We’d like to thank Teo Martín Motorsport for giving us full access to the team at Estoril during the GT Open weekend. It was marvellous to follow everything from the garage!

Here’s our interview with one of the drivers, Roldán Rodríguez. Give RR a follow on Twitter and Instagram. We spoke on Friday before the races.

iberianmph.com: Tell us a little bit about the car (BMW M6 GT3) and your hopes for the season ahead.

Roldán: First of all, there’s a big difference between single-seaters, formula cars, and this GT car. It’s easy to see that! The engine, the power, the weight and everything that goes with it. In the braking zones you can feel the weight, it rolls much more. In short, you have to adapt, most importantly to the ABS because we set the ABS really low, but anyway it’s there. When you brake, you can feel the ABS is there; as I said, you have to adapt a little a bit. Apart from that, I think we’re going to have a competitive car, I like it. I think we can turn it into a fast car compared to other GT cars out there. It’s a good decision from the team to go with this car.

iberianmph.com: In many other series everyone is talking about the tyres constantly. How do you see things in GT Open?

Roldán: Tyres are always one of the most imortant things, it’s how you use the tyres. It makes a big difference because with new tyres it’s a totally different car compared to old tyres. If you are able to use these tyres for one or two laps in qualifying, it makes a huge difference. For me this part is very similar, it doesn’t matter what you’re racing: go-karts, single-seaters or GTs, it’s always the same.

iberianmph.com: GT teams vs single-seater operations?

Roldán: I’ve worked with a lot of teams, since the early days in go-karting, European/World championship, then Formula Renault, F3, Euro Formula 3000, GP2, even Force India in F1 and I’m pretty impressed how this team (TMM) operates. I can see and I feel it’s super professional, very well-organized. Sometimes you can have a lot of people (working for a team), but if they’re not ogranized then it’s a mess. It’s not happening here, everyone’s very professional, so I’m pretty impressed how this team works.

iberianmph.com: The obligatory circuit question. What’s your take on Estoril?

Roldán: The circuit is old-school, it’s a little bit bumpy, the kerbs are old-school as well, which makes it interesting. It’s not an easy track with some fast speed corners, it’s very technical. By the way, the first race I won in F3 was here! A few years ago of course. It brings me good memories. I like the track, yeah.

iberianmph.com: Our contributor, at D Merino F1, wants to know everything about your helmet design. Tell us all about it!

Roldán: That’s an interesting question. People have their own ways when it comes to painting their helmets. The current design I’m using is similar to my initial helmet design, you can see the red and the yellow for my country, Spain’s colours. And the interesting bit is I have stars, 13 stars precisely, because number 13 is the lucky number for my family, especially my mother’s side, this is the special part about my helmet design.