New DXDT Racing driver Robert Wickens met with members of the media via Zoom to discuss his ground-breaking effort in the team’s No. 36 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) class. Wickens will compete in five sprint races – starting in April at Long Beach – in a Corvette that will be specially equipped with a new electronic hand-brake control system from Bosch. The 35-year-old, who drives using hand controls following an accident in 2018, will be the only driver on the grid using hand controls in WeatherTech competition. Full transcript:
ROBERT WICKENS: “It’s an amazing day to finally move up to top-tier competition in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, racing in GTD with DXDT with the Corvette. Obviously it hits home. A hero of mine growing up was always Ron Fellows. So the fact that I’ll be driving a Corvette like he made so famous to many Canadian drivers, it’s going to be just a lot of fun.
“And I can’t thank DXDT enough for the opportunity. Bosch for, frankly, making it all possible. I’ve been wanting to move up into WeatherTech for quite some time. I felt like I was fairly transparent in that messaging, but it was always a difficult communication trying to convince the OEMs or the team owners to one, put me in the car like any other racing driver and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, you have to design a whole braking system that doesn’t exist.’
“So the fact that Bosch came to the table with their technology, it’s already giving me the opportunities that I want in my career, not only just in this next journey, you know, moving up into the IMSA WeatherTech series, but we already raced it in the TCR category for the final two rounds of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series with great success. So we’re really looking forward to the future. Frankly, you know, the offseason already feels too long now that I know kind of what 2025 looks like and just ready to get started.”
Can you talk about what it means to have that debut in the WeatherTech Championship at Long Beach?
“So I’ll be doing the five non-endurance rounds that the GTD class participates in. Having my season kick off in Long Beach is going to be a little bit of baptism by fire for sure, right? Why not learn the IMSA WeatherTech racing with a track with no runoffs and walls everywhere? But for me, kind of the emotional journey of having my debut on a race weekend that we share with IndyCar is going to be pretty special. My active role within Andretti Global that I still have… I think there’s going to be a lot of friends around, old drivers, current drivers. It’s just going to be really cool to see. I’m sure the support is going to be really, really nice. The whole thing is just going to be fun. Honestly, I think there’s definitely more excitement than nerves. I just want to get my feet on the ground into that Corvette and see how it goes.”
Have you had any time in the Corvette yet, or is that still yet to happen?
“We haven’t been in it yet. We’re still in the design and development phase with the help of Pratt Miller. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of moving pieces. The Bosch electronic braking system (EBS) is relatively plug and play. The EBS modules are the same that we were using in the TCR car, but in adapting it into a different car there’s always a level of adjustment. The function that we’re going to be running, the Bosch EBS will be slightly different again to what we were running in TCR so we’re going to be doing a full brake-by-wire system with the help of General Motors, Pratt Miller and Bosch – all three kind of working in unity. It’s just going to take some time, but we’re hoping to get in the Driver-in-the-Loop simulator in the coming weeks and then hopefully we can get our first straight-line test sometime in January in and around Daytona with plans for our first on-track – call it performance running – in kind of that late February to March timeline. We’re definitely up against the clock a little bit, but I know if anyone’s going to do it, it’s GM, Bosch and Pratt Miller. I know I’m in good hands. I’m just excited.
“It’s really cool to see the development because it’s kind of starting from near nothing. I’ve been to Pratt Miller already. I saw the 3D-printed, rapid-production concept of the steering wheel, the hand controls and kind of fine-tuning stuff. It’s tailor-made, really, at the end. It’s a unique situation. Not many drivers can tailor-make their throttle and brake and everything to how they want unless you’re driving in Formula One or something. It’s been a cool journey so far.”
Is there a plan to continue racing in Pilot Challenge?
“I think at the moment it’s to be confirmed. I’m definitely open to the idea of continuing the race in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series. I’m a driver still at heart, and I know that although I have five great races lined up, I would love to do more races. It’s definitely on my radar. We just have to make sure that everything can line up in time and everyone is all on the same page and happy with the program.”
You touched on it a little bit, but the Bosch system being somewhat similar to the Hyundai. I mean, can you tell us a little bit more about the specifics of maybe what smaller details might be a little bit different?
