Category: Sportscars

Le Mans 2020: GTE Am Preview

A quick look at the GTE Am field of the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours, running 19-20 September.

This year I’m not able to dedicate the time to research every car and driver fully, in any case the post would be too long if I did that. I still want to look team by team and to tell you my picks for the top 3 in each class!

GTE Am is an under-rated class. Yes, okay, it is for rich blokes. But it’s also for up-and-coming young drivers looking to break into the pro ranks. And for senior pros passing on their trade to others. As well as creating trade to keep teams afloat it is a great way to introduce a team to the Le Mans 24 Hours that might move up to other classes later.

To recap, in sports car racing drivers are graded Platinum and Gold for Professional, Silver or Bronze for Amateur. GTE Am requires at least one Bronze driver and that driver must complete a minimum amount of time in the race. As the Pros are generally within tenths of each other, the name of the game is to get your part-time Bronze driver up to speed while being consistent.

Yes, in the race, huge time gaps will appear in the field early in the race as the Pros drive away from the Bronzes. But just wait. Often the race will close back up again when the situation reverses: when the Pro hands over to their Bronze co-driver and the car becomes the tortoise, the chasing car is taken over by the Pro and becomes the hare. That’s when it gets fun. Never mind the live classification mid-race, often it is a mystery how the class really looks until it shakes out in the final hour of the race.

Do you burn your Bronze time early and run the fast Pros to the end? Do you use your Pros early to build a huge lead and hope your Bronze can hang on at the end? This can work if your Bronze is very good. What if the Bronze guy is not fast, is very rich, funds the team, and his dream is to cross the finish line himself? (Well, you’re the client, you do as he says!) Thankfully most are also extremely competitive so if there’s a sniff of a win they’ll happily put the Pro driver in to get it.

There have been a lot of Covid-19 withdrawals in the LMP1 and GTE Pro classes, in addition to the already planned cutbacks from BMW and Ford. And so the two pro-am classes, LMP2 and GTE Am, heavily feature in the 2020 race. This isn’t a surprise as they form the bedrock of the ELMS.

Entries By Class at 15th September:
LMP1 5
LMP2 24
PRO 8
AM 22
TOTAL 59

The ACO should be congratulated for managing to get so many cars in this pandemic year.

That said, I must admit to being disappointed at the lack of variety. And that’s nothing to do with Covid-19, this was the situation regardless and is a problem with the GTE market. The Ford GT was a one-off last year, Larbre aren’t running the Corvettes, and nobody picked up the BMWs. We’re again faced with a horde of 12 Ferraris and 8 Porsches up against the two Aston Martins. The good news is the quality of teams and drivers is high.

The powerhouse teams are AF Corse (Ferrari) and Proton Competition (Porsche). These teams, or others like Kessel Racing, often provide support to others on the entry list to varying degrees. Anything from a little bit of technical help, right up to running the entire operation under your name. Particularly those based outside Europe as it helps logistically. AF Corse are supporting 13 cars including their own five!

Le Mans is worth double-points to the WEC teams. Will they go for it to make their season? Will they race conservatively for points? Remember the WEC points are awarded as if the non-WEC cars are not there, so if two ELMS cars finish 1-2 and the top WEC car is 3rd, that car will be awarded 50 points for being first WEC car home even though they did not win the race. This opens them up to be challenged by those going for glory at the 24 Hours, knowing the WEC teams need those points.
ELMS entries do not get points towards their own championship.

WEC Points Standings
83 AF Corse 110 pts
90 TF Sport 98 pts
57 Project 1 81.5 pts
98 Aston 80.5 pts
77 Dempsey 61.5 pts
56 Project 1 56 pts

ELMS Points Standings
74 Kessel 56 pts (not at LM)
77 Proton 56 pts (crew split between other entries)
55 Spirit of Race 40 pts
83 Iron Lynx 38 pts (at LM as no.85)
51 AF Corse 28 pts (at LM as no.52)

FERRARI (12 cars)

AF Corse (4 cars):

83 AF Corse Perrodo (B)/Collard (G)/N.Nielsen (S) WEC
54 AF Corse Flohr (B)/Castellacci (S)/Fisichella (P) WEC
55 Spirit Of Race Cameron (B)/Scott (S)/Griffin (G) ELMS
52 AF Corse Ulrich (B)/Gorig (B)/West (B) ELMS

Collard’s 24th Le Mans. Perrodo and Collard have been paired in a variety of GT and LMP2 machinery for about 7 years and currently lead the WEC points. Last time they were here in a Ferrari was in 2016: they won Le Mans and the title. A race favourite.

