FIA WEC, 12 Hours of Sebring - Race Preview - Part Three - GTE If ever there was a clue to just how tough the current economic climate is it's in the size of the 2012 full season GTE field. Just 12 cars are on the entry, and fewer than half will race in the 'Pro' category. Perhaps more telling still is the fact that four of the five Pro cars belong to teams that also field entries in the 'Am' class, the GTE split between the all professional teams and Pro-Am turned, it seems, into an economic necessity! Happily though the entries that are on the list are of a very high quality with even the quintet of Pro cars sporting some real variety. There's no Pro Corvette or BMW though, aside from Sebring ( and in the case of Corvette Le Mans too), with Lotus also giving the WEC a miss. GTE Pro #51 AF Corse - Ferrari 458 Italia Giancarlo Fisichella
Gianmaria Bruni
Toni Vilander AF Corse were the dominant world force in GTE last year, a fast car and a truly talented driver line up combining to give the rest a mountain to climb. Multiple race and title winners Fisichella and Bruni stay together as a matched pair, Bruni the seasoned GT veteran and Fisi a man reborn, emerging last year from a post F1 cocoon and finding his smile again, now relishing the more open access that racegoers in endurance Motorsport are used to. Toni Vilander is another man very worthy of the 'Flying Finn' moniker, one of the very best of the Ferrari crop, this trio, this car and this team will be very tough to beat. #59 - Luxury Racing - Ferrari 458 Italia Frederic Makowiecki
Jaime Melo
Jean Karl Vernay Luxury Racing were the surprise multi car new boys in 2011 and they're back for more in the WEC this year. They looked a little too much like the new boys last year sadly, their 458s were up to the challenge but all too often were let down by inexperience in the garage. An alliance with Risi Competizione helped and whilst an off season dalliance over co-operation with JetAlliance came to nought we now expect to see a formal link emerge for 2012 between Luxury and Pescarolo! That should help enormously but may take time to bed in. One area where the team have little or nothing to give away is on the driver front. Fred Makowiecki is the the returning man in the #59 car, and rightly so. Super quick and with race craft to match he's a man on many people's radar for a sparkling future. Jaime Melo is one surprise name here, after a rapid fall from Ferrari grace at the end of 2011 many thought we'd possibly seen the last of one of THE fastest GT drivers of the last decade. He's back though and will have plenty to prove in 2012. He'll be keen to put his woes behind him and concentrate on the racing, he certainly knows Sebring well, and how to race there - Just ask Joerg Bergmeister! The third driver is yet another man who had the words 'Peugeot Sport' pencilled onto his 2012 cv. Luxury Racing then is his Plan B and he'll be as keen as team mate Melo to show his abilities off on a world stage. #71 AF Corse - Ferrari 458 Italia Andrea Bertolini
Olivier Beretta
Marco Cioci AF Corse are the only team to field a second Pro car and, whilst this is a very convincing driver line up there's little doubt where the order of precedence lies. That said, all three men here are well capable of real pace. Andrea Bertolini has spent much of his recent past winning races and titles in Maseratis, though more recently GT3 spec Ferraris have been the mount of choice. Real world quick and usually entirely mistake free he's a very convincing anchorman for the #71 squad. Olivier Beretta has another factory GT programme on his cv now after Chrysler and Corvette. His departure from the men in yellow was somewhat ill tempered and he'll be keen to show that they picked the wrong man to axe from the driver squad for 2012 - Hopefully that emotion will be channeled into pace and not aggression. Cut Marco Cioci in half and he'd no doubt have 'Ferrari' written right through him, a classic quick Italian, knocking on the door of an opportunity to step up the racing ladder - Here it is Marco! #77 Felbermayr Proton - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR Marc Lieb
Richard Lietz
Patrick Pilet  A Porsche in the Pro category is one major plus in comparison with last season's ILMC and if it was going to come to the WEC then this is the team, and the driver squad that you'd have to suggest would be the most likely to succeed.
A new look, wider track rear to the 997 promise improvements, though these don't seem all that dramatic from early testing. Porsche though will be keen to show that their new car is up to the task. Whatever the new car does dole out you can be sure that the driver line up will make the most of it - Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz still one of the most effective driver pairings anywhere in GT racing and with the addition of fellow factory man Patrick Pilet, Porsche are looking to go for a checkmate move on the Ferrari boys - It is though a single Porsche against the trio of Pro Ferraris, the #77 car will need to be fast and reliable. #97 Aston Martin Racing - Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE Darren Turner
Stefan Mucke
Adrian Fernandez Back where they belong? That's a question prompted by the trials and tribulations of 2011 for AMR and rather masks the fact that the factory backed team's LMP1 programme was quite a convincing one until the self imposed brinksmanship of the AMR One programme caught up with them. GT racing though is still in the blood of many at AMR and they're relishing getting back on track head to head with old rivals, particularly the Corvette boys at Sebring. The Vantage has had huge attention paid to it over the off season, better aero, better balance and now more serviceable too. That's the good news, will all those upgrades have yet been fully bedded in for the necessary reliability? We'll soon see. With the departure of Harold Primat to Rebellion a predicted two car entry was pared back to this single car for the season but AMR promise an additional car for some WEC rounds, possibly two additional cars for Silverstone. Darren Turner is a fine anchor man for the #97 squad and Stefan Mucke will be quick too, anxious to put a difficult 2011 behind him. Adrian Fernandez mayblack GT racing experience but is super enthusiastic about this programme. One thing's for certain, the guttural V8 will be a worthy successor in the fan favourites' aural stakes to its V12 engined predecessors. GTE-AM #50 Larbre Competition - Chevrolet Corvette C6.R Pedro Lamy
