IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: TIRERACK.COM BATTLE ON THE BRICKS

September 21, 2025

Brendan Iribe

Ollie Millroy

Frederik Schandorff

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll welcome up our GTD winners to conclude our interviews here at the Tirerack.com Battle on the Bricks. We have the trio of drivers from the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. From your left to right, Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy and Frederik Schandorff. This is the first win for the team, first win for all three drivers. For Brendan this is his 38th IMSA start, Ollie his 16th start, and for Frederik his 34th start.

Brendan, first win here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; if you could just put that into some context for us. What does it mean to you to win in IMSA?

BRENDAN IRIBE: Like you said, we've been at it for quite a while. I didn't know it was 38 IMSA races. Sounds like more than it feels. But it is a great feeling. This is an iconic track. It's a beautiful track. I can't wait to kiss the bricks. We haven't done that yet, but we're excited to.

So if there's a place to win, this is an awesome place, and it really feels good, especially after how hard the team has worked. Just really proud of everybody on the team, all the engineers and the drivers and everybody does such a big job, such a good job, and puts their heart and soul into it. So it's awesome to finally be up here. We should really have everybody up here, but we get to represent.

Big thank you to the drivers, too, Ollie and Freddy, just did an incredible job. I think Ollie said it best at the very end, when the final safety car came out, he said, there's no better person to have in the car at this time than Freddy. That's how we all feel in the team.

Luckily it all worked out, and here we are, and we're really excited and proud to be here.

Q. Ollie, the team has been close to wins a number of times here. What made the difference today?

OLLIE MILLROY: Well, I didn't realize until this evening we've had six second places in IMSA. I'm glad I didn't know that; otherwise, I might've given up by now.

Yeah, look, we've had great performance. We had a successful run with the McLaren for a couple of years and then we switched to the Ferrari actually at Indianapolis last year was our first race with the Ferrari. So it was a huge task for the team to get their head around the car.

But we've been really fast and competitive most of this season. Just shows what an amazing job the team and the engineering team as well have done with the car.

But IMSA as we know, that's just a small part of it. The races are wild, especially here at Indianapolis. You don't relax for one minute. There's always something happening.

It was great that Brendan did an amazing job for the first couple of hours, gave us the car in a sensible position in one piece as well, and gave us the opportunity to sort of go for the win. So finally, finally our first win. It feels like such a relief, and hopefully now that we've got that one out of the way it will give us some momentum going into Petit as well.

Q. Frederik, you brought it home. Any concerns with that last yellow and pressure from behind? Just take us through how you worked that last run to the checkered flag to bring home the win.

FREDERIK SCHANDORFF: I would say I was a bit concerned the last hour when I had the lead. Obviously when you are counting laps down, 35 laps to go, 34, it was quite a long race still there at that moment. I was just really excited that we actually finally finished the race in the lead.

The team really deserve this. It's such a pleasure being here. The team is just doing a really, really good job. They are showing that we were the fastest McLaren last year and now we are also the fastest Ferrari out there. It's really impressive what the team have done and just really proud that we get the win as well. Obviously I could live without the safety car because that made it a little bit more exciting, but I think it's probably more exciting for the guys in the pit.

Obviously we've done a lot of restarts, and I love the restarts in IMSA. That's some of the best part of this championship. I think it's really good fun for the spectators and also for the drivers.

Obviously I just had a really good start, so the last two laps were actually not that stressful. They were long, but at least I had a small gap to the second guy.

Q. Frederik or Ollie, can you expand on the evolution to switch to the Ferrari and what kind of gains you've made over the course of the last 12 months?

OLLIE MILLROY: It's a very different philosophy to the McLaren. We kind of went into it thinking, oh, it should be quite similar, engine is roughly the same place, it kind of looks similar. You're not going from a mid engine to a front engine car or anything like that. Actually because obviously it's been built and designed by Oreca who are prototype manufacturers, it's actually a very different philosophy.

We were okay here last year. We struggled a bit for pace. Then we went to Petit Le Mans, and Fred and I got out of the car after FP1 and I think neither of us ever wanted to get back in a race car ever again; it was terrifying.

So we realized what we thought we'd learnt from Indy was probably the wrong way, so then we went back for the race, and actually in Petit Le Mans the thing was on rails. It was a great car to drive and we saw then the potential of the Ferrari.

It's still a relatively new car anyway, especially to us, but obviously it's only in its second season, so there's still some teething problems which we're figuring out and Ferrari are figuring out, but generally on the whole the performance that we've had throughout the season has been really strong.

It's been a massive task for the team, and they've done a really great job.

Q. Brendan, I believe this extends your lead in the Bronze Cup standings heading into Petit and that very important invite to Le Mans. What's your thought heading into this race?

BRENDAN IRIBE: I think it all comes down to the last race, just how IMSA and the fans want it. Not exactly how we want it, but we'll take it, and it'll be exciting. Can't wait for Petit.

Q. If you were to win, would it be your plan to take the Ferrari to Le Mans, much like you did with the McLaren two years ago?

BRENDAN IRIBE: Yes.