Flohr and Castellacci are a decent long-term pairing. They’re joined by Giancarlo Fisichella who needs no introduction. Certainly top ten, possible podium.

The green 55 of Cameron, Scott & Griffin is exceptionally fast is one of those non-WEC cars to watch. Another race favourite.

The 4th car I know nothing about. They are the only all-Bronze trio in the class. Expect little.

Iron Lynx (3 cars):

60 Iron Lynx Schiavoni (B)/Pianezzola (S)/Ruberti (G) ELMS
75 Iron Lynx Mastronardi (B)/Cressoni (S)/Piccini (G) n/a
85 Iron Lynx Gostner (B)/Frey (S)/Gatting (S) ELMS

Of this trio the best in points is the all-female no.85 crew 4th in the ELMS (where it races as no.83) of Manuela Gostner, Michelle Gatting and long-time GT racer Rahel Frey. Hopefully this car will make the top six.

I expect little of the other two. The no.60 races full-time but isn’t haven’t a great season. Andrea Piccini usually in that car moved to the one-off no.75 for LM24. He and Matteo Cressoni are rapid so if their Bronze is any good they may finish top ten.

Other Ferraris (5 cars)

61 Luzich Racing Piovanetti (B)/Negri (B)/Ledogar (P) n/a
2019 ELMS GTE Champion team. There was some debate about whether they would take their LM invite as they aren’t racing in an ACO series in 2020.
Ozz Negri is only a Bronze because of his age, usually he can be relied upon to just slot in, but he’s never raced a GTE and he missed all the pre-race testing has he had a positive Covid-19 test. Ledogar is a former McLaren GT factory driver. Keep an eye on this one.

62 Red River Sport Grimes (B)/Mowlem (G)/Hollings (S) WEC
Johnny Mowlem’s driver development program continues its debut WEC season and the man himself has un-retired yet again. 🙂 Wish I could say they were doing better in points, currently last. They have a different goal though: get Grimes from being a track day guy four years ago, to a race finish at Le Mans. If they can do that it’ll be a great advert for their driver agency.

66 JMW Motorsport Heistand (B)/Root (S)/Magnussen (P) ELMS
JMW get their number back after Ford stole it those years ago! Jan Magnussen joins post-Corvette, he’d planned to race LMP2 this year but the team withdrew. Heistand won the 2019 IMSA award giving him an entry to Le Mans. Despite a wholesale driver change – not one of their regular drivers are here – it’s still one to watch. JMW are ALWAYS in contention at Le Mans.

70 MR Racing Kimura (B)/Abril (G)/Cozzolino (S) WEC
A welcome addition as the only Japanese team in GTE Am. Scored a podium first time out at Silverstone but less well since. Owner/Driver Ishikawa can’t make it due to travel restrictions but thankfully the team are still here.

72 Hub Auto Corsa Chen (B)/Blomqvist (P)/Gomes (S) AsianLMS
Asian Le Mans GT3 champion team and another welcome addition, the only Taiwanese entry on the list! Blomqvist raced the BMW GTE in IMSA last year.

PORSCHE (8 cars)

Dempsey-Proton / Proton Competition (4 cars)

77 Dempsey-Proton Ried (B)/Pera (S)/Campbell (G) WEC
88 Dempsey-Proton Preining (G)/Bastien (B)/De Leener (S) WEC
78 Proton Competition Felbermayr Jr (B)/M.Beretta (S)/van Splunteren (S) ELMS
99 Dempsey-Proton Inthraphuvasak (B)/Legeret (S)/Andlauer (S) ELMS

Unusually far down the WEC standings with the 77 in 5th and the 88 in 10th. This has been one of the reference Porsche teams in Am for years.

