FIA GT Championship, Silverstone - Preview
Similar But Different

14 GT1s, four G2s and 12 GT2s comprise the grid for the opening round of the 2008 FIA GT Championship, and with GT3s and GT4s filling out the schedule on the Grand Prix track (plus two Ferrari series), there will be GT cars galore at the home of British motorsport this weekend.

The entry has a different feel to it this year – but there are other changes to the format of the events for 2008. Most of them stick to the two hour pattern, the exceptions being Spa-Francorchamps (24 hours, of course) and Bucharest (two x 1 hour). Saturday’s race at Bucharest is called a qualifying race, and no points will be scored: it will simply set the grid for Sunday’s race. The standard, one hour, race format will be used, a driver having to be at the wheel for a minimum of 25 minutes.

In the two hour races, cars still have to stop twice, but a driver change is not required at both stops. The minimum driving time per driver is 35 minutes. No doubt the teams will be looking for clever ways to circumvent the rules – but the odd methods they came up with in 2007, such as stopping to get a pit stop out of the way as the rest of the field started the race, were ruled out last year anyway.

GT2
No Gigawave Aston Martin, so it’s Ferrari against Porsche again, nine 430s against three 997s. Eight of the GT2 cars are running Michelin rubber, the four Pirelli entries comprising the Trackspeed Porsche, the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari and the two BMS Ferraris.

AF Corse was utterly dominant in 2007, but don’t expect that pattern to continue… The Toni Vilander / Dirk Mueller entry (#50 last year) becomes Vilander / Gianmaria Bruni this season, so that’s every bit as strong, but Christian Montanari / Thomas Biagi in #51 might show the odd chink. We’d expect Montanari to be the dominant partner in that car.

Strong pairings are ready to take advantage this year, in ways that they couldn’t in 2007 – the #56 CR Scuderia entry, for example. Andrew Kirkaldy was the traditional pole sitter in the 2006 Championship, and in Rob Bell he’s got a partner every bit as quick, and another renowned Ferrari man too. Kirkaldy, in one of the Scuderia Ecosse cars in recent years, ran on Pirellis last year, and wasn’t typically in contention for the fastest qualifying time: back on Michelins, in the new Chris Niarchos-led team, Kirkaldy and Bell will be wanting for nothing in their quest to snatch the title from AF Corse.

Rob Bell is quietly confident: “As it’s our first FIA GT race of the season we will be looking to make our mark and we are very much going out there to win. Andrew and I drove together at Nogaro last year and achieved a podium together so we know we can do it. Now we just need to get down to work and get the job done.”

Andrew Kirkaldy is looking forward to all of his team management duties “taking a back seat during the FIA GT weekends, so that I can concentrate on driving and extracting the best out of the car.”

But there’s far more to GT2 than the pairs of cars from AF Course and CR Scuderia (whose #55 will be raced by the familiar pair of Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos). BMS Scuderia Italia has a two car Ferrari entry, and the third of the two-car Ferrari teams also has a very strong lead car: Matteo Malucelli and Paolo Ruberti share the #77, with Joel Camathias and Davide Rigon in #78. The 2008 Pirelli tyres have been impressive so far: will they allow the Pirelli men to take the fight to the Michelin runners at every event, or just some of them?

The final Ferrari entry that is likely to be in contention for the championship is the lone (for now) Scuderia Ecosse 430, Stewart Roden doing his own thing this year – and having the joys of Jamie Davies and Fabio Babini in his #62 car. They’ve been going very well in testing.

Kessel Racing’s entry features 2007 GT3 Champion Henri Moser (with Fabrizio Del Monte), while the Advanced Engineering (third AF Corse) car features a couple of unknowns from Argentina.

ProSpeed Competition steps up as Porsche’s factory supported team this year, and you couldn’t ask for a stronger pairing than Emmanuel Collard and Richard Westbrook. From what we’ve seen elsewhere this year, the Ferrari still has the edge on the (new) Porsche: will that apply in FIA GTs too? Markus Palttala in the second ProSpeed entry is likely to be every bit as quick as Collard and Westbrook, while Richard Williams in the Trackspeed entry will be very quick if the Pirellis work as well on the 997 as they seem to have done on the 430.

2008 is set to be a cracking GT2 season: it definitely won’t have that one-sided feel to it that made 2007 an AF Corse benefit.

G2
There are four entries at Silverstone – two Moslers from the new Go To One team, the Bratislava Saleen and the regular Vertigo – so at last there’s the prospect of some real racing in this class.

GT1
There’s a nice balance to the GT1 entry: three Maseratis, three Aston Martins, three Corvette C6.Rs (and a C5-R) and two Saleens comprise the bulk of the competitive part of the entry, but don’t discount the lone Lamborghini, particularly when Peter Kox is driving.

The C5-R and the Ferrari 550 will probably be making up the numbers, although there’s a fast driver to be found in each.

The newcomers this year are the second Phoenix Racing Corvette C6.R, the SRT C6.R and (after just one appearance as a Gigawave entry late last year), the British-entered Aston Martin DBR9.

Kumpen and Longin switch from Corvette C5-R to Saleen S7R, while Larbre Competition also runs a Saleen (in place of last season’s DBR9s).

Stability is provided by the Vitaphone Maseratis, in particular the #1 car for Bartels and (the returning) Bertolini.

Unknowns are provided by just about every team in the 14 car entry. For example:
- Xandy Negrao in the #2 Maserati
- Christophe Bouchut in SRT’s new #3 C6.R Corvette
- Kumpen and Longin in an S7R on Pirellis
- Vosse and Franchi in Jack Leconte’s S7R
- Simonsen getting his first chance in a GT1 car, the Gigawave Aston Martin
- Alex Muller in the second Jetalliance DBR9
- Wolfgang Kaufmann in the Russian-backed AT Racing C5-R.

So perhaps the advantage this early in the season will go to the tried and tested combinations? If so, look for the #1 Vitaphone Maserati, the Fassler / Deletraz and Hezemans / Gollin Corvettes or the Wendlinger / Sharp Aston Martin to take the opening race of the season. Of course any number of factors could make that a daft prediction, not least the changeable weather conditions that are likely at Silverstone in April.

Saturday practice sessions (80 minutes each) begin at 09.00 and 11.30, with qualifying at 17.15 and the race at 12.15 on Sunday. The UK TV schedule is due to be announced this week.