FIA GT1 World Championship Silverstone Preview

There’s FIA GT1, GT3 and GT4 racing on the bill at Silverstone this coming weekend with track action from all three Series on each of the three days.

Weekend Timetable

Friday 30 April

09:00 to 09:30 – British F3 – Free Practice 1
09:40 to 11:00 – FIA GT1 World Championship – Free Practice
11:10 to 11:50 – GT4 European Cup – Free Practice 1
12:00 to 13:00 – FIA GT3 European Championship – Free Practice 1
13:00 to 14:00 – LUNCH
14:00 to 14:30 – British F3 – Free Practice 2
14:40 to 16:00 – FIA GT1 World Championship – Pre-Qualifying
16:10 to 16:50 – GT4 European Cup – Free Practice 2
17:00 to 18:00 – FIA GT3 European Championship

Saturday 1 May

09:00 to 09:50 – FIA GT3 European Championship – Qualifying
10:00 to 10:30 – British F3 – Qualifying
10:45 to 11:45 – FIA GT1 World Championship – Qualifying
11:55 to 12:30 – GT4 European Cup – Qualifying
12:30 to 13:15 – LUNCH
13:15 to 13:45 – Cooper Tires British F3 International Series – Race 1
14:14 to 15:15 – FIA GT3 European Championship – Race 1
15:45 to 16:25 – GT4 European Cup
17:15 to 18:15 – FIA GT1 World Championship – Qualifying Race

Sunday 2 May

09:30 to 10:00 – FIA GT1 World Championship – Warm Up
10:30 to 10:50 – Cooper Tires British F3 International Series – Race 2
10:55 to 11:10 – Church Break
11:00 to 11:30 – Pit Walk and Autograph Session
12:15 to 13:15 – FIA GT3 European Championship – Race 2
13:45 to 14:25 – GT4 European Cup – Race 2
15:15 to 16:15 – FIA GT1 World Championship – Championship Race
16:45 to 17:25 – Cooper Tires British F3 International Series – Race 3

FIA GT1 Preview

The opening races of the new GT1 World Championship posed as many questions as they answered.

Is the Ford GT and/ or Romain Grosjean simply that much faster than the rest an/or did someone get it wrong with performance balancing?

Is the Nissan GT-R really that far of the pace or was the performance balancing solely to blame?

Will performance balancing be the major topic of conversation pre and post race once again? (let’s hope not!)

Silverstone will see the 24 cars (23 if Matech don’t make it with their second Ford GT after Natacha Gachtang’s awful accident at Yas Marina) stretch their legs in the wide open spaces of the new look Grand Prix circuit.

There are some changes to report on the entry list after Abu Dhabi:

Marathon Man Oliver Gavin was double booked with ALMS duty last time out – He’ll be on parade this time though for MadCroc racing in the #12 Corvette C6.R alongside Pertti Kuismanen

Christophe Bouchut too was busy at Long Beach but he’ll now take up his seat in the # 37 AllInkl.com / Munnich Lamborghini alongside Marc Basseng – That’s a pairing that might well see action right at the sharp end of the racing throughout the weekend.

As we’ve already reported there’s been a major logistical effort undertaken to move the cars and equipment  for the teams from the Gulf to the UK in the wake of the last week’s air travel chaos caused by the Icelandic Ash Cloud.

All 12 teams though look set to be ready for the off on Friday when free practice begins, how many of the crews have a realistic chance of carving their names on the famous the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy though remains to be seen.

With a pre-meeting rebalancing of performance looking certain (and if it isn’t then there will surely be major repercussions) it’s almost impossible to call this one but throwing caution to the winds and looking simply at the quality of the driver line-ups, then it seems that each of the six marques has a crew, or crews, capable of taking the fight to the rest for the whole of the 2 x 60 minute race distances:

Aston Martin underwhelmed at Yas Marina, but the Enge/ Turner combo in the #7 Young Driver AMR DBR9 must surely be a contender here with both Tomas and Darren knowing Silverstone (bar the new bits!) like the back of their hands.

Hexis underwhelmed almost entirely with their pair of DBR9s – They’ll want to see much better speed and reliability in the UK.

Corvette have a very strong hand or two to play here – Ollie Gavin will be as fast as anyone, and faster than most, but the pro-am line-up in the SRT prepped #12 MadCroc Vette will surely count him out of overall contention. He’s looking forward to a rather different racing discipline than his normal challenge:

“I’m very excited about racing at Silverstone again,” he said, “especially on the new Arena layout of the circuit; we’ll be the first big international event on that.  It will also be nice to be back with Patrick and his team, and sharing the car with Mr Kuismanen and Mad Croc.

“It’s going to be a very challenging weekend, getting to grips with the new series, which I think is still evolving, and very different and unusual for me having only one hour races.  The longest I will be able to drive for is 35 minutes in any race whereas I’m used to being in the car for hours on end.  It’s very much a sprint format and I think it will be quite spectacular as people won’t be hanging around.  You won’t need to look after tyres or see how your fuel load changes the balance of the car for example; it will be a straight out thrash to the chequered flag.” 