“So I think the actual electronic braking system is exactly the same, but the way we’re using it is different. In the TCR car, it was a bit of a hydraulic-to-electric component. There were master cylinders integrated into the steering column that was giving the hydraulic brake pressure feed then to the electronic system and then producing the pressure out to the calipers. With GT3 competition and the fact that for customer support purposes, the steering column can move up and down and side to side for driver changes or for seat fits for everyone else, so the master cylinder design that we did with the Hyundai TCR car was kind of redundant because the TCR car has a static steering column because it’s more or less a sprint series, purpose-built race car.
“Moving down the road trying to future-proof the system, I think going full brake-by-wire paves a further runway for me for other categories whether if it’s up to GTP or other open-wheel cars. So we kind of bit the bullet and we’re plugging away on a full brake-by-wire system here. I don’t even want to begin to explain how it works because frankly I’m still trying to understand it myself! But thankfully, there’s some smart people behind me that know what they’re doing.”
How far do you want to take this? It feels like you have a long-term goal, but you also are making sure that you’re knocking out all these short-term goals and on to the next step. Do you see this kind of ascending to getting back into an open-wheel car, and would a system like the Bosch system maybe being refitted a different way work?
“I’ll never say never, right? For me and in my time in my life, if I had a 10-year career with General Motors in GTD, I think I’ll retire a happy man. If there’s opportunities to move up to GTP, I think every driver wants to challenge for overall victories in anything they do. If an opportunity arises one day to do an Indianapolis 500 or go race in Formula E, it’s always something I’m going to explore.
“I’m at a fun stage of my career. I almost in a way have unique opportunities that I might not have had if I just continued and never had an accident in IndyCar. Career longevity is something that I want to focus on first and foremost. I touched on it a few years ago, but when I was injured, I felt like I was just in like the peak of my career. I felt like I was never fitter. You know, I was driving the best I’ve ever done. I’d never been happier to be a professional racing driver. And I feel like in the three years that I was recovering, I lost three of my peak athletic years. What I’m trying to do now is just almost continue my career path that I had set for myself as a kid. I always wanted to do open-wheel sprint racing, whether it was IndyCar or Formula One, for as long as I could. And then from there transition into the sports car realm like so many greats have done. So now I’m just starting that sports car journey now, and I’m really looking forward to the future of it.”
On the amount of intensity and kind of ferociousness during the recovery to try to get back behind the wheel of a race car.
“If it wasn’t for the support system that I had back home with my wife, with my family allowing me to pursue the dreams that I wanted to pursue. It takes quite a bit of selfishness to rehab in the way that I did… being in rehab for 11 months while my wife was back home, making sure the home was getting adapted with ramps, accessible bathrooms and what-not while I was in an entirely different state doing all that. Meanwhile, she was planning a wedding at the same time for us.
“Then up into the motorsport side of things, I wouldn’t be anywhere without Bryan Herta, Sean Jones and Hyundai. Those were the key people that allowed me a chance to drive a race car again and frankly lit the spark that I knew was never dead inside of me. And it really just kind of got the whole thing started. We had a very successful three years together and there’s nothing but great feelings if our journey ends now or if it can continue on in the future. We’ll have to see. We accomplished a lot of great things together in TCR. It would have been nice to get another championship; as you know every driver wants to win every championship and every race. To look back on my three seasons in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series in TCR and to have such great results and consistency throughout the way, it was a great journey.”
You’re going into the season with a new team to IMSA. What would you say your realistic expectations are in these five races that you’re doing with the new team even though they have serious ambitions right out of the box?
“They’re a phenomenal team. They’re going to be new to IMSA, but they’re not going to be new to running at the front. I think the way they adapted to the Corvette this year and got them their first North American victory and then continued on – even though they missed the first rounds – to bring it to the end and fight for a championship in SRO is nothing short of spectacular. They did it in all different ways… ways that it takes a great team to do. They didn’t just win every race on sheer pace. They won it on good teamwork and strategy. They found ways to win when maybe they didn’t even have (outright performance). They stole a few, which is what great teams do. So for me, we’re just going to have to wait and see. I have a limited schedule in 2025. My goal is to be a full-time driver in 2026. So for me, I’m just going to try to do good stints. If that can get us podiums and wins, it’s going to be the best days ever. But if that’s not the case, that’s my only hope – to make sure I can be a placeholder in the IMSA WeatherTech Series for years to come.”
