FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps : LMP2 Preview

In our third and final preview we take a look at the LMP2 class. RGR Sport won at Silverstone, ESM had their best result ever and G-Drive is fielding their ELMS Gibson at Spa again. 

RGR Sport by Morand, the new Mexican team of Ricardo Gonzalez, Bruno Senna and Filipe Albuquerque made a perfect debut at Silverstone. First race, first win, job well done as they say. They pretty much had a trouble free run in their #43 Ligier at Silverstone, can they do it again at Spa ? Senna and Albuquerque have loads of experience on the Ardennes track, but will Gonzalez – who did an outstanding job at Silverstone - be able to keep up with the pace of his two pro drivers.

Tequila Patron Extreme Speed Motorsports set their best result in the WEC so far in Silverstone, ending up second in class and sixth overall with the #31 Ligier JSP2/Nissan of Ryan Dalziel, Pipo Derani and Chris Cumming. After winning Daytona and Sebring earlier this year, Derani put in another stellar performance last month, there's no more doubt that he is one of the rising stars in endurance racing. The #30 car of Sharp, Brown & Van Overbeek finished (only) ninth in class last month. In their second season in the WEC championship it seems like it's all coming together for the American team, they could have a shot at victory in Spa.

G-Drive Racing is at Spa with a 2 car effort, the “Mighty #38” joining the WEC grid as a dress rehearsal for Imola and Le Mans. The crew of the #26 Oreca05/Nissan remains unchanged with Roman Rusinov, Nathanaël Berthon and Audi factory driver Rene Rast.

It's become a tradition over the past years, that Jota (G-Drive) races its Gibson 015S.Nissan at Spa-Francorchamps. After their impressive victory in the ELMS at Silverstone, Simon Dolan & co might well be one of the contenders for victory in LMP2. Last year they won the dress rehearsal for Le Mans in their Gibson, beating all top WEC teams. The orange/black #38 will be driven by Simon Dolan, Giedo van der Garde and youngster Jake Dennis. Dennis replaces Harry Tincknell who is racing with Ford at Spa, and will also race at Le Mans before Tincknell returns to the team for the remainder of the 2016 ELMS season.

No changes at the Russian SMP Racing team for Spa. Both BR01/Nissan's on the grid with the same driver crews. A good chance for Vitaly Petrov to familiarise himself further with his new office and get ready for Le Mans next month. The race at Silverstone wasn't without problems for the team, as they had a few technical glitches with both cars. If they can fix those and find the raw speed of the BR01 around the long straights in Spa, both cars could be in for a strong weekend.

Signatech Alpine had a promising weekend in their first race with the Alpine A460 rebranded Oreca05's. Despite a puncture late in the race, the #36 of Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi just missed the podium in Silverstone, coming in fourth in class. The #35 Baxi DC Racing sister car made it home in seventh. Given the fact that they raced with an entirely new car, and – for the first time – a double team effort, an encouraging result for the team. Signatech put in some strong performances at the end of last season, once they've got to know their new car better, they should be able to do that again.

Strakka Racing is the second team fielding a Gibson 015S, the #42 for Nick Leventis, Jonny Kane & Danny Watts. The British team had a strong run at Silverstone, in practice as well as in the race, and will want to keep that up in Spa. The Gibson may not be the newest chassis, but still is very competitive & might be in for a suprise in the hands of three very experienced drivers.

  

Manor didn't have an enjoyable weekend at Silverstone last month. The #44 having to retire due to mechanical issues and the #45 finishing 6^th in class after also dealing with some problems. They did show some good pace yet at Silverstone, so the main issue for this new WEC entrant will be to find some reliability.

Kristof Vermeulen. 

FIA 6 Hours of Spa - GTE-Pro & Am preview

Part 2 of our Spa 6 hours preview, this time with both GTE classes.

GTE Pro

AF Corse returns with both Ferrari 488 GTE's to Belgium. After dominating the GTE field in Silverstone last month, both prancing horses are favourite for the race in the Ardennes this weekend. The #71 of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon was all over the place last month, leaping away from the competition with ease. The #51 showed the raw pace of the new 488 GTE while storming through the field after starting at the back of the grid and a 3 minute stop & go.

Chip Ganassi's Ford Racing Team also headed to Motorland Aragon in Spain after the Silverstone race for a vital endurance test ahead of Le Mans. WEC team principal George Howard-Chappel said the objective of the test was to test the Ford GT to its limit in an endurance run. Ford has completed a run that was comfortably longer than the Le Mans 24 Hours, giving them great confidence in the car. Last weekend, the Ford GT took its maiden victory in the WeatherTech Championship at Laguna Seca. After a very promising race at Silverstone, the European team will be eager to climb onto the podium on Saturday evening.

Porsche didn't really have things going their way in Silverstone. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing 911 RSR not being able to make it to the finish due to a technical gremlin. Throughout the weekend, they did show some good pace, if they don't have any problems this time, they might be able to stay close to the Ferrari's.

