Talking All Things Volkswagen Motorsport With Sirish Vissa

We all know that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic led to a lot of things coming to a halt globally. This included Volkswagen Motorsport India that had to postpone its racing season by an entire year due to the pandemic. Fast forward to 2021, and they’re back racing, with the Volkswagen Polo National Championship. 

Credit should be given to the crew behind Volkswagen Motorsport India for managing to get racing again. But at the helm of it is none other than Sirish Vissa, the head of VW Motorsport India. Since 2014, Vissa oversaw the transition of the Polo to the Vento, then the Ameo, and coming full circle to the Polo in a more potent form for their national championships. 

We all know that adaptability is a crucial skill set to have in the world of motorsport, with the latest challenge now being, to safely go racing in a pandemic. We caught up with VW’s motorsport head at the second round of the Volkswagen Polo National Championship on all things motorsport.

Q- It's been a year’s break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now we’re finally back on track for the MRF MMSC Volkswagen Polo National Championship. What were the various hurdles you had to overcome to get racing again?

Sirish Vissa: Motorsport is so demanding that you need to stay sort of fresh. So for all of my guys, including myself, they spent a year and a half working out of the office and working from home. So when we actually started racing again, we had to relearn a lot of things that we've sort of forgotten. That was challenging. If you look at us this weekend, we had things fairly under control, we're in the second weekend of the championship. But if you had come over and seen what we were doing when we raced in September, it was a nightmare because it's muscle memory in a simple way of putting it.  

So if you're doing something repeatedly, you don't think about it. For somebody like me who's been doing this for a lot longer than my guys, I still have some of that muscle memory, it never goes away. But for my guys who are doing this, who are working on cars, they aren't doing this on a regular basis now. What today is taking, let's say a couple of hours in September it took us two or three times the time because we just didn't get into the zone. If you're in the zone, everything comes together. The minute you're not in the zone, you're struggling to do simple things. And so that's the biggest challenge.  

Of course, other than that it's all the normal stuff that we've all been going through, which is every day there's a new protocol in terms of what tests you need, and what vaccination you need, what certificate you need to travel here to go there. So it's a nightmare.

Q- During the one-year hiatus, Volkswagen Motorsport had stepped into the realm of esports with the Volkswagen Virtual Racing Championship. How was the response and how much of an effect did it have on the applications received on this year’s championship?

SV: In terms of the virtual championship, we actually had an incredibly good response because we had more than 3500 people that registered. So we actually went through several rounds to bring it down to the 28-car grid we had through the actual championship. We had people from South Africa, Dubai, the US as well as Europe that participated. The difference is that when we normally have a selection process, we usually average about 1500-1800 participants, so this was more than double of that. So it was a tremendous response.

Q- Speaking of participants, we all know Volkswagen Motorsport has a selection program before the grid is decided. Aside from pace, what are the qualities you look for in a driver?  

SV: The selection process is actually quite a mature process at the moment because we've been doing it for so many years. So we do it in karting now, just because it's easier, more accessible for everyone. So we are looking at the fitness side to start with, and then we look at their ability to learn and understand instructions because we are critiquing their driving over the course of the selection process. We explain to them, okay, you're doing this wrong this right, work on this, you need to do it this way. 

Then, of course, we put them through various exercises in terms of braking, cornering, and so on. So we are judging them based on their racing lines and their speed. We used to do the selection process earlier in the racecar, but what used to happen was that, if you have 20 people in a racecar, you can actually pay attention and do all of this. But when you have about 200 people that you have to get through in two days, it's very difficult. 

So in karting, because you don't have some of the complexities of a race car. It's now a lot simpler. You can actually evaluate all these different criteria, we have a scoring system where it all comes together and then we get the result out of it.

Q- We know that it's still very early in the season, but who do you think has been your top three drivers so far? 

SV: One of them is the pole seeker today, Sai, Sanjay. He pulled the lap out of nowhere. I mean, he's one of those guys who is just very quiet, keeps to himself, no drama. He gets in a car and lets his driving do all the talking. We've also got Aditya Swaminathan and Arya Singh. There’s also the usual crew who’ve raced with us before like Saurav, Pratik, and Aiman Sadat. So there’s so many of them, and what used to be sort of the quick guys and the slow guys is completely different now. I mean, there is no math that you can use to get these guys all aligned.

Q- Volkswagen’s motorsport journey in India started with the Polo a little over 10 years ago. Now, we’ve come full circle again with the Polo, albeit in a more potent form than before. What was the reason behind the switch back to the Polo? 

Get latest updates on
the automobile community

Login Now

SV: While we are giving back to society, it is also a marketing tool for us. So when we started off, the goal was to showcase our TDI technology back then. When we started in 2010, when anybody said diesel, they're like it's a taxi or a bus. So nobody expected that a diesel car could be fun to drive. That was a reason for going to the TDI engine. Then, after that, it was going to the TSI engine which was again, emerging technology that was very current, and also DSG boxes.  

When we started using DSG, everybody said, automatics, they will never work on a racetrack, it is for old people, but it wasn't. And so we sort of keep meandering around. When we went to the Ameo Cup, it was when the Ameo was launched. We wanted to showcase that this isn't just a cheap car. This was actually a fantastic art of driving dynamics. So after all of that, when we wanted to do something, we wanted to celebrate over 10 years in India. What better way then to go back to the Polo?

 

Q- Considering Volkswagen is going full steam into the electrification route, any indications yet of Volkswagen motorsport championships here in India going electric anytime soon? 

SV: We would love to look at something like that as a demonstrator. But it isn't something that is practical at the moment because it only makes sense when we actually are green in the entire picture.  So today, if I bring in, say, a race version of the ID.3 that’s easy to do. But the problem is when I'm using a diesel generator to be able to power up and recharge these batteries, in what way am I being cleaner? 

So until we actually make it a sustainable situation, I don't see us doing it. What makes more sense for us is to start looking at things where maybe we are looking at, you know, a bigger blend of ethanol, for example, or something like that. Hybrids work well only partly when it comes to motorsport. The reason is that, on a hybrid, you're leveraging the fact that you're braking to regen and recharge your batteries and then deploying it.  

So while that would give us a little bit of boost, like a ‘Push to Pass,’ it doesn't make sense in the bigger scope of things, for the investment that we would be making and also in terms of the racecar mission wise. So it would need to be something that makes a big difference in terms of sustainability for us to look at.

Q- What do you think about the motorsport scene in India today considering we’ve got new tracks and new series in the pipeline. 

SV: I can't wait for the Nanoli Speedway to come up, I'm really hoping it does because it'll be a home track for us. But even in terms of series, there are a lot of talks going on about different things.My experience of doing things in India is there's a lot of fantastic talk, but until you actually see it happen, it's empty. So let them put it together, I would be happy. I can't wait for there to be more series,more tracks and more manufacturers. But today the reality is unfortunately, there's only Volkswagen who's doing the lion's share of support for motorsport in India.

Q- What is the roadmap for VW motorsports in India for the future?

SV: We are always looking at innovating things. So today, we are looking at basically completing our current championship. While that's happening, we are looking at what we will do in the future. Because ultimately, everything we do, we need to be able to contribute to one, sort of net zero and also contribute to what we are doing as a brand.

So it's hard for me to give you sort of a clear path because there isn't one. There are lots of different options and permutations and combinations that we are working on. But I can tell you this much that we are committed to motorsport in India. We will continue to be involved in motorsport in India. And in terms of exactly how we do and what we do that is something we are working on.