„Either you want to be a professional driver or you want to be a Formula One driver” – an interview with Augusto Farfus

Augusto Farfus has represented the BMW brand for eighteen years. He is one of the most recognizable drivers associated with this German manufacturer and… the winner of this year’s Bathurst 12h. I had the great pleasure and privilege of talking to Augusto not only about his career, but also about the differences between Formula 1 and endurance series, support for young competitors, and a certain Pole… Let me invite you to read!

Competition and successes

Przemysław Garczyński: Let’s start with your recent victory at the Bathurst 12h. First of all – congratulations! What was your strategic approach during that race? What contributed to your victory?

Augusto Farfus: Yeah, we had a very strategic read on the race. We were not the fastest car on track, to be very honest, but we understood immediately that the fuel consumption would have been extremely important for the evolution of the race.

So, from the beginning, we decided to save fuel and that gave us the victory, because then most of the cars had to do an extra stop and by saving one lap of fuel, we could retake the lead and win the race.

PG: How do you assess the level of competition in modern endurance racing? Do you see any significant differences between endurance and other motorsport disciplines?

Augusto Farfus: Well, endurance racing is becoming more and more popular. It is becoming stronger and stronger, because the manufacturers see the need to promote their own customer cars, you know.

Yes, Formula 1 is a brand in shaping, so Formula 1 is of course very nice, but the good side of endurance racing, specific on the GTs, the customer ends up driving, let’s say, the car he has in the garage and this is a strong appeal for the manufacturers.

The level of endurance racing is getting extremely high and, in fact, you see in the past Alonso, Scott Dixon, Kubica and many other Formula 1 stars, which they have arrived in endurance racing and they are not so dominant or they are not as strong as they used to be in Formula 1 and this shows how strong actually is the endurance racing level. BMW, it was everything for me.

PG: How important is the cooperation with BMW to you? Do you think that this brand gives you the best opportunities to develop as a driver?

AF: BMW, it was everything for me. I’m a BMW factory driver for the last 18 years. I’m one of the most successful BMW drivers in history. I drove every single car from the brand and this shows how loyal a brand can be and how important is the work.

I started my blog when I was very young and after 18 years I look back and I feel extremely proud from everything I’ve achieved, you know. You walk to the BMW museum and you see so many cars with my name there. BMW is definitely my second home.

Przemysław Garczyński: Let’s take a closer look at your career. What were the most difficult or demanding moments in your career? How did you cope in those situations?

Augusto Farfus: Well, what was the most difficult was actually the transition from single seats to touring cars and then eventually to GTs, because back then people never believed that endurance racing or GT racing was a possibility to be a professional driver. Often people think either you are a Formula 1 driver or you cannot be a professional and now there are so many very strong platforms which allow the drivers to succeed and back for me it was also difficult, because I was 21 when I decided to move to touring cars, because I didn’t have an alternative. A single seat was and is still now extremely expensive, so I just had to make a choice for living and now I feel extremely pleased that I did that call and I am where I am.

PG: How does the evolution of technology currently affect the role of driver skills in modern racing? Is technology becoming more and more dominant over human skills, especially in endurance races lasting several hours?

AF: Well, I think that the technology actually now including simulator, the telemetry, the data, the onboard videos, it helps the drivers to improve even further, you know. Makes the driver look more into detail about the driving skills, about the speed, the technique. So it is a very powerful tool to improve the driving skills but also has to be carefully looked, carefully understood because at the end there is a human driving a car and not a robot.

Augusto Farfus on being a manager for other drivers

Przemysław Garczyński: I know that in addition to competing on the track, you have also become more involved as a manager or mentor for less experienced drivers. Do you think that older drivers can effectively pass on their experience to younger generations of drivers? What is the most important piece of advice you would give to teenage drivers who are serious about motorsport as a way of life?

