Matt Griffin - one of Ireland's best racing drivers
Matt Griffin pictured at Le Mans in 2013, the year he finished third in class.
MATT Griffin, a Cork born European Le Mans Series (ELMS) racing driver, has had quite the career, with highlights such as finishing on the podium at the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2013, as well as winning the Spa 24 hour race twice. The former ELMS champion continues to perform and is currently well in the title fight for the 2023 ELMS season, despite a disappointing race last time out in Le Castellet, .
“At , we were super quick all week,” Matt explains. “We were unlucky with the safety car, but the main thing that killed us, is that during my stint we had a technical problem with the gearbox, and we ended up losing 27 seconds.
“We finished 15 seconds off P3, in P5. We should have had a podium, but in saying that, we're still only 10 points off the lead in the championship, so we're very much in the fight.
“Obviously, I want to be winning races, I've won the championship in the past, so our aim is to win, and without the gearbox problem we could have probably finished second, but we didn't. We just have to go back and say, what can we do differently? How can we improve?”
While things are going well for Matt at the moment, motorsport can switch in an instant, and the pressure to perform is higher than in any other sport.
“When I was younger in my career, I was less critical of myself. Now, I'm very critical of myself, because the harder you work the quicker you are, and you have to work to make sure that you're absolutely one of the quickest.
“At the end of the day, it's professional. You saw Nyck de Vries in F1,” he says. “If you’re not hitting the kind of lap times you need to hit consistently, you literally get fired. It happens that quickly.
“Lucky for me, I've had a good career. I'm still quick and I’ve had a long career with Ferrari, but there's been people who've come and gone in that time. You can’t get complacent.”
While motorsport is a relatively niche sport in Ireland, most would be well aware of the pinnacle of motor racing, F1. Endurance racing is vastly different and is a gruelling task for all competitors. It requires Matt and his co-drivers to take shifts driving the car, with the Le Mans 24 Hour race the biggest of them all.
“Le Mans 24 hours and that sort of stuff wouldn't be as well-known as F1, apart from petrol heads. The great thing about the racing that we do in the World Endurance Championship, ELMS and Le Mans etc, is that as a fan, you get unbelievable access compared to an F1 race."
With high pressure comes high reward, so what does Matt love most about his job as a high-level professional racing driver?
“The thing I'm proudest about, is that I’ve been able to build a professional racing career. It's a tough business, and only the best can build a career long term. I've been lucky enough to do a lot of races, win a lot of races. [I’ve] got a few more left in me, I think.
“As a general thing, I like that I travel the world. I’ve raced in virtually every country in Europe, I’ve raced in America, Mexico, Brazil, China, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Australia, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. There was one year I think it was 2017, I did 256 airline flights.
“It's funny right, because don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but at the end of the day, everything's a job. It can often look very glamorous, but I got a 10.30pm flight from Marseille with Ryanair on Sunday night (the day of the race), I arrive at like 12.30am, go to port control, get my bag, and I’m not home until 2am.”
Not only does a racing career demand a lot of time away from home, but it is as full on as any other sport, and takes a lot of work to fight at the top.
“At the moment in of the fitness so 2-3 hours a day usually,” Matt explains. “I’ve got a simulator at home, and I'm always working on the sim, because it’s very realistic.
“It’s really worthwhile for keeping yourself sharp. While it's not exactly the same, it uses the same part of the brain that driving the real car does. All of the top drivers in the world do hours upon hours of sim stuff, you take Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, down to obviously myself. I'm on the sim more or less every day.
“Between the fitness and the sim, it gives me nearly five hours a day, and then there's a lot of media stuff I do. Even though you're not racing all the time, it turns into a full-time job really.
“When I was young, I had to pack my bags and move to England and race, and over here it's a completely different thing. Motorsport is massive, people love it.
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