Looking ahead, are you looking forward to getting back in the saddle for Daytona (in 2026), at Sebring, your first time at Petit Le Mans?
“That’s what crazy. The IMSA schedule is so good. When people ask you what race you’re looking forward to most, look at the calendar. It’s so hard to pick one, right? Obviously there’s the 24 Hours of Daytona, which every driver from around the world seems to participate in. The depth of competition there is just insane. And then you go straight to Sebring. It’s very rare to have so many marquee rounds in a championship. IndyCar has the Indianapolis 500, Formula One has Monaco.
“Then you have Le Mans. IMSA has seemingly world-renowned events that take place over the course of a season. Then every other race still knocks it out of the park. So it’s just such a great category, such a great championship. It’s just going to be fun to hopefully get the opportunity in 2026 to participate in all those great events.”
On the DXDT choice, how much of that came down to availability of the program and how much of that was you saw what the caliber of the program was and that kind of piqued your interest?
“Honestly the stars aligned. I was actively trying to find an entryway into the IMSA WeatherTech series. And then at the same time DXDT was trying to find a way into the IMSA WeatherTech series. And it’s one of those things where we were introduced to each other and we just kind of found a way to make it happen. It’s not easy to find a drive in the IMSA WeatherTech series. The driver lineups across every category is so strong. The stars just kind of aligned. It was just the right place at the right time. Like I said, I was trying to get into the IMSA WeatherTech series for what feels like for a couple of years now. And again, I don’t think I would be having a conversation with you guys right now if I didn’t have Bosch in my corner because that makes my introduction to a team so much easier, because I don’t have to make them engineer something that doesn’t exist. We can already use Bosch’s technology to kind of give us a head start. And then from there, we’re off to the races. So, yeah, I would say it was kind of just good timing between the two of us. I couldn’t be happier with the opportunity. They won in every category that they’ve entered so I think the goals are pretty clear for 2025.”
Having had the new Bosch system in for the last two races of the year, did that help things like pit stops or was there any part of the driving component that was better beyond just the braking like the driver change is easier or just other components improved?
“I’d say the driver change was slightly easier. I don’t need to get into great detail, but with the old braking system I had a pneumatic actuator in the pedal box that was mounted basically between the throttle and the brake pedal of the able-bodied pedals, so in the driver change when I was getting in or getting out there was this thing kind of like a divider in the center of the pedal box that was a pneumatic actuator that was applying the able-bodied brake pedal. With the Bosch system, that was just removed so it just became an open foot box like all my teammates had and like what anyone else would have in a driver change. Definitely it made things easier. But the biggest thing for me was that the consistency in braking was so much better to what I had in the past. There’s no latency, which was the thing I was struggling with most with the previous brake system. Just to feel as a driver that I can brake exactly how I want to brake and the car does what I want… I was able to drive the car in a way that I wasn’t able to do in the past, which was feeling like you’re really on top of the car and you could just kind of control it.
“With the old system, I felt like often I was reacting to what the brakes gave me and then figuring it out from there, which made it difficult to kind of put a qualifying lap together or something because I’d have to leave so much margin. In the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series and TCR, the times are so close that sometimes you can’t afford that margin because you’re just not going to get pole or even the front row. It made things a little challenging. But that’s where I had a great teammate like Harry Gottsacker. It seems like he can put it on the pole on every track he goes to. So it was a good, good combination between the two of us.”
What do you expect will be different in the experience in the WeatherTech series over Michelin Pilot Challenge? And what are the personal and technical challenges you’re kind of looking for in your overall quest in returning to racing?
“I think everything’s just taken up a notch. Once you get into the WeatherTech series, especially in GTD – regardless of if it’s GTD or GTD PRO – they seem to race each other exactly the same. You fight for every inch and it’s nearly a 30-car field of GTs. It’s just going to be intense, which is exactly what I’m looking for. Coming up from TCR, being the slower car of that multi-class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge, that kind of trains you to knowing that you’re the slowest class. You do the things you got to do to make sure you don’t lose much time in a stint when faster cars are passing you.
