant it was conducted in many more hours of darkness"
This year around 50,000 fans will be at what is one of the world's oldest and most famous races. Phil says it's a unique race:
"It's a three and a half minute lap time and you're reaching top speeds of 340 KPH as Le Mans is famous for these incredibly long straights where public roads are put into the race track, there are three drivers per car and essentially it's one long relay."
Phil will share the driving with Filipe Albuquerque and Fabio Scherer in their United Autosports USA team Oreca-07 car - they can each drive for up to four hours and only have 20 seconds to change driving seats at the end of their driving stints. Phil says unlike formula one the cars taking part have vastly different performance:
"Essentially if you can imagine Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 all driving at the same time so you have cars with different speeds different braking capabilities different cornering speeds and massive closing speeds between the two cars so you could be battling against a car of your same class whilst having to overtake much slower cars".
Last year Phil was also the youngest British driver to win the FIA World Endurance Championship (LMP2) and he goes into Le Mans (where points are doubled) with a lead in this year's championship.
"There's always pressure to repeat the success but I don't think it elapses to as much pressure as having not won it (Le Mans) and trying to win it for the first time. Winning it last year takes a little bit of the pressure off in the sense of knowing exactly what has to be done we had a pretty faultless race last year and we believe we're coming in with an even stronger package this year".
You can find out more about the WEC and the 24 hours of Le Mans race here: https://www.fiawec.com/en/