FIA WEC, 12 Hours of Sebring - Race Preview Part One LMP1 One race, 12 Hours, 64 cars and an astounding 9 class battles! The 2012 12 Hours of Sebring is now upon us and serves, perhaps for the final time, as the opening round of the brave new world that is the FIA WEC as well as the 2012 ALMS. Gary Horrocks will be reviewing the ALMS runners, riders and prospects separately, here we'll concentrate on the WEC field on a critical year for the ACO, their first stab at conceiving and running a full blown World Championship gets its first airing here and, in the wake of the abrupt end to Peugeot's LMP1 programme, the organisers have had more work on their hands than they'd anticipated and hoped for in pulling together a season long 'show' Toyota was the answer to their prayers on that front of course but the race this weekend in Florida comes a little too early for the Cologne based team. Others too are here with 2011 spec machinery, Round 2 in May at Spa will be the first chance to see a full 2012 LMP1 field. That's not to say that there's any shortage of quality for Sebring, far from it. So in the great race's 60th anniversary year let's get the party started by looking at the LMP1 field in the WEC: #1 Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R18 TDI André Lotterer
Benoît Tréluyer
Marcel Fässler #2 Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R18 TDI Allan McNish
Tom Kristensen
Dindo Capello #3 Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R18 TDI Timo Bernhard
Romain Dumas
Loic Duval Audi are bringing a three car team to Sebring as the only factory squad in the premier class - As in 2011 though they are saving both their 2012 spec hybrid, the R18 e-tron Quattro and the diesel only version the R18 Ultra for a post race test. Instead the hot favourites are fielding a trio of 2011 spec R18 TDIs, they'll be quick (of course) they should be reliable, and they won't have any diesel fuelled opposition. We'll find out soon enough whether the latest attempts by the sanctioning body to close the performance gap between diesel and petrol fuelled cars has had any meaningful impact, once again the cold black print of the rule book will have been doing battle with the genius of those responsible for squeezing the maximum possible from the parameters they set (and let's face it the geniuses usually win!) The R18 is a relatively known quantity, fast, but with the blind spot, literally, of many recent coupes. Might that be a factor on what is a challenging and busy circuit, particularly with more slower cars ( the GTC Porsches and a squadron of LMPC Orecas) than the Audi's usually encounter? Let's hope not. The main interest in the Audi effort might well be on the driver front. Nine of Audi's 12 driver roster for 2012 will be on parade, and with the demise of Peugeot the honour of carrying the #1 goes to the 2011 Le Mans winning trio of Benoit Treluyer, Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler.
With that success came a reported shift of emphasis on testing and development with the reigning LM24 Champions, moving from a car that was basically set up for the accepted Audi benchmark to a more bespoke arrangement - They need to deliver then to justify that, but they'll be doing it alongside the benchmarks themselves, the #2 car crewed by the familiar squad of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Dindo Capello. Reports of Capello's imminent retirement have dragged on for well over a year but his pace and consistency remained a very convincing argument for his continued employment in the R18 programme throughout 2011 - We'll comment again on his future plans when he chooses to tell us. For now his good cheer, and his pace, will once again grace our form of racing. The #3 car meanwhile features one of the factory squad’s new boys for 2012, Loic Duval will be mightily glad that he turned down the opportunity to join the factory Peugeot squad and now he joins 2010 Le Mans winning pair Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard – That’s a mighty quick looking trio! So where might the biggest challenge on pace to Audi come from? The petrol fuelled pack fields 6 cars this time out in the WEC field featuring four different chassis choices and four different engines too. #21 Strakka Racing - HPD ARX-03a Honda Nick Leventis
Danny Watts
Jonny Kane #22 JRM - HPD ARX-03a Honda David Brabham
Karun Chandhok
Peter Dumbreck The new kids on the block are the HPD ARX 03as of Strakka and JRM (with a third similar car in the ALMS field too of course) Nick Wirth described the car at launch as "The best customer car we know how to build" That's likely then to be a very good car indeed based on past form. There will have been lessons learned both from the various LMP2 cars produced by the Wirth/ HPD alliance and , of course the LMP1 ARX 01e that oh so nearly won here last year in its one and only race start. Don't forget either that the predecessor LMP1 to the 01e, the 2009 02a, set pole position here in a field which included both Audi and Peugeot factory teams. The engine is the formidable HPD V8 that has taken a class win at Le Mans with Strakka in the good old days if LMP2, as well as being the unit that powered the LMP1 car here last year - that's certainly bringing a gun to a gun fight! Can either car get on terms with an R18 though? There seems little doubt that there has been further steps forward on aero too, lessons learned from the 2011 car (which did not run with its full aero kit) and almost 12 months further work too. So the defining factor between the two HPD runners will come down to driver squad and preparation. Let's take the second point first - Strakka have had their car longer, have had the chance to test, have endurance race and have Championship winning form and have a deserved reputation for excellent preparation and strategy. Against that JRM will run their 03a for the first time in race week testing on their LMP racing debut - perhaps understandably their pre race tone talks of looking for points and aiming for a finish, but there is engineering excellence and strategic nous aplenty on tap here too - If the planets align then they'll grab any opportunity, but this is very