Absolute Racing Team Director Ingo Matter says that the team’s Le Mans debut would have been close to impossible if it weren’t for the partnership with Proton Competition, as the team’s Asian crew were unable to do Le Mans due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
The Asia-based team is making its debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, fielding a Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the GTE Am category.
The team has had to search out a partnership with German operation Proton Competition, as the team itself is primarily crewed by staff based in Asia who are unable to travel to and from Le Mans due to the various travel restrictions put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, Proton Competition is operating the #18 Porsche driven by Andrew Haryanto, Marco Seefried and Alessio Picariello. It is one of five cars that the team is running, also including its own three-car entry and the WeatherTech Racing GTE Pro Porsche.
Speaking to MotorsportWeek.com ahead of the team’s long-awaited Le Mans debut, Matter explained that the team had to look for a partner and were happy to find Proton Competition.
“Obviously, with the global pandemic, and everything with the travel restrictions which we have in Asia, it made it quite early close to impossible to do it ourselves,” Matter explained. “So we looked for a strong partner to do it together with and we were lucky to find Proton, somebody who we are really happy with, I can say.
“It’s a nice setup. It’s a nice team, we have the same group. In the beginning, we had people from us with us.”
“But again, as things were not going the way we wanted it to go, they had to fly back. So it’s less and less Asian involvement, like it, should, could have been.”
Despite the setback, Matter sees the collaboration with the top German outfit as an advantage as the way of working is similar to Absolute Racing’s style of operations in Asia.
“I see Proton here, and obviously in the WEC, it’s a bit like when when we run in Asia, where we run a lot of cars, so a lot of people think it might be a disadvantage but no, actually it’s not.”
“You have to be focused and have the same crew on every car. But on the same time when you have an issue you have more crew to help do magic than you would do if you only focus on the smaller team.”
“And that’s something which we are doing in since a long time also in Asia. When you just look at Thailand, where we work closely together with B-Quik [Racing] which is a smaller local team. But we cooperated together on the big events. In Thailand, we also work together.”
Duck livery was Haryanto’s idea
The team has caught attention through the unique livery that it has opted to feature on its car.
The #18 Porsche features a diversity, anti-discrimination message with various cultures and ethnicities around the globe depicted as rubber ducks.
The livery quickly gained traction on social media, which has since garnered the team the nickname ‘The Underducks’.
According to Matter, the idea for the livery came from the team’s bronze-rated driver, Andrew Haryanto.
“It came actually from Andrew,” Matter said. “I mean, the idea really came from Andrew and he had these ideas with different ducks. It’s actually quite a fun way to describe it. I mean, it’s a serious matter, but on a bit more easy, consumable way to send the message across.”
“We just went for it. And we started to design and I think the end result is quite nice, to be fair. It’s different. I think we had quite a lot of social media feedback. I mean, also in China. It’s quite nice.”