Aston Martin won at Spa last year in the #99 of Fernando Rees, Alex McDowall and Richie Stanaway. Jonny Adam will join Rees & McDowall again in Spa, after missing the Silverstone race due to the calender clash with the British GT race. In Silverstone, the #95 AMR came in third, after losing second place to the charging Ferrari #51 by the end of the race. The team is still adopting to the new Dunlop rubber, so Spa will be a good test for Le Mans.

GTE Am

As in the GTE-Pro category, AF Corse arrives at Spa with the first win of the season under their belt. The #83 Ferrari 458 Italia of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas took the win at Silverstone. No doubt that they will want to do that all over again this weekend.

Patrick Long will take his seat back in the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing after missing Silverstone due to other racing commitments in the USA. After some technical glitches for both the #88 and the #78 KCMG three weeks ago, both teams will want to bounce back and show the potential of their cars again.

Good news from Gulf UK Racing as their Porsche has been rebuilt after the crash with Hartley in the 919 Hybrid. Wainwright, Carrol & Barker had a promising start in the WEC at Silverstone, let's hope they ar more fortunate in Spa.

Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Matthias Lauda took away the win in Spa last year. Their #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage looked very strong at Silverstone, so they might be in contention for the win again here. 

Last but not least it's the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette C7R, who had a strong start of the season with a third place on the podium. The long straights at Spa will help the C7R to use all of its power again. GTE-Am will be a class to watch with some fierce battles during the race !

Kristof Vermeulen.

FIA WEC 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps - LMP1 preview

The second race on the World Endurance Championship brings us to probably the most beautiful track on the world, the iconic Spa-Francorchamps. This is the final dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the ideal place for teams to test bits & pieces of their Le Mans specific aero packages. Spa is a favourite track amongst the driver, always good for some exciting races. Last year, Audi and Porsche fought some jawdropping battles during the race. If Toyota can get into the mix again this year, we could be in for another amazing race in the Ardennes.   

After their victory at Silverstone, Porsche (as well as Audi and Toyota) headed on to Spain for some intensive testing ahead of Spa and Le Mans. No third cars for both German manufacturers, so we'll have the same LMP1 grid as we saw at Silverstone, with 9 cars. 

Over 4 days, Porsche did an astonishing 7642 kms of testing at the Motorland circuit. No pictures of the cars were shown or published, but Porsche has done some very extensive testing with the all new low downforce kit for Le Mans. At Spa this weekend, they will run the 919 in a mixed configuration. Some of the Silverstone high downforce will remain, added with some Le Mans specification for minimum downforce. Porsche has also been testing at Spa in March, but ran a different aero spec back then. 

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1 : “Both our cars were competitive enough to win the Silverstone race, but both had incidents. In Spa we must have a package in place that’s just as competitive, but serving different demands. Spa may see a new balance of competition. We have to fully exploit the 919 Hybrid’s potential, finish the race with two cars and score as many points as possible.”

After the race at Spa, Porsche will head over to Aragon again for more testing ahead of the big one in June. 

After Audi lost its Silverstone victory due to excessive wear of the skid block underneath the #7 car, the Ingolstadt based team will be eager to claim victory again at Spa. Much will depend on the aero kit and the evolution Audi has booked after testing in Spain in the past week. In Silverstone they had the pace in the wet, but in dry race conditions, Porsche managed to leap away from the all new R18.  Up untill now, Audid didn't give any details about the aero package they will run at Spa. In the past years one of their 3 cars was in Le Mans spec, it will be interesting to see whether they will use the low downforce kit on one of their cars this weekend. 

Audi is aiming to continue its string of podium successes at Spa-Francorchamps. Since 2010 the team has clinched 10 trophies down there, including victories in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Andre Lotterer won the race in 2013 and 2015 with teammates Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer, and will want to add a third victory to his palmares.

Toyota Gazoo Racing was the only team with 2 cars at the finish in Silverstone and arrives at Spa as manufacturer championship leader. A short trip this time for the team with its base at Cologne, just across the German border.  Extensive testing last week gave the team the chance to better understand the all new TS050 and test a new aero kit for Le Mans. Both Toyota's will race in their high-downforce specification though, as used at Silverstone meaning the team will look to implement lessons learned from the opening race. Toyota expects to show improved performance at Spa, and get to know more about the ideal set up for Le Mans. Kamui Kobayashi returns to a track he knows well from his time in F1 and GP2, after learning a lot in his first race in an LMP1 prototype at Silverstone.

Toshio Sato, Team President: “Spa is one of our home races, as it is so close to Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne and also to Toyota Motor Europe in Brussels. So we are looking forward to seeing a lot of supporters in the grandstands and we want to give them a performance to celebrate. Even if the result at Silverstone was pretty good, we know we need to show more performance if we are to achieve our targets this season. The team has been working flat-out to improve, including our test session in Spain. I would like to thank them for the big effort and I hope we can see the reward this weekend in Spa, which is an important step on the road to Le Mans.”

At ByKolles Racing James Rossiter will replace Pierre Kaffer again, who has other racing commitments during the weekend. Kaffer will be racing at Le Mans though.

No changes at Rebellion for the second round of the championship, with Silverstone winners Imperatori, Kraihamer and Tuscher in the #13 Rebellion R-One AER and Heidfeld, Prost & Piquet Jr in the #12 sister car.

Kristof Vermeulen.