Ried owns the team and is a fast Bronze in his own right. Andlauer should’ve been with Porsche North America in Pro but it withdrew – no clue why he’s listed as Silver. They’re usually there or thereabouts at the end.

The driver crews often do double-duty in WEC and ELMS hence some new names in the ELMS cars. I have to say the WEC cars are more fancied here. But the classic Felbermayr livery is back!

Team Project 1 (3 cars)

56 Project 1 Perfetti (B)/ten Voorde (S)/Cairoli (G) WEC
57 Project 1 Keating (B)/Fraga (S)/Bleekemolen (G) WEC
89 Project 1 “Brooks” (B)/Piguet (S)/Laskaratos (B) 24H

There’s a strong argument Project 1 might’ve usurped Proton as the out and out fastest Porsche Pro-Am team. Defending race winner, hence awarded an extra entry, the 89 car.

The 57 is a full-season WEC program for Keating & Bleekemolen hence no Ford GT this year, same livery though! And they’re 3rd in WEC points.

Edigio Perfetti is a member of the family that owns Mentos mints, of which he’s a director, did you know that? And he’s one of the best Bronze drivers out there. The 56 crew 6th in points.

The 89 car, I’ve never heard of these drivers.

The 56 and 57 will feature heavily and are equally contenders for the win, the 89 is making up the numbers I think.

86 Gulf Racing Wainwright (B)/Barker (G)/Watson (S) WEC

Always a team to watch at Le Mans, they will lead the race at some point, they always do. Only 7th in WEC points but I expect a top 5 result here. Ben Barker will make it fly.

ASTON MARTIN (2 cars)

90 TF Sport Yoluc (B)/Eastwood (S)/Adam (P) WEC

Currently 2nd in points. Much will depend on the Le Mans BoP but this team knows what it is doing and is a contender. Yoluc is somehow still rated Bronze but he’s better than that I’m sure he is. Jonny Adam and Charlie Eastwood are rapid.

98 Aston Martin Racing Dalla Lana (B)/Gunn (S)/Farfus (P) WEC

The perennial no.98 of Paul Dalla Lana is part of the furniture these days and it would be very strange if it wasn’t in the top 5 during the race and probably contending at the end. Augusto Farfus, latterly of BMW, joined the party last time out in Spa in replacement of Darren Turner who is now in charge of testing the Valkyrie road car.

MY TOP THREE

This is always a toughie and especially with 22 cars! This is my podium prediction:

55 Spirit of Race Ferrari (Cameron)

90 TF Sport Aston Martin (Yoluc)

57 Team Project 1 Porsche (Keating)

Race Calendars: FIA WEC 2019/20

Race dates for FIA WEC 2019/20

FIA_WEC_logo    24_le_mans_logo_detail

2019 FIA WEC

*As at 26 August 2019*

1 Sep 4 Hours of Silverstone Silverstone with ELMS
6 Oct 6 Hours of Fuji Fuji Speedway
10 Nov 4 Hours of Shanghai Shanghai International
14 Dec 8 Hours of Bahrain Bahrain International
1 Feb 6 Hours of Sao Paulo Autodromo Carlos Pace
20 Mar (Friday) 1000 Miles of Sebring Sebring International with IMSA
25 Apr 6 Hours of Spa Spa-Francorchamps
13-14 Jun 24 Heures du Mans Circuit de la Sarthe

From Autumn to Summer & New Race Lengths

The FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) returns to an annual schedule again, after the transition of the long “Superseason” which included two editions of the Le Mans 24H, with every season now starting in the autumn.

The 2019/20 season will be the first in WEC to run through the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn/winter/spring, with summer being the new off-season.

