The Polish team is ready for the title-defending campaign
After showing a lot of promising signs in Season 4, last year Hyperion have finally made it. The Polish team has been a dominating force throughout the entirety of the championship and deserved the LMP2 Pro title. In the upcoming season, Hyperion will look to defend their crown, while continuing their growth as a team. Will we see more Polska Gurom in every EES chat in Season 6 as well? We sat down with Pawel Andrzejewski to talk about the past, present and future of one of the most promising teams in the rFactor 2 endurance scene.
First of all, congratulations for winning LMP2 Pro in Season 5. What was the secret to make that step between Season 4 and 5?
Well, a couple of things contributed to that. First of all, when we entered the LMP2 category in Season 4, my only experience with Oreca was while I was having singleplayer fun with the AI. Patryk Szwajkowski was one of the foundation drivers in the Feeder Sport Poland team, which was active mostly in rFactor 1 and early days of rF2. This team raised such great drivers as Jakub Brzeziński and Nikodem Wiśniewski. Patryk was a huge factor in developing their early career so in his case it was all about getting up to the speed he had shown in the past. Second of all, Mateusz Ziubiński has contributed to Hyperion since Season 4 VIR race. He cooled down our eagerness in the way we realised we don’t have to be the fastest on track to win such races but staying calm and composed throughout the full race distance. This shift in mentality resulted in our first career podium that race.
Finally – Tomasz Wach has joined the team for the last two races. Tomek is hugely experienced in competitive simracing. His early commitment in the team showed what we had missed in our setups and this gave us our first endurance win in Mid-Ohio, followed by Watkins Glen victory that concluded our first endurance season. So as you can see, we had built a team full of different talents that complement each other. Entering Season 5 we knew what we will be fighting for. And to be honest, the biggest progress we made in Season 4, our Championship winning Season, was all about enjoying the fruits of labour.
Being champions in charge means that all the pressure is on Hyperion. By taking a look at the entry list, who do you consider as your main rivals?
There are multiple well established teams this season. Former Mugen headliners, Roland Szucs and Zoltan Varkonyi are returning to the LMP2’s now under the name of GOTeam strengthened by Gabor Hevessy. They make a powerhouse we are watching closely. Apart from them, there are teams we were fighting during the previous season like VeM, SimFreem, HG Esports. But who knows, maybe some outsider team will pop up that will shake the field during this season?
You are now an established team in LMP2, not only in EES, but in other championships as well. Will we see Hyperion in other classes in the future?
I wish for that. This season we are entering an experimental GT3 lineup. Further expansions are possible but it’s hugely dependent on multiple factors like combining private life with finding some free time to do proper talent research. Also the rF2 scene is quite unsure currently, on one side we have the release of rF2 Online and is gathering some great reviews from the beginning. This matchmaking system could affect the influx of new players into the competitive scene but also this release could shift players’ attention from league racing to the new system which in the future could allow endurance racing. Also the Le Mans Ultimate release is on the horizon and I fear this could also split the current endurance community into two titles. I believe VEC could hold their next season on LMU as a testing ground for the Virtual Le Mans Series which is confirmed to run on the new game in the upcoming years.