The DKR-engineered sister #11 car though could shine, Xavier Maassen and Alex Muller are a quality pairing.

The MadCroc cars though were put very much into the shade last time out by both of the Phoenix Carsport C6.Rs

Andrea Piccini was mighty in the Gulf, we’ve yet to have confirmation that his one weekend deal there has been extended, but if it is the Piccini/ Mike Hezemans combo will be a strong one, as it was in the Championship race for round one – the pair securing a podium from a penalised mid grid start slot.

They were outpaced in the first races though by the sister car of Marc Hennerici and Andreas Zuber, a crew that were expected to race hard but one which produced a pair of surprisingly dominant performances with a win in the Qualifying race followed up by a second place finish in the main event (despite a 10 place grid penalty).

For Ford (or rather Matech Concepts) the day before qualifying will surely be the main determinant of a weekend that could see 2010 reputations cemented or questioned.

The #5 Matech Ford was mighty  - Thomas Mutsch was ultra competitive as always, Romain Grosjean simply romped away with the main race.  The Ford is quick and its drivers are quick too – Lets see if the FIA are quick to reel in the car for Silverstone (as they have promised will be the case for any car that dominates.)

Aside from the dominance of the #5 car though it was all bad news for the Fords in Abu Dhabi.  The sister #6 Matech car’s weekend finished in the barriers of Turn 8 in qualifying when the combination of a brake system fault and a mistake by the driver saw Natacha Gachnang suffer a broken leg.     

The Marc VDS team meanwhile had a simply awful opening weekend.  En route to sixth place in the Qualifying Race, the front splitter on the #40 Ford (Leinders/  Martin) was damaged in a collision and the necessary repairs took one minute longer than the 15 minutes allowed.

That meant that Leinders had to start the Championship Race from the pit lane, only managing to get to 13th. Place by the finish,

Meanwhile, the #41 car (Palttala/ Renaud Kuppens) managed only two laps in the qualifying race due to persisting clutch problems.

Since parc fermé rules apply in between the two races, there was no time for the crew to repair the car and the team were forced to sit out the main event.  They may live to regret those issues later in the season but will surely be looking to bounce back at Silverstone.

Another marque that had distinctly mixed fortunes was Lamborghini.

No news yet either of whether the last minute pairing of Zonta/ Daniel in the #25 Reiter car will be on the grid for Silverstone.  They proved an effective combination in Abu Dhabi scoring a fourth place in the Championship race with Zonta looking very racey indeed all weekend.  The sister #24 car of Peter Kox and Christopher Haase also scored points in the opening round so the ‘factory’ team will be keen to maintain momentum.

In contrast the All Inkl.com/ Munnich squad came away from the Gulf having struggled.  They’ll be bolstered very considerably in the speed stakes by Christophe Bouchut but will need better reliability as well as pace if they are to take full advantage of the potential in their driver line up.

Despite some good points scoring finishes Vitaphone Racing will have come away from Yas Marina rather frustrated.

The MC12 was clearly nowhere close to the pace of the winning Ford or the Phoenix Corvettes in the closing stages of the Championship race.  Whilst all four Maseratis came away from the opening round with points on the board, Herr Bartels and co have set high standards for themselves and they’ll be looking for the silverware at Silverstone, assisted no doubt by a slightly better break from the performance balancing.

It’s clear though that all four of the MC12s have potential to figure in the battles for points, podiums and more throughout this season.

Finally Nissan.  There was quiet (for the most part) fury from Nissan during and after Abu Dhabi.

SRT’s management were making less than veiled threats of withdrawal after a simply awful weekend, a total lack of ultimate performance, brought on almost entirely both teams say by an unjust and swingeing weight penalty.

The GT-Rs will all be at Silverstone but SRO must be keeping their fingers crossed for both a change of heart from Peter Wright and co and some points finishes (at least) from a GT-R or two.  The last thing the new Championship needs at this point is an influential manufacturer’s support wavering.

Peter Dumbreck, #23 Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R

““I did the Silverstone Half Marathon a few weeks ago, so I had the opportunity to do a very detailed track inspection!

“It will be interesting to get out there in the Nissan GT-R and see where we stand against the competition. The home race is always a big attraction and we will all have our family and friends there so we want to get the best possible result for them. Hopefully there will be a lot of home support for the team with three Brits.

”I only live 20 minutes from Silverstone so I regard it as my local circuit. It should suit our cars better than Yas Marina as there are not so many slow corners, but because it’s faster it will be important that the extra weight we were penalised with following the balance of performance tests in Abu Dhabi is corrected. There’s some revised sections at Silverstone that that will be new to all drivers, so it’s going to be interesting to see if the same cars are running at the front of the field.”

Here’s hoping that the men in white coats have been number crunching effectively.  This writer for one