“From a technical side, obviously I’ve only driven cars that are front-wheel drive with my hand control system so far. So it’s going to be nice to have a rear-wheel drive car again. I definitely have a lot more experience in a rear-wheel drive race car over my life. Although a TCR car doesn’t have an enormous amount of horsepower, the throttle application has to be so progressive because of front-wheel drive and locking the diff, you might gain understeer and damage the tire. So it was actually an area that I always was having a hard time with compared to my teammates. They could progressively go to throttle a lot better than I could where they could kind of get up and go in a better way. With rear-wheel drive, I think it’s going to honestly suit my driving style a bit more. It’s something that I’m looking forward to.”
You’ve made no qualms about being sort of a role model for people since your accident. Moving up into a higher series, do you see yourself as being sort of more visible and being even more of a role model for people with disabilities now than you were even when you started back racing?
“I’m not sure, to be honest. I mean, if it happens organically, that’s great. For me, I want to raise awareness for disability and for spinal cord injury not just by being a participant. I want to be competing and I want to be fighting for podiums and victories and championships. … Showing the next generations that are coming up with disabilities that anything is possible. Hopefully when this whole thing’s done we’ve created a bit of a curriculum for the next generations of what racing with a disability might look like regardless of what their disability is. We’re doing what we can. If it benefits me in the short term that’s great, but I think long-term there’s definitely a shortfall in motorsport right now in adaptability. Not just as drivers; I think you see it in paddocks from spectators to photographers… It’s not a super-adaptive form of sport, so it’s something that hopefully we can make better in the future.”
The system that you’re using in the race car… is that something that could be adapted to road cars? Could it be on your road car for other people who can’t use their feet?
“One hundred percent. The Bosch electronic braking system exists in a lot of OEM cars currently. It’s more used in hybrid EV components with the electronic braking. I’m no engineer, but I don’t see a reason why it couldn’t be adapted into everyday accessible vehicles.”
You seem to be jumping out of your pants right now with happiness. How are you going to wait until next year?
“Well, having a two-and-a-half year-old at home makes it pretty easy! The best thing about the WeatherTech series is that Daytona starts right up in January. So I feel like the offseason isn’t as long as some. I’m definitely going to be in Daytona. I want to be as immersed into the team as I can right from the beginning. So even if I’m not driving, I want to be in an engineering meeting, understand how the team works, how the IMSA WeatherTech races roll with strategies, driver changes, kind of all the above. So I’m definitely going to be in Daytona. I’m going to be in Sebring, just trying to be a team member and help if I can. And if not, just be a sponge and absorb as much information ahead of my debut in Long Beach.”
You’ve had three years now racing in the TCR with the hand controls. How completely intuitive is it for you now to race with your hands? And how big of a help was it when the Bosch system came on board and being able to brake with just one hand instead of two?
“Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of it being second nature, it is. If you asked me today if I think I’m as fast or as good of a driver as I was in 2018, I’d say I still got some work to do. Yes, I have three years of experience, but I’m trying to fine tune the art of trail braking and throttle application with my hands in a three-year period where I’ve been 20 years with my feet from karting at a young age up until 2018. I think there’s definitely laps and tracks that suited my hand controls and my driving style better than others. But for the most part, I would say on a good day I was probably about 85 to 90 percent of where I felt like I was as a driver in 2018. But with the Bosch system, it just kind of opened up a whole new realm of opportunity. Obviously it was only two races. And then because they were just almost like straight into racing with some testing, you kind of just drove what you knew, like through Indianapolis and then also through Road Atlanta. I wasn’t doing that much exploring and testing because you’re in a race environment. So you also don’t want to lose loads of laptime if it didn’t go the way you wanted it to. I felt like I was driving pretty disciplined and within a comfort zone of the new system that I was in, which thankfully was still very competitive. Going into this new system, I’m hoping that with the DiL simulator and the work that we can do behind the scenes, hopefully I can be more prepared ahead of my first on-track tests that are coming up in 2025. And by the time we get to Long Beach, the dream is that really I’m at no pace deficit to anybody and we can go out and try to get poles, wins, fastest laps and all the above.”
Was the biggest roadblock into WeatherTech the technology and the availability of it, or was it more budgetary concerns from teams that you spoke to, or a combination of both?
“I think it’s kind of chicken-or-the-egg, right, because you can’t have one without the other for most things. I know there were a lot of people I spoke to prior to my partnership with Bosch. The technology was always available. Brake-by-wire is not that modern anymore, right? Knowing that the technology existed, just how it can be implemented in and everything else, that was always a daunting task.
