Sebring 12 Hours – Friday Morning Comments
Looking Back, Looking Forward

It’s busy here – so apologies if you’re waiting for news from the track (Europeans especially, with the time difference). This and much more to come.

With just one session today, we’re looking ahead to tomorrow’s race, plus back to that qualifying session. The forecast is for 86 degrees tomorrow – and it’s fine here today.

Paco the Chihuahua, 12 years old and a pet of our hosts Jim and Julie Freyler just three miles from the track, predicts Peugeot, Porsche in P2 and Porsche in GT2 to win: it’s a P thing apparently. P for Paco – and he does like to pee a lot.

Reflections from Tim Mayer, Doug Robinson and others to come, but what did they say after Thursday’s action?

Pedro Lamy: “The car feels good. It’s bumpy and we could have a little more grip, but it’s the same for everyone. The qualifying issues are not really a problem – it’s a long race.”

Ryan Briscoe: “ We don’t really have the pace here to beat the Audis, but the winter testing has paid off and all the drivers are happy with the car. We could do with a little more grip at the moment, having had better stability earlier in the week. We’re a little disappointed we didn’t get a proper qualifying run.”

Jorg Bergmeister: “We’ve made a big step forward with the car today. We’re working with a wider tyre and feel there’s more to come.”

Johnny Mowlem: “There will be an announcement tomorrow morning about our tyre situation.”

Marino Franchitti: “Butch just got out of the car at the end of the session and we’re very happy. We’re really pleased with the pace and the balance we’ve found – we’ve worked hard over the winter. It’s my first time here and I’m getting used to running in the dark – it’s good fun, though there’s some peculiar lighting situations at some points of the circuit; there are some places where the lights shine right at you! It’s a real shame we didn’t get to show our pace in qualifying.”

Tracy Krohn: “The thing about qualifying, although we didn’t qualify quite as high as we wanted to, is we’ve got a car we can race without changing anything. This is a race set-up and I think the team will be very pleased with it. I know all the drivers will be pleased with it, so I’m looking forward to that. We’ve tried several things all week long and it looks like we’ve finally got it ironed out. The car is going to be very manageable and very drivable."

Dirk Werner: ”I'm really happy with the qualifying. I think we showed what we (Farnbacher-Loles) are capable of and we showed that the Porsche has made a big step compared to 2007. It's very close in the qualifying and I think it will be close racing. I'm really looking forward to racing with all these good drivers – the factory [Porsche] drivers and the Ferrari drivers. Thanks to the team, the car was really great. They did a great job in developing the car to that point in only a few days."

Tony Dowe: "We are happy with how the cars performed today. I believe that qualifying was a good indication of how close this race will be. In fact, how close the competition this whole season will be."

Dominik Farnbacher: "Qualifying was very good. I liked it very much. This is the first weekend that I drove the Ferrari; it was good. I was a little nervous but I tried to get the best out of it. I just tried to be focused and drive smooth. The times for the first five were pretty tight. To be in the top five for my first time in this car I am proud. I want to thank the team for putting in so much effort and giving me such a good car."

Allan Simonsen: "We kept going faster and faster all the way through the day. We improved the car and put in a lap time that was extremely fast around here. Unfortunately, it is extremely close at the top as well so it only put us sixth. It is a long race and, as it turned out, qualifying was cancelled and we are going with our practice result which was fourth. It is going well. We are constantly within the top-six whatever session we have been in. We are concentrating more on trying to have a good race car than having a good qualifying car because it is quite a long race."

David Brabham: "Though it was a shame we didn't get to see how strong we could have been in qualifying, we do know that we've progressed a lot during the week. We never went for an ultimate lap time in practice because we were concentrating on race setup, so ninth place on the starting grid doesn't really reflect where we are. It's a long race and we'll treat it that way. We'll have a fresh set of tires on Saturday and we'll concentrate on getting through the traffic safely at the beginning, because it's going to be very busy for about five or six laps."

Duncan Dayton: "The car has been pretty good all week. We've been chasing the setup and trying different variations. The good news is we've got a great baseline setup from all the testing that we've been doing. We'll use the next practice session to experiment with finding more grip in various places. Going into qualifying today, we had a lot of good cues from what we learned that we put on the car. With this turn of events, we'll test the changes during night practice tonight. I have no doubt we'll be in good shape for the race."