Augusto Farfus: Well, for me what I try to pass, I like to call myself not a manager but an advisor because I feel, which happens nowadays, a lot of kids they don’t make the right planning, they don’t – also because of a lack of experience and knowledge on the business, they plan their career year by year without having the big picture in mind. What I try to do is to advise and try to make the right connection to the right people, putting the drivers in the right places to be able to show their speed. I try to treat a driver like I would like to have my daughter, which is racing now, treated.

I want the drivers to succeed and hopefully in three, four, five years I will have a pool of young drivers, successful, talented, earning money and I will be part of their success.

PG: One of your drivers is Maks Angelard from Poland, who after a year of racing in the GT class for Porsche is moving towards prototypes and will make his debut in the LMP3 class in the Prototype Cup Germany with Mücke Motorsport. Where did the idea of ​​steering Maks towards prototypes come from?

AF: Yeah, Maks, I really like and I saw his commitment. It’s funny enough we met not in a car track but in a go-kart because we have our family racing karting [Vicky, Augusto’s daughter and Julia, Maks’ sister] and I could see how difficult was his start. He’s a kid who has a lot of speed, a lot of talent but also a lot of motivation, and often wrong moves can end up in a high price. And I see now Maks doing this move into LMP3 with Mücke having the BWT which is an incredible brand behind.

I see a lot of potential in him. I see a lot of speed, of course the experience needs to be big but he is extremely young so he has such a long year in front that he has time to build and be strong and I have absolutely no doubt that probably in the very, very near future we will have him shining as a factory driver from any big brand. 

PG: What do you consider to be the key elements of managing an effective racing team? How do you motivate your colleagues during intense competition?

AF: Well, I think we should just try to do our very best. You know, how do I motivate people? I just, there is like from team members, from drivers, engineers and so on, I think there is always a possibility to do a little bit more, a little bit better and this is what I ask from from my guys, from the drivers, from the people I work because we use the word team often but often we don’t understand the meaning – and the meaning of a team to be successful. Every single individual has to be proud of his job and has to give his absolutely best and only that, including the driver, will be able to have success on track. 

Augusto Farfus an the transition to endurance

Przemysław Garczyński: We have already touched on this topic with the figure of Maks Angelard, but I would like to take a broader look at this phenomenon with you. Why do so many drivers decide to move from the formula environment to endurance? What do you think is the biggest reason for this trend?

Augusto Farfus: I think the young drivers decide to Formula, which of course it is a great environment, because it is a way to look for Formula One. But at the end the drivers need to also decide what they want to do for a living. And being in a race car and defending a brand like in my case BMW – but, you know, you have Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, McLaren, Audi and so many others – I think it’s very rewarding.

I mean the reward you get when you’re defending a brand is very unique. I see more and more young drivers here and I think that should be the way because the single seats path is extremely expensive and I think often the talent gets second priority, you know, the budget, the sponsors have end up having a bigger impact on the driver progress on single seats than actually can happen in GTs or prototype racing. So, I’m a big fan of course [of going to endurance instead of Formula], I think I’m one of those great examples which managed to make a living out of it and I think a guy like Maks has exactly the speed and the talent to do that.

PG: How do technological changes affect the development of endurance racing as a sport? Is it easier for competitors year by year, or is technology tightening the stakes, making it harder to compete with each other?

AF: Well, of course the technological changes have helped, like I said, the drivers, it made the level even higher. Nowadays you have simulator at home, you have so many data to actually push the drivers up front but at the end it’s a sport based on the talent and the talent would always pay off. 

Przemysław Garczyński: What advice do you have for young talents deciding between formula and endurance racing? What should they pay particular attention to when making this decision?

Augusto Farfus: Well, what advice can give to the young drivers? For me it is, of course, you have to explore your talent, you have to push your limits, you have to aim if that’s your dream to be in Formula One, you have to aim for that, but you have to keep your eyes open, your ears open to understand and to make a decision.

