Motorsport: Spain's top man here to talent-spot

Racing Engineering team principal Alfonso de Orleans Borbon is impressed by Kiwi talent. Picture / GP2 Media Service

Young Kiwi drivers’ skills make a big impression, writes Eric Thompson

Spaniard Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon may be the Duke of Galleria but he also runs one of the most successful racing teams in Europe, having won 11 international race championship titles in 14 years.

During Orleans-Borbon's racing days he finished on the podium at Le Mans and had a successful GT racing career. He's now the team principal and owner of Racing Engineering, one of the most sought-after seats in GP2, which is the feeder category for Formula One.

The 2013 GP2 champion's most famous graduate over the past few years is four-time world F1 champion Sebastian Vettel. Many more of Orleans-Borbon's former drivers have made it into F1 including TRS graduate Raffaele Marciello, who is now Sauber's test and reserve driver.

Orleans-Borbon has visited New Zealand in the past two years after seeing young Kiwi talent make inroads in GP3 and GP2 in Europe. He wanted to find out first hand what the Toyota Racing Series championship was all about.

"The category only really came to my attention when your Mitch Evans arrived and was so good," Orleans-Borbon said. "I remember him telling me two years ago that I had to come to New Zealand and see the talent in the Toyota Racing Series."

Orleans-Borbon has had former driver Raffaele Marciello and current racer Jordan King compete in the TRS. "I'm out here to do a bit of talent spotting for the future as the TRS is a great bridge from karting into single-seaters and something we don't really have back in Europe."

At Hampton Downs, Orleans-Borbon was amazed at the breadth and depth of talent in the 20-car field. "It's an advantage to start talking to these drivers ... so that we can monitor their progress over the next few seasons," he said.

Data is now king in motorsport. Being able to contrast and compare how young drivers develop and improve makes it a lot easier when deciding who to sign up.

"Of course the data is important, but being able to watch a driver's psychology during the actual transition from karting to single-seaters is also very important.

"I've seen some of these racing in karting already and to be able to watch how they get on in their very first drive in a single-seater is what I like to see.

"Some people think I'm wasting my time but you need to see this transition and how it's handled by the driver before they get to GP3 and GP2, where they might be a disaster. It's amazing seeing some of these drivers here who I was watching just five months ago in karts," Orleans-Borbon said.

This crop of young drivers who have made the trip to New Zealand for this year's 16-race series are among the closest in recent memory. At times during qualifying the field is covered by just one second and everyone is really quick.

"I've been impressed by Arjun Maini [India] and Santino Ferrucci [America]. They really stand out and impress me. A few with very little experience like Ferdinand Hapsburg is not too bad, as is Mathias Kristensen [Denmark].

"I was expecting a lot of these transition drivers to make a lot more mistakes than they do. What's impressed me most, though, is how clean they race. Maybe it's the tracks (narrow with very little run-off) that are making them more aware and better drivers and that's what makes this category so good."

The Racing Engineering principal was keen to sign Evans when he first arrived in GP2 and has tested the Kiwi a couple of times but has been unable to get him to put pen to paper.
"I've been trying to get Mitch on my books for two years now but his management team have a bigger picture outlook," Orleans-Borbon said. "He's pretty talented and has shown he can run with the best in GP2."