The other change this season is to vary the race distances following fan survey feedback which asked the series to mix up the race lengths from race to race, rather than have every round being 6 Hours except for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The season opener (this week!) is the 4 Hours of Silverstone. On the one hand it seems a little harsh to chop two hours from one of the most popular rounds of the season and I am disappointed by it. On the other hand, this is the only routine WEC round to feature a further 4 hour race for the European Le Mans series on the Saturday. 8 hours of multi-class racing is quite a good deal. ELMS races are can be quite frantic, I wonder if we’ll see that intensity in WEC again?

Similarly, the other big sports car festival is the successful Sebring event. The WEC joins up for the second time with the popular IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship weekend. IMSA retains the prestigious, decades-old 12 Hours of Sebring, with the WEC running a separate 1000 Mile (8 Hour) race on the Friday evening. It works where COTA didn’t because it is simple: put the sports car racing in front of the sports car fans.

Fuji, Shanghai and Spa all continue on the calendar although Shanghai is reduced to a 4 hour race. Fuji is popular among Japanese fans. I really do think the Asian Le Mans Series should share a weekend with WEC either at Fuji or Shanghai. Then the WEC would pair with all the continental series at least once.

Bahrain returns after a year away and is extended to an 8-hour ‘into-the-night’ race. Interlagos is back after a few years away, this time the race will be on February 1st. These two rounds eliminate the massive gap between Shanghai and Sebring. Indeed Bahrain’s race is just 10 days before Christmas – there is no off-season these days!

And of course Le Mans is on the traditional 13th/14th June weekend.

End Of An Era

And this will be the final season with the current LMP1 cars. Quite what the “hypercar” era will bring us 12 months from now isn’t quite clear, at the moment it looks like two Toyotas, two Aston Martins and a whole lot of unknowns.

“Hypercar” is planned to be some 8-10 seconds slower around Le Mans than a current LMP1 car, a similar pace to a current LMP2 car. That’s probably 3-4 seconds slower at somewhere like Silverstone.

So you can expect both sets of existing prototypes to be slowed down to run behind the new ‘premier class’. GTE cars shouldn’t be affected. Therefore this is the final WEC season where you can watch this generation of LMP1 and LMP2 cars unrestricted.

And I’ve seen that Toyota TS050 live (and the Porsche 919 when it was there). You want to see that acceleration and direction change in person while you can.

Links

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Races Watched (2019 Week 16): WEC COTA 2017

Week 16:  15-21 April 2019

A very quiet weekend in the racing world. The only active series were those I don’t follow closely, but that’s probably my fault for not following British GT as closely I should.

In the UK it was Easter Bank Holiday weekend with Good Friday and Easter Monday off work. The sun was out so I didn’t spend a lot of time indoors watching racing and I opted out of going to Oulton Park’s British GT due to other goings on.

It was a good opportunity to continue my endurance racing catch up which I did on Sunday evening. There’s little point blogging it for an audience because frankly none of you care about a race that happened 18 months ago but I did it anyway because I like the practice of writing weekly.

2017 FIA WEC – R6 – 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, USA
Took place 16th September 2017
Watched 21st April 2019

Qualifying:
LMP1:  Porsche, Porsche, Toyota, Toyota;
LMP2:  Signatech, Rebellion, Jackie Chan DC, Rebellion;
GTE Pro:  AF Corse, Ford Ganassi, Aston Martin, AF Corse;
GTE Am:  Aston Martin, Spirit of Race, Clearwater, Dempsey-Proton;

Just four cars in LMP1 for the last few races of the 2017 season and Porsche’s 919 was clearly faster than Toyota’s TS050, just as it was in Mexico. Yet the Toyotas had better low speed boost, the traction off the corner visibly better and they got past the no.2 Porsche in the early laps. Toyota then ran 1-2 by not taking tyres at the first pitstops when the Porsches did. That made a race of it for the next hour! They’d play strategy all race.

LMP2 teams were single-stinting drivers due to the high heat. Really close racing in the class. Signatech Alpine were the class of the field, though in the middle Alex Brundle’s Jackie Chan DC Racing car pulled a big lead for a while. This class was the one most affected by tyre regulations (just 4 sets for a 6 hour race) on a high degradation track, so the order changed a lot based on who was single-stinting and double-stinting tyres.