Either you want to be a professional driver or you want to be a Formula One driver and I think these are two very different topics. A lot of people, they only want to be Formula One driver and in that case I think that specific driver is not in love with the sport. I watch races from, you know, from karting racing to Formula One, I watch because I love the sport and I think the young kids they need to understand there is a big difference between Formula One and GT or endurance racing and once they understand and they love racing I think there is a great opportunity to become extremely successful and make a very good living out of it if you can understand this enough and push in that direction.

The future of motorsport in eyes of Augusto Farfus

Przemysław Garczyński: Do you see any new technological trends that have the potential to revolutionize motorsport in the coming years?

Augusto Farfus: Yes, I see the technology changing and I think very soon we will see this virtual racing get more and more popular. You know, like now you have professional computer gamers making a lot of money, I think very soon we might end up having, we have already, but even more and bigger online racing competition because with the graphics at the moment we have and the quality of the games very soon I think you will be very difficult to see the difference between a virtual racing and actually a real one.

PG: Motorsport, including Formula 1, has always been a kind of bastion of innovation for the entire automotive industry. Looking at the direction the automotive market is heading, taking into account regulations regarding exhaust emissions, electromobility, carbon footprint neutralization… How important do you think ecology and environmental sustainability are in modern motorsport? Are changes in motorsport still leading to a revolution in the automotive industry, or have we reached a time when the situation has changed by 180 degrees?

AF: Yeah, I think, you know, the environment understanding and sustainability it’s extremely important and we see this coming, this footprint, you know, this offset is very difficult really to calculate. I think what we’ll have seen is a different time of racing where the tire manufacturers are doing more and more ecological tires, the fuel are becoming more and more ecological, also the parts of the car, so I think it is a good example, I mean we see now Formula E going electric, so we are showing and we are proving that it’s possible to make a cleaner motorsport and actually transfer the technology to the end client. 

Prospects for young competitors

Przemysław Garczyński: When talking about the future, it is impossible to ignore the competitors currently competing in karting – like your daughter, Vicky, competing in the OK Junior category. What are the prospects for young girls like her who want to enter the world of motorsport?

Augusto Farfus: Well, I think it’s seeing young kids starting, it’s always something very nice I like to see and more now I see also the girls starting with karting. I see that there are a lot of very strong girls coming up. I will not really put my daughter, I’m just saying in general. I think it’s nice to see girls making progress, girls fighting the boys in an equal level. Physiologically every girl can raise a boy, so it’s nice to see this new side of the motorsport. There are a lot of brands, a lot of companies, a lot of Formula One teams, manufacturers that are helping the girls to succeed. I think only by that we will be able to see probably very soon a growing Formula One.

PG: Karting is one of those things that is almost the only path leading towards a motorsport career on four wheels – whether we are thinking about endurance drivers, formula drivers or single-brand car cups, most of them started by competing in karts. How do you know which way your career should go? How can a young competitor conclude that path A is for them and path B is better left alone?

AF: Well, like I said before, I think the driver should keep his eyes open, I think he has to have his target either from young ages, because I already see some drivers they are aiming for Formula One, but there are also some drivers saying no, no, no, I want to do Le Mans, I want to be a professional driver, I want to drive a prototype… so I think this is already very nice to see that there are different markets for different kids. And that’s why having a good person to advise and to keep the possibilities open for you is very important to have. I always tell the kids, which are not from the business, they should have an advisor, because only by then it’s able to really show plan A, plan B, plan C and adjust as the wind blows, because unfortunately often happens that a lot of very good talents end up not getting to the end of their career or not showing their true speed, because there was not a proper guidance behind them. 

Przemysław Garczyński: Don’t you think that young drivers are too monothematically looking only towards Formula 1? Meanwhile, the path to it is like a funnel, getting narrower and narrower, to offer only 20 spots in Kiml the grid each year, and 22 spots since next year. In WEC, ELMS, ALMS and other endurance series, the number of competitors in a single season exceeds a hundred.

