FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps - Thursday Notes From The Paddock

After torrential rain and incessant roadworks from Calais to Liege last night this morning started (not so) bright and (exceptionally) early.

The weather forecast today is for grey cloud with the odd shower, followed by rain thereafter for the remainder of the weekend – Welcome to Spa!!

On the upside all 42 cars are here and were making their way through tech this morning.

Indeed yesterday there were 43 with the Toyota TS030 stopping by on its way to Magny Cours for a brief photo call!!

The new shape Rebellion Lola Toyotas though are here and looking splendidly Chapmanesque (that’s Colin not Graham btw!).

Also looking black and goldtastic was the first time showing for a two car Team Lotus Lola LMP2 outfit with the existing #31 car featuring Renger van der Zande’s name on the car alongside Thomas Holzer and Mirco Schultis (though the pit box graphic says that historic racer Darius Ahrabian should be in the car).

Luca Moro has moved over to the #32 car joining Kevin Weede and James Rossiter  - No sign then of the more than rumoured appearance of Vitantonio Liuzzi in the team here. (We hear now that Liuzzi was on standby for an injured Moro but that Luca has been passed fit for the race - van de Zande is confirmed in the #31 car)

The Dome S102.5 is looking stunning with a very proud Hiroshi Fushida in attendance to help Claude Galopin et al get the very best out of his/ their car.

The Audis are sporting interesting coloured LEDs that will operate when the cars are on the pitlane speed limiter giving the pit crews a visual reference as to whether an all diesel or e-tron Quattro version of the car is approaching.

The #35 Oak Racing car was out in pit lane with Bas Leinders and David Heinemeier Hansson looking ready to go with their pink and black Morgan Judd.

The second, #26, SIgnatech Oreca Nissan is here too, another team preparing their squad and logistics for Le Mans.

Brendon Hartley was looking forward to his sportscar racing debut with the Murphy Prototypes Oreca Nissan – the deal for the team to run the young New Zealander though was late enough to mean that his name doesn’t yet feature above the pit box.

At Starworks Ryan Dalziel was looking forward, sort of, to his first ever taste of Spa Francorchamps, “I was due to race here back in 2001 but it was cancelled.   We’re looking forward to the race but realisticsally there are some good teams in the class with far more experience here – We enjoyed our day at Sebring though!”

There are several teams with confirmed driver changes – Fernando Rees at Larbre, Brian Vickers at AF Waltrip and Gunnar Jeannette and Frankie Montecalvo at Luxury Racing, the American pair having moved over to GTE-Am in the wake of Luxury’s withdrawal from FIA GT3, the team though seem to have got a tad confused over their two cars (see below!)