Lou Gigliotti: “Right now we’re tuning everything together. We made great gains this morning, so we’re right in the hunt. The car has been indestructible so far. It’s been running like a clock. We don’t see any problems getting it to run 12 hours. We’re not going to be in contention for a win, but our goal is to finish the 12 hours and let the best come out of it.”

Ron Meixner: “Michelin has about 1 million laps ahead of us. Altogether we have about 250 laps on Kumho tires. I would say they’ve been very remarkable. We have another Porsche and even a Ferrari behind us on the grid. To compete for a victory right now in the first race would be not very realistic, but I think we’ll make a very strong showing. Porsche is very content and happy with our progress and so are we. It’s going to be a good result. “

“Uwe Alzen is a legend. He has won anything you can imagine. He will get the last out of the car that is possible. Nathan was our protégé in IMSA GT3 Cup a few years ago. He’s very smooth, very talented and very dedicated. Craig is an all around talent and is very good on the equipment, and that’s our strategy. Be smooth, good on the equipment and no troubles.”

Adrian Fernandez: “I think everybody is disappointed that we didn’t qualify, but it was a big crash and we are happy that Ben is okay. A big part of the preparation the past three days was to qualify and it would have been fun to at least have had five minutes to qualify. Now we have to change our focus to the race. We’ll go through our checklists and make sure that Luis and I are comfortable in the car. I have a good feeling that we will be fine for the race. It is a long and tiring race. We would like to improve our finish from last year and get to the top of the victory stand.”

Marco Andretti "This is incredibly disappointing because we’ve shown how quick the XM Satellite Radio Acura has been all week. I really think we would have gotten the LMP2 pole position, so I feel bad for the crew because that would have been a real boost for everyone. That being said, we have to understand that this is a 12-hour race and no one is going to win because they sat on the pole. We know that the XM Acura is very durable and we expect to make our way to the front very quickly.”

Oliver Gavin: "If the prediction for warmer temperatures during the race is accurate, we'll have to choose our tires wisely, whether we're running on hard, medium or soft compound Michelins. Corvette Racing has a great deal of experience here, so the engineers and drivers are familiar with how this circuit evolves over 12 hours – but it's such a long race that you never know what's going to happen. It's certain to be a long, hard-fought battle, and we're ready to go at it."

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich: "Qualifying was extremely short due to the accident. Not everybody was able to show its potential. That’s why the decision to use the times from the free practice sessions for the starting grid is okay. The forces are almost like we expected them to be. Peugeot is fast, but we have a very good car for the race and thus a good base for Saturday."

Dingo Capello: "We worked a lot since Monday on the car and have gradually improved it. We tried to make the car as easy as possible to drive as Sebring is such a difficult race and we have to get the car to handle consistently and easy for the driver. We are going in the right direction and know that Audi is well prepared. It is likely to be a classic endurance race and really interesting for the spectators."

Tom Kristensen: "It’s going to be a great race with a lot of manufacturers challenging us – a real dog-fight. We know our friends from France are very fast with the closed car while the LM P2 cars have a bigger petrol tank. If the race goes green for 12 hours they will have to stop three times less than us. So in that sense it’s going to be very exciting."

Lucas Luhr: "I’m very happy with the week so far. We’ve been among the fastest in all the sessions. It’s important to have a car for the race with which you come good through traffic – which means: you can drive any line. That’s what we are working on."

Mike Rockenfeller: "I did my first laps here only on Wednesday and felt comfortable immediately. Third position on the grid is okay. I’m looking forward to the race. We want to show and will show that the best cars are coming from Ingolstadt."

Marco Werner: "Of course we’d prefer to have both cars on the front row instead of starting third. But at Sebring it is always of great importance to work for the race. I hope that our time comes on Saturday. The race has always been Audi’s strong point."

Timo Bernhard: “I would have liked to capture the pole position by going faster than the other cars in the class, but starting fourth overall and first in class certainly beats starting at the back of the pack with no qualifying time.”