Augusto Farfus: Yes, it’s true that unfortunately Formula One has a very small field, it has to be like this, because to keep the glamour, to keep the image, it has to be a tiny and small field, but it’s growing. If you see now the WEC, ELMS, IMSA in US, the championships are growing and there is a lot of money involved, there is a lot of manufacturers, so I think this is a very good example that there is a new motorsport starting – and it’s good, because there is a lot, it’s still a lot of drivers trying to make a career, a lot of drivers trying to make the limit of racing and having new ways, new platforms, I think it’s sensational.

PG: Looking at motorsport from the perspective of a woman, even your daughter – we are reaching a point where women face a dilemma: whether to fight on an equal footing with men (like Sophia Flörsch in Formula 3, and currently in Indy NXT), or to go towards the F1 Academy and a series exclusively for women. Which solution is better in your opinion?

AF: Well, looking for a woman racing, I think now, as I said before, any woman can drive a Formula One car in the same level as a man, if has the same preparation. There is at the moment a push going on that we need to get probably the power steering in all the cars, because to be honest I don’t understand why Formula One has the power steering and every category up to the Formula One has no power steering. It makes absolutely no sense that kids end up driving cars which are extremely heavy to then get Formula One and find a car which has a very light steering wheel. So I think once we get over this the girls will be able to make their path and be as strong as any other man in the world.

Przemysław Garczyński: If you could give some practical advice on building a career from scratch for a young driver who is just starting his or her adventure with karting, what would you advise to do?

Augusto Farfus: So practical advice is to plan, plan one two years ahead. I think this is the biggest mistake the parents they do, they only say „okay, this year I would allocate this amount of budget to make my kid racing”, and then he does not think the following year, and then he gets to the end of the year and he finds himself in a corner, because maybe the budget he needs is more to continue. Or the season didn’t go as planned and then there is no budget left. So I always tell: always think two steps ahead for a driver career. Like this, you’ll be able to say: „okay, this year I want to do this championship, because I want to go to that championship, and next year that championship will cost me this amount of money; the budget I have is this”.

Because you have to consider that we always start the season hoping that it will be the best season of our lives, but like it happened to me and happened to many other drivers, this was sometimes not the case. And that’s why you need to always have a little bit a further vision, to have always the plan B in your hand – because I see so many parents that I meet them and they say: „ah, I did Formula 4 with my kid, I spent all the budget and now it’s October, for next year I have no budget, but please, help me to get my son to race for free”. And this is not the case, because has not been planned problem – and I always tell them, like I said, that this mistake unfortunately should have been considered before the try. So I have to say: „okay, I have 10, I would only spend six, because the next four I’ll keep on the side for an emergency or for something else”. If you use it at 10, and then the season doesn’t go as planned, you don’t have the results to look for a sponsor, but you also don’t have budget to continue the sport. And that’s why a lot of young talents end up stopping without even being able to show their true speed.

Augusto farfus an achievements worthy of a champion

Przemysław Garczyński: We started with your career and the Bathurst victory, so let’s return to you as a driver once more. Looking back on your career, what do you consider your greatest achievement?

Augusto Farfus: So my achievements… my greatest achievement probably was the World Cup in Macau in 2018 which was the last official race for Schnitzer Motorsport with the legendary Charlie Lamb and I think that probably it’s one of the finest race I had in my career. 

PG: What are your racing plans for this year? Last year you competed in both GT and prototype classes – which ones are closer to you?

AF: Yeah last year I did prototype and GTs, this year I will focus mainly on GTs. We have a new car now the M4 GT3 EVO so it needs a little bit work to be done in that car so I agree with BMW that I will mainly focus on the GT. And to be honest I really enjoy GT racing so this year there will be no prototype on my agenda. 

Przemysław Garczyński: Thank you for your time, I’m rooting for more exciting victories – both for you, Vicky and your charges.

Augusto Farfus: Thanks so much for the interview. I have to say, I think Maks will be the next real talent from Poland. Ciao ciao!

Photos: BMW M / FollowWRT

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