“All racing teams are so efficient in their operation, but in doing so you know there’s not a surplus of staff that you can just take off an existing project and put onto mine of developing a brake system that doesn’t exist. That’s where Bosch really came to my rescue when they partnered with me. That whole element was eliminated.
“All I wanted in this journey was to be evaluated as an ordinary driver for various race seats, and if I’m quick enough to get the job then hopefully I get the job. But I always wanted just that opportunity to be evaluated in that way. It was always going to be difficult because I might have a conversation, let’s say, with you and you’re interested in running me in a test. Then it’s like, ‘Well then how do we get him into the car?’ and it’s months and months of planning and development and everything to even get that first opportunity. The Bosch system frankly fast-tracks that because the majority of the problem is solved and then it’s just how does it fit into that physical race car that we’re going to be driving together. So I would say the biggest limitation if I had to say one thing was always budget. I think everything in motorsport is a budgetary restriction but thankfully I have some great support behind me with DXDT, with General Motors, with Bosch and then everyone else. Even if you think back to the fans and everything else, I don’t think I would be here if it wasn’t for the support that I got from the IMSA paddocks, from all the fans, all the spectators and really even you guys sharing the love to help get the recognition that that we’re trying to achieve.”
Has there had to be an adjustment to have brake-by-wire technology on a GTD category car, or is it already allowed?
“My braking system will have its own homologation. Then basically the way I understand it – I’m still trying to learn it myself – is the homologation would be basically to that chassis number and me. So even though my car will have that braking system, you couldn’t just put that into like another Corvette GT3. The homologation is just to the chassis number that we’ll be driving. I don’t think it’s because I have it, anyone can have it. Once the FIA and IMSA all agree that it’s safe, it’s reliable and there’s no performance advantage, then it gets signed off on and then we’re off to the races.”
Will your co-driver run with the same system or will it have a switch like you had for the controls in your MPC car?
“We’ll have a switch. From that side, the able-bodied driver will drive their exact same car that they would always drive. When we get into a driver change, we’ll just flip to hand controls, and then we’ll be on our way with my brake-by-wire system.”
Has your driving style had to change driving the TCR with hand controls, and do you think it will change again to drive the Corvette?
“I would say my driving style didn’t change at all that much. But where I had to do a lot of work in the TCR car was in my corner exits and throttle application. Because of the front-wheel-drive car of TCR, even though you weren’t getting loads wheel spin on corner exits, you would always get a little bit of understeer and with having to do so much work on the front tires, they would just kind of overheat the tire. My teammates were able to always kind of tip into throttle a lot more gently than I could. I had a hard time getting from like zero to 15 percent. I would always just go straight past it and I would get a little too much turbo and then get some understeer. My fix to that was I would just delay my throttle slightly later than my teammates, get the car a little bit more straight. That way I could accelerate off with less understeer. It seemed like my teammates could always just tip in a little bit earlier and get the turbo going and have less understeer on a corner exit. That was really the only thing I really had to change. The way I approached corner entries, I’m a big trail-brake guy. I was in IndyCar, DTM, all the other categories. I drove the TCR car exactly the same way. And I plan on probably doing the same thing with DXDT. I’m looking forward to just driving a rear-wheel-drive car again. I think it’s going to be good fun. And frankly, from past experiences, sometimes you actually want to be a little aggressive on the tip into throttle in those cars to get the mid-corner rotation that you’re trying to get. I’m just eager to finally drive the car first virtually and then in reality.”
This might be a question better asked of Pratt Miller or Bosch, but was there something about the Corvette GT3 that made it a little easier to adapt this system, or could this be done as well on any other GT3 car?
“I think it could be done in any GT3 car, but this just kind of worked. But Bosch never said, ‘Pick this OEM’. Thankfully, General Motors showed interest, the most interest. And then from there, it just so happened that actually Pratt Miller and Bosch are practically neighbors in Michigan. I think the Corvette is probably the most integrated car with Bosch electronics, from what I’ve gathered, and it just kind of worked out perfectly. I actually don’t know this offhand, but I believe most GT3 cars use Bosch ABS or all of them. Don’t quote me on that one, but I think that’s the main component of trying to blend it all together is with the Bosch electronic braking system. It all runs through the Bosch anti-lock brake system, and they speak nicely together. The electronics do their bit to slow the car down.”
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