GTE Pro again had really good close, clean racing this time between the Aston of Nicki Thiim and the two AF Corse Ferraris in the first hour. Thiim had got the lead through the melee of turn one lap one when all the cars spread out wide. In the 2nd hour the Ferraris got clear. Despite qualifying last, the Porsche GTs had great race pace and caught the Ferraris.

GTE Am’s pole-sitting Aston Martin had Paul Dalla Lana driving first so we found him fall behind the Pro drivers early and the two Ferraris pull away. It turned around later when Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy raced through the pack.

A Safety Car just after halfway after the Gulf Porsche spun twice. That allowed the GT Porsche to catch and overtake the Ferraris for the Pro lead. But with 12 minutes to go the leading no. 51 Ferrari had a slow puncture, the pit stop put Ferrari and Porsche side by side for the lead! The Ferrari would just about come out on top.

And within 10 minutes to go the lead Porsche 919s swapped places, team orders, the No. 1 slowing to allow No. 2 to win. That gives the No.2 car its 4th consecutive win including Le Mans and a handy points lead, while No.1 failed to score back at the double-points Le Mans and so is the sacrificial lamb.

As ever in WEC the field spread out in the last couple of hours but there were stories all the way through. I was expecting to be able to F.Fwd through chunks and get the race done in 5 hours or less, I ended up not skipping any of it.

LMP1

  1. No. 2 Porsche 919 – Hartley, Bernhard, Bamber [4th win of the year];
  2. No. 1 Porsche 919 – Lotterer, Tandy, Jani;
  3. No. 8 Toyota TS050 – Buemi, Nakajima, Sarrazin;

LMP2

  1. No. 36 Signatech Alpine – Lapierre, Menezes, Negrao  [1st win of the year];
  2. No. 13 Rebellion – Piquet Jr, Beche, Heinemeier Hansson;
  3. No. 31 Rebellion – Senna, Prost, Canal  [5th podium of the year];

GTE Pro

  1. No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari – Calado, Pier Guidi  [2nd win of the year];
  2. No. 92 Porsche – Christensen, Estre;
  3. No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari – Rigon, Bird;

GTE Am

  1. No. 98 Aston Martin – Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda  [2nd win of the year];
  2. No. 61 Clearwater Ferrari – Sun Mok, Sawa, Griffin;
  3. No. 54 Spirit of Race Ferrari – Castellacci, Flohr, Molina;

The next WEC race was the 6 Hours of Fuji, though the ELMS 4 Hours of Spa is next on my list by calendar date.

Next Week

The weekend of 26th to 28th April, a fairly busy one depending on your interests. My pick of the week is Baku because that race is crazy fun.

  • F1 Azerbaijan GP at Baku (with F2 support);
  • Formula E in Paris;
  • VLN 3 at the Nordschleife;
  • GT Open at Paul Ricard;
  • Blancpain America at VIR;
  • WTCR at Hungaroring;
  • BTCC at Donington Park;
  • WRC in Argentina;
  • NASCAR at Talledega;

I will watch F1 and Formula E. If the weather is terrible Saturday I may stay home and watch VLN. I plan to catch up on BTCC and WTCR at the end of the year as, guess what, I’m two years behind!

Oh and it’s the London Marathon on Sunday morning and that’s often a good watch if you like endurance racing of any type.

2019 Calendars: Blancpain GT Europe

Print

The ‘mothership’ Blancpain GT series is based in Europe.

For 2019 the five Sprint rounds have been renamed Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe to match the Asian and American series.

There are three titles:

  • Blancpain GT Endurance, five rounds:  24 Hours of Spa, 1000km Paul Ricard, the other three rounds are 3 hours each;
  • Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe, five rounds: 2 x 60 minute sprint races;
  • Overall Blancpain GT title combining all 10 rounds into one series;

Teams can compete in the entire series or just decide to do the sprint or endurance cups.

All races are for FIA GT3 cars exclusively. The class structure is based upon driver ratings with a mix of Pro, Pro/Am and Am classes.

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