Q. Does this win -- you stood on the top step of the podium at Mid-Ohio in '22. Obviously that wasn't to be, but did you expect -- did you imagine it would have taken this long to get a proper win at least, an official win in IMSA?

BRENDAN IRIBE: Definitely didn't think it would take this long. I still spiritually count that win. But rules are rules, and I understand.

So it's good to be back, and it's good to be here. I think we've been working on it for a long time, and the team has been continuing to get better, and we have been getting our heads around the Ferrari.

I think they did a remarkable job, like Ollie was saying, really getting up to speed quick. I think we've shown that we have one of the most competitive if not the most competitive Ferrari on the grid, and the drivers have just done an incredible job themselves pushing forward.

Yeah, it's great to be here and great to be in the Ferrari.

Q. I believe there was a very large piece of bodywork that came off the car with a couple hours to go. Mentally how do you put that behind you when you've got two hours to go in a race like this at a track like this and you're still fighting for the lead up front?

BRENDAN IRIBE: I think you don't put it behind you. It's in your mind the whole time. Freddy was the one in the car. We were panicking, I think, in the pits. I think Ollie measured his heart rate, and it was the same as when he was in the car driving when he was on the pit watching the car go past every lap, just praying that it still had the bonnet on. How did it feel, Freddy?

FREDERIK SCHANDORFF: It didn't feel nice, obviously. Also, especially because we'd actually been leading Daytona quite a few times, and always something happening. Then I thought, oh, no. Feeling a little bit (indiscernible) there. I did expect hopefully they could fix it, but I wouldn't expect that actually we were able to fight for for the win in the end. I was just super pissed about it, but I had to stay cool because the worst thing you can is, like, panic and get frustrated and do mistakes.

Obviously I did a lot of fuel saving that first stint, so it actually ended up the competitors ahead of us, I think they did less than we did, so some of them, they actually had to do the emergency stop, so we actually gained a little bit from the bonnet, and the team was really fast in the pit stop to put a new one back on again, and then it was all fine.

But I did pay a little bit more attention to it when I was driving the last hour.

BRENDAN IRIBE: And we were praying.

Q. Freddy, was that the most tense you've ever been in the car when that situation happens, or was there another time in your racing career that you were in a more intense situation or a more hectic situation?

OLLIE MILLROY: It was worse for us watching.

FREDERIK SCHANDORFF: It was a very tense hour. I haven't seen my heart rate yet, but it was quite tense out there, especially after that happened, as well, and then obviously I tried to be as smart as possible to maybe sometimes taking a little bit of risk over the curbs to not make it have so much bouncing over there, and luckily it stayed.

But I would say always a safety car in the end is -- pretty much every IMSA race is having that, so it's always a bit exciting. Normally we like it because we're not in the lead, but when we are in the lead we'd prefer not to have it.

Q. Brendan, this is something I wanted to ask since Watkins Glen when it become you versus Orey for the golden ticket to Le Mans. Do you lament that there's not more competition for the Akin Award in IMSA these days?

BRENDAN IRIBE: Yeah, I wish there was more competition. I talk to the IMSA guys all the time about what ideas do they have, do I have some ideas, what ideas do we have together on how we can attract more bronzes to the field.

Personally I love being here with all the silvers. I would like more bronzes on the grid, just more cars in general would be awesome. But I joined and I'm here to compete against silvers, and I love doing that. So that's why I'm here in IMSA.

FREDERIK SCHANDORFF: But what would be beneficial is if there was a slight advantage of having a bronze driver because right now there's no advantages at all, so if there could be, small thing, an extra set of tires so Brendan could do another qually sim in practice or whatever, just to have small benefit for him actually having a bronze because right now Brendan doesn't have any benefit at all from this.

Q. Just to clarify, so when the bonnet popped off, did you have to put a new one on, or it did not pop off, because it went yellow right after that happened?

BRENDAN IRIBE: Yeah, the bonnet popped off and it went yellow, and we put a new one on in the pit when we pulled in.

Q. Brendan, you've obviously been here 38 starts. How much further do you feel you've come as a driver over the course of that time period because you've shared a lot of the racing with these guys.

BRENDAN IRIBE: I think they could tell you probably better than me. I feel like I always have a huge amount to improve on every qualifying, every race. I tend to look back and think, I could have done such a better job. There's still so much to learn.

The thing personally I like the most about IMSA and what I feel like I have learned and improved on just through trial and error, 38 times, is managing the traffic and really being able to try to be consistent and still maintain good lap times, lap after lap, over a couple hours while you have multiple classes of prototypes going by you at a much faster speed, squeezing you, going in between you, going around you.

That's just some of the most exciting racing. Every time it happens, usually I'm somewhat holding my breath until they've passed, but as soon as they've passed, I'll often laugh and just think, I can't believe I get to do this. I loved that car going by me that fast. That was wild.

One day maybe we'll be in a prototype or a different class, but right now, I love being in GTD, love the grid and the competition. The level of competition that's here I think is awesome. The other teams are all great to compete against, and yeah, I love all the prototypes out there.