early days for them. On the driver front things could be even more interesting. Strakka field an unchanged squad from their LMP2 campaigns from the past seasons, the mercurial pair of Danny Watts and Jonny Kane are as good a combination as any other on this grid with Nick Leventis stepping back into an LMP1 with ambitions to find yet more pace and consistency. It's perhaps unfair to refer to Leventis by direct comparison with his team mates and rivals but this is a race, and in the fine Top Trumps tradition it would be fair to say that his score is eclipsed by all three of the JRM drivers - That said Leventis is a quick driver by gentleman standards and has steadily improved year on year - Remember too that without his commitment we wouldn't have a Strakka to talk and write about at all! JRM meanwhile field an impressive trio, David Brabham bringing his long experience, Le Mans winning cv and team leading track record to the effort, supported by Peter Dumbreck, returning to a prototype racer for the first time since the dramas of his Mercedes CLR days. Karun Chandhok was the third named driver, and a very handy one he might prove to be - he brings both budget and recent F1 pedigree to the effort as well as an easy personal style and a willingness to take the long view on an endurance racing future. #12 Rebellion Racing - Lola B12/60 Toyota Nicolas Prost
Neel Jani
Nick Heidfeld #13 Rebellion Racing - Lola B12/60 Toyota Andrea Belicchi
Harold Primat
Jeroen Bleekemolen Rebellion Racing return for 2012 once again with a 2 car LMP1 effort, a fact that should surely put them firmly on the ACO's Christmas card list in these straitened times. Sebring will see the Rebellion Lola Toyotas in 2011 spec, their 2012 kits won't arrive in time, but from Spa onwards the team will field a pair of full 2012 Lolas. Sebring then should see a pair of well developed and reliable petrol coupes which were finding some real pace towards the end of the 2011 season. That's not to say that there aren't changes to report - there are - firstly in the look of the cars, the popular red, white and gold colour scheme replaced for the season by the black and gold of Lotus Racing, a deal which is still to be officially revealed. There's nothing further in that colour scheme though in terms of Lotus input onto these cars, rather it is part of a promotional deal between the team owner and the Norfolk based OEM - The chassis remains badged as a Lola and the 3.4litre V8 is still a TMG Toyota - We'd be surprised if there wasn't rather more TMG assistance on parade at Sebringthan usual! On the driver front too there are a couple of changes to report, Jean Christophe Bouillon departed in the close season to be replaced by the in no way vertically challenged Harold Primat who brings his race winning form and substantial backers over from Aston Martin Racing. The other new addition is a significant one too, albeit only for the enduros at Sebring and Le Mans as F1 refugee Nick Heidfeld finds a seat worthy of his undoubted talents – He’ll share the #12 car with Nicolas Prost and Neel jani whilst fellow team newcomer Primat shares the #13 car with Andrea “The Don” Belicchi and the mercurial Jeroen Bleekemolen. Prospects? There's no reason why the Lola Toyotas shouldn't run quickly and reliably - much though will depend on the impact of the attempt to equalise the diesel and petrol performance to determine whether they will be able to contest for anything close to a podium finish. #16 Pescarolo Team - Pescarolo 01 Judd Emmanuel Collard
Jean-Christophe Boullion
Julien Jousse Pescarolo Team are another squad to field their 2011 machine at Sebring, Henri's merry men haven't chosen an easy path in 2012 with an ex AMR One tub to be mated with Pescarolo underpinnings and aero plus a 3.4 litre Judd V8. This car, dubbed the Pescarolo 03 is far from ready and, with the Dome Judd that is set to be the team's second car at Le Mans not on the WEC agenda, it was left to the grand old man of endurance racing to ask for a waiver to allow the team to race their (already grandfathered) 2009 V10 Judd engined car. That required the agreement of all the competing LMP1 teams and, sportingly, that's exactly what Pescarolo got. By the end of last season the car was broadly at the pace of a 2011 spec petrol powered LMP1 so there's little to suggest that that can't be the case at Sebring. On the driver front there's continued employment aboard for both Julien Jousse and Emmanuel Collard plus a return from the not so prodigal son Jean Christophe Bouillon - here's hoping that the open topped Pescarolo is more to his liking than the Lola Coupe where he rather struggled last year. #15 OAK Racing - OAK Pescarolo Judd
Guillaume Moreau
Dominik Kraihamer
Bertrand Baguette
Finally there's a second team running a Pescarolo chassis, OAK Racing of course now have the rights to produce the cars under the famous name and they field a single Judd V8 car for the full WEC in LMP1 (The 2011 car is shown below). Unlike the LMP2 cars the P1 machine is not badged as a Morgan, that move is part of the strategy to develop a more commercial operation from the raci g arm of the company. The LMP1 effort though is very far from an afterthought - We've yet to see the 2012 spec car but believe it to be a subtle evolution of the tidily effective 2011 car, powered by a 3.4 litre Judd V8, On the driver front there's an interesting mix, anchored once again by the impressive Guillaume Moreau who will have the advantage of knowing the team, and the car, very well. The ambitious and talented Dominik Kraihamer completes his climb up the LMP ladder from FLM via LMP2 to join the team for a full WEC programme - He'll need all of his undoubted pace and a 'long game' mindset to squeeze the very most out of this opportunity, particularly as he'll be racing alongside another highly rated young hotshoe, Bertrand Baguette. Baguette was in contention for a Peugeot drive pre season (and pre pull out!) and is another that will be keen to strut his stuff in the WEC. Add in Dunlop development rubber and the OAK effort is an intriguing one - Will the cocktail of talent mix well or.... ? We haven't got too long a wait before we find out! GG | 