Julien Canal
Patrick Bornhauser Larbre arrive in the WEC with a two car Corvette entry and an even fuller trophy cabinet than at this time last year. Plans to run a car in each class weren't fulfilled but a pair of Am class cars will do very nicely thank you! Pedro Lamy arrives as a refugee from the Peugeot retreat and is likely to impress here, a hugely effective GT driver for BMW and Aston Martin, he'll relish the Corvette's grunt. Canal was the 2011 hotshoe for Larbre but will need to hold his enthusiasm to show Lamy who's boss in stay, the Larbre title run was boosted hugely by their Le Mans win last year but 2012 will need to see more consistency, a tad more reliability, and a little more full season speed - On paper at least the #50 car should deliver. #55 JWA - Avila - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR Markus Palttala
Joel Camathias
Bill Binnie A new name and a new look for a team that has plenty of LMS heritage. Paul Daniels and James Watt are the men behind this effort, the 2012 WEC entry the culmination of a long planned step up. The team will do it with an ex Flying Lizards 2011 spec Porsche ( it was their car at Le Mans last year but is otherwise unraced) but without either he originally announced Allan Simonsen or Paul Daniels, the former apparently at the altar of commercial need, the latter short of pre-season testing. Markus Palttala though is here, returning to a team that he has graced in years past and hungry for success. He's quick and keen to prove it and he'll very much hold the lead driver status here. Joel Camathias has previous LMS GT2 championship winning form in a Porsche and will be a useful and reliable addition to the team, he'll be far from the slowest in this class and that's a good place to be as the teams find their feet in 2012. We're delighted to see Bill Binnie's name on this entry list, the ex Le Mans LMP2 winner and team owner has been absent from the track for a little while and we'll soon find out whether that absence has left him with a learning curve. We suspect not, in his last spell of racing he was amongst the quicker group of gentleman drivers and that makes the #55 squad a well rounded trio.  #57 Krohn Racing - Ferrari 458 Italia
Tracy Krohn
Nic Jonsson
Michele Rugolo There's just one major change for the Krohn Racing squad from their 2011 set-up, last year's Ferrari 430 replaced by a 458 newly built by Michelotto but to 2011 spec, thereby enabling the team to enter the car in the Am category. Followers of the team will be delighted at the colour scheme staying the same, the very (Krohn) green painted, not vinyled at Michelotto. it certainly stands out in a field where the default Ferrari colour is the appropriate but predictable red! There's no change whatsoever in the driver ranks for Krohn, the Team Principal ably supported by Nic Jonsson and Michele Rugolo, the trio gelling well and looking for consistent scoring to maintain a season long challenge. There's no reason whatsoever why this squad shouldn't be contending for the title over the full season's action and, even if the racing gods don't smile on the effort it'll at least be able to pick out of a crowd! #58 Luxury Racing - Ferrari 458 Italia Pierre Ehret
Francois Jakubowski
Dominik Farnbacher Luxury Racing are the first of three teams mentioned here to field cars in both GTE sub-classes and with a largely unchanged car that's a simple transition from the Pro car of 2011, With CRS Racing pulling away from a race programme this season Pierre Ehret moves over to Luxury, and to his first taste of a GTE spec 458. Francois Jakubowski stays with Luxury for a second season and will likely be more comfortable in the Am category than he was in the Pro class in the ILMC in 2011. Dominik Farnbacher meanwhile will be relieved at having found a WEC seat following the demise of the Hankook GT programme. Dominik is a very quick and technically savvy. Individual, he's by far the fastest man in this car, and has a claim at being the fastest man in the class! #61 AF Corse-Waltrip - Ferrari 458 Italia Michael Waltrip
Robert Kauffman
Rui Aguas AF Corse's third car in the entry, or the fourth if you count the Pecom Oreca, is redubbed AF-Waltrip in deference to the 'super customer' that is the Waltrip Racing pair of Michael Waltrip and Robert Kauffman and, we presume, in part to avoid any future "two cars per team" unpleasantness. The car should be rock solid and Rui Aguas is a man very capable of using it well, he might need to be though because Michael Waltrip is not, despite his platinum driver ranking courtesy of his NASCAR achievements, yet a rounded GT driver. Kauffman meanwhile is another man finding his racing smile again after being roundly blamed (in the eyes of many unfairly) for the Mike Rockenfeller crash at Le Mans last year - He may still be on a learning curve but there are others out there further down the ladder! #70 Larbre Competition - Chevrolet Corvette C6.R Christophe Bourret
Pascal Gibon
Jean-Philippe Belloc A typical Larbe customer effort - that sounds dismissive but it shouldn't. Take a look st recent racing history and see just how many races, classes and Championships Jack Leconte's squad have scored and then try to criticise the line-up! If this car is reliable, stays out of trouble and runs with the pack there should be solid scores available. Jean Philippe Belloc still has a fire that burns, and he's well capable of persuading the best from gentleman driver team mates and here, in GTE Am, that's exactly what you need! #88 Felbermayr - Proton - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR Christian Ried
Gianluca Roda
Paulo Ruberti Felbermayr Proton are the third GTE team with a car in both sub classes and here in the Am class their #88 car fields the Three 'R's! Despite that inevitable moniker none of the driving trio have much to learn at this level. Team Principal Christian Ried will once again be out having a go in the company car, he's a tidily effective gentleman driver that makes few mistakes. Gianluca Roda is now the double winner of the prized Porsche Cup, the award given by Porsche for the most successful customer driver in their machinery - He'd love to make it three in a row, but he'd like to win the class here just a little bit more! Paulo Ruberti has been around GT cars for a decade or more and still has plenty of pace - This trio won't likely trouble the Pro cars but they might just find themselves very considerably up the order over a race distance. GG | 
