HOW PORSCHE IS PREPARING ITS NEW JUNIOR FOR THE BIG STAGE
James Wallis has some sizeable footsteps to follow in as the next Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior, having impressed in a gruelling selection process
he list just keeps getting longer. Josh Webster,
Charlie Eastwood, Dan Harper, Harry King and now Adam Smalley have all won the Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship during their two seasons as the Porsche GB Junior. That run of success proves that Porsche is pretty good at picking out stars of the future and, at the end of last year, it was time for the next Junior to be chosen.
Nothing is left to chance when it comes to the meticulous process of selecting the new Junior, but it proved to be a particularly tricky decision this time around thanks to the quality of the drivers applying. Even before getting down to the final four, who took part in an intense shootout at Silverstone at the start of November, some notable drivers had to be eliminated from the running – including the likes of GB3 race winner Matthew Rees and GB4 dominator
Tom Mills. This left Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion Joe Warhurst, British GT contenders James Wallis and Josh Rowledge, also the 2022 Ginetta Junior conqueror, and European GT4 frontrunner Tom Edgar as the finalists. But, heading to Silverstone, there was no clear favourite for the coveted prize, worth £85,000 per year towards the Junior’s Carrera Cup budget along with a host of money-can’t-buy experiences and support from Porsche.
As with all of the final four, Wallis wanted to be as prepared as possible for each element of the selection process. And this included the interview with members of the Carrera Cup organising team that helped whittle down the 12-strong shortlist to the four who would make the final. The 18-year-old enlisted the help of his school headmaster to practice the scenario of being interviewed in slightly intimidating circumstances. Then, after making the cut, he sampled the current Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to get his head around the machine, which contrasts greatly to the Mercedes-amg GT3 with which he scored a best result of sixth in British GT last year. “I had never driven a car without ABS, so it was different to me,” admits Wallis, who was confident of being in a strong position in terms of the fitness assessments. “I’m quite active with my sport outside of racing and I’m a big hockey player
Tand I did the England Hockey pathway for a while.”
And his preparation even extended to some media training earlier in the year. “Before I entered the scholarship, I did half a day with Louise Goodman in June and it worked super well that she was interviewing on the shootout day,” says Wallis. “Everything fell into place!”
But, for all his preparation, one element that always remains a variable for the shootout is the weather. And that November day proved to be very wet, cold and miserable. Yet that was just what Wallis wanted. When he previously tested the Porsche, it was also in wet conditions and he therefore had an idea of what to expect, even if the risk of making a costly mistake was far higher.
The constantly changing conditions did not just pose a challenge for the drivers either, it also complicated matters for those doing the assessing. “One pair had worse conditions than the other but we’re confident that we’re able to assess them all individually on their merits,” explains Porsche GB motorsport manager James Macnaughton. “We have two cars on the day with identical set-ups. Each car has its own mechanic, engineer and driver coach but each car is also driven by each driver coach before they go out. Although all four drivers didn’t have the same conditions, we are able to directly compare two drivers with each other.
“We’re not looking at [outright] lap times because we don’t have judges of fact to judge track limits. What we want to see is a driver’s progress – we’re not looking for the finished article, we’re looking for someone that can take advice.”
“What we want to see is a driver’s progress – we’re not looking for the finished article”
However, with just two cars circulating at a time, it meant the circuit was slow to dry even when the rain did stop falling. But the Porsche engineers did not alter the run plan for the conditions, it remained exactly the same, just wet weather rubber was used instead. This in turn gave a different way of looking at the drivers’ skills. The wets do not have a peak performance like dry tyres do, so a driver could improve throughout a new-tyre run, rather than the best time coming early on before the tyres started to wear.
This meant the finalists had to stay focused at all times.
And that did not just apply to when they were on track. The day began at around 0700 when body composition tests were conducted, and assessments continued over the next 10 hours. Goodman’s wide-ranging media session included what proved to be a particularly tough question about Porsche’s Formula E drivers, while a plethora of fitness tests were carried out, including the brutal treadmill running of the VO2 max, alongside numerous different push-ups/planks and grip assessments. The finalists were also examined in another way as they were psychometrically profiled to ensure they have the right temperament and character to succeed on and off the track.
With so much data and information to peruse, and an evenly matched quartet of drivers under the microscope, it’s no wonder the judging panel had a difficult task on their hands. “It was very competitive – the four drivers that were there, they all gave it absolutely everything,” says Macnaughton. “Each one of them had strengths and weaknesses, and the driving element was very good from all of them. At the end of the day, all the respected experts in each field came together and gave me their debrief on how each candidate had performed and then I always ask them to rank the finalists from first to fourth and they all found that quite difficult this year.” But, in the end, it was Wallis who emerged as a “clear
“Nick Tandy has so much experience of those cars and a background in Ministox and that clicked with me”
winner” and outgoing Junior Smalley had the task of revealing Wallis as the chosen one by reading his name out of the golden envelope at Porsche’s Night of Motorsport awards event.
Three months have now passed since that announcement – and another three remain until the Carrera Cup GB campaign begins – but plenty of work has been going on behind the scenes to prepare Wallis for the season ahead. One of the first decisions he had to make was which team to run with – and, given the previous success of Juniors, he was flooded with offers.
“It’s a really important decision – you can’t over-estimate what a difference it can make,” says Macnaughton. “That’s why the decision is so difficult, there’s a lot of good teams there. They’re all ever so slightly different in the way they approach doing their job, so he really can choose what he feels is best for him.”
After testing with Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy’s JTR squad at Snetterton late last year, Wallis decided that was his preferred choice, the team having previously enjoyed success with Harper in 2019. “I just felt as if JTR is Porsche only
[it does not run cars in other categories] and Nick having so much experience around those cars,” says Wallis of the reasoning behind his decision. But there was another factor that also played a part. Prior to his British GT and GT Cup exploits, Wallis began his racing career on the short ovals in Ministox – just like Tandy. “Nick has got a background in Ministox and that just clicked with me, and I really like how it’s a family team,” Wallis adds.
Team chosen (and retro livery selected, which he thinks will be a “crowd favourite”), Wallis is now being truly immersed in the Porsche world as he will also be representing the brand off the track. “We put him on a course called ‘Welcome to Porsche’ at the Experience Centre and that’s a course any new Porsche employee goes on,” explains Macnaughton. “Everyone gets to drive all of the road cars – some on the road, some on the handling track. He drove the Taycan, the Panamera, the Cayenne, the Macan, the 911 and the 718 on that day. There’s also a classroom element to give people a background and understanding of the history and heritage of Porsche and not just from motorsport. We feel it’s very important James understands the brand very well as he’s a brand ambassador for the next two years.”
He has also been taking advantage of the facilities at the Porsche Human Performance Centre to complement his school sport. “I’ve spent six or seven days up there already,” says Wallis. “It’s good, and they give you a nutrition, fitness and hydration plan.”
But things became that little bit more real last weekend, when Wallis made his Porsche race debut and contested the Sprint Challenge Middle Eastern series in Abu Dhabi. Given all of his limited running so far has been in the wet, he chose this to get some dry experience at the wheel of a car from top outfit Lechner Racing. A best result of fifth was achieved, but more important was the learning he banked. That was just another vital step on Wallis’s Porsche journey and, with a star cast of rivals in the Carrera Cup GB assembling, he knows he faces a “fierce” battle to ensure his name is another added to the list of title-winning Juniors.