Le Mans Test Day – Saturday Conversations
Setting The Scene Romain Dumas is always good value, so let’s start with him. “The Le Mans 24 Hours will be my 12th consecutive weekend of racing. I was racing in the VLN last weekend, It’s the test day this weekend, the Nurburgring 24 Hours next weekend and then Le Mans.” We do admire these fellows who can jump from a Porsche Spyder to a 996 to a Pescarolo, back to a 996 again – and then back to a Pescarolo. The Frenchman was rather frustrated over the start of the recent ALMS race at Utah: having to stay off the throttle until the flag was waved (while others got a run on the front row men – the first three ended up seventh, eighth and ninth”), and then getting stuck behind Den Devlin in the Lola Mazda. While we’re on the subject of factory drivers, you’ll have seen that Mike Rockenfeller has been switched to the #2 Audi, for the test day at least, while Mattias Ekstrom is now in the #3, with Premat and Luhr. We’ll have to wait and see how that all pans out in race week, but perhaps the seven-times winner won’t be fit?  Jonny Kane is a factory driver too, and almost a Dutchman. “I had the printing done on the back last year, and the team seemed to enjoy it.”
The Irishman reckoned that the Spyker was quick though the Porsche Curves last year “but maybe lacked a bit of top speed. On the brakes and on cornering speed, we were very good.” There’s been some engine work done on the Spyker unit for this season, so we’ll see how the top speed stands up as a result. Chris Niarchos had a slightly different view of the Spyker’s performance. “Last year they were very nimble through the slower corners and changed direction like lightning.” On Porsche rivalry, last year, Niarchos suggested that “they were quicker than the Ferrari on the straights, but we were better on the brakes and through the Mulsanne Chicanes. I don’t know how that’s going to work out against them this year.” A feature we’re preparing with Risi race engineer Rick Mayer (below) led the man who has engineered the (Risi) Ferrari that took five ALMS GT2 races in a row to point out that the 2006 Porsche was considerably narrower than the (430) Ferrari, which helped to give it (the 996) its straight line speed advantage, “and the Porsche narrows at the back, to give better air flow to the rear wing. The Ferrari cockpit is wider too. But the 2007 Porsche has the wider, GT1 tyres, making the car wider.”
Mayer’s comments about the features of the Ferrari 430 were fascinating. We’ll bring you that feature in the coming days. Back to Chris Niarchos for a last comment, and he was pleased to point out to Le Mans new boy Allan Simonsen that “you’ll love it down the Mulsanne, flat out at 187 mph. Last year the Porsches edged past us on top speed.” Simonsen had a frustrating Australian GT meeting recently, his Ferrari hindered by ballast. Bo McCormick is present today: “I got the call yesterday to arrive today, because the Ice Pol Ferrari is the first reserve, and the team reckoned that four cars weren’t here yesterday.” We believe they all are today. Last comment on GT2 Ferraris: the AF Corse entry is the chassis owned by Joe Macari, and entered by JMB at Sebring. Macari is partnered by regular Ben Aucott, plus that well known Newey fellow from F1. Following up Piers Masarati’s wedding last week, we will, eventually, have a very funny Sam Hignett story to tell you regarding “the stolen breadmaker.” Back to the reality of running the Charouz Lola B07 / 10 Judd, and Hignett is of the view that “the balance of performance between diesels and petrols is six of one and half a dozen of the other. There isn’t a manufacturer pushing the development of a petrol car, and compared with what Audi has been doing, with countless hours of dyno work etc., that has to make a difference.” Our eagle-eyed spies tell us that the R10s were wheeled down to be scrutineered with an interesting cover over the rear wings of each of them. The covers were only removed so that the scrutineers could check them – then quickly covered up again. What has Audi got up is corporate sleeve? Antonio Garcia was his usual charming self, and suggested that “you need all three drivers to be at 100% when you’re competing at this level.”
Once Team Modena’s Rik Bryan (above) joined the conversation, we came to the conclusion that there are potentially ten winners in GT1. “We’ve got the best GT1 driver in the world,” he reckoned, looking at his Spanish star. The Team Modena DBR9 is clearly one of the ten: could they do it? It may take the yellow Corvettes and the green DBR9s to thrash each other to oblivion, “but anything is possible,” suggested Garcia. “I hope everything goes as well as it looks right now.” The 006 to 009 Aston Martins are all running the air conditioning system, but the Modena car isn’t. “We chose not to run it,” explained Rik Bryan. “We’ve gone for as solid and reliable as it can be, rather than adding something that we haven’t had time to test thoroughly.” Bryan made the point that “if the air conditioning stops in the race, a car will have to be fitted with the smaller restrictors,” which could be an interesting scenario, if it happens. At Chamberlain-Synergy, Hugh Chamberlain was in belligerent mood – on the subject of the teams having to move their tractor units out of the paddock, and then pay 300 Euros to park them on display to the public. “I don’t blame the people who run the race, I blame the people who run the circuit. They want us to take our tractor units out of the paddock, and then want us to pay 300 Euros to park it.” Chamberlain also made the point that the new hospitality paddock arrangements mean that team members (and their tyre men, getting to the tyre compound) have to make a huge diversion around the hospitality paddock to get to their garage. Martin Short was equally as annoyed about the 300 Euro fee: “I think it’s morally unacceptable that we should be charged to park our tractor units to make the show better.” Rollcentre, as it turns out, won’t be paying the fee. “Our tractor unit has been taken away by the local MAN dealer to carry out some work on it, and we won’t get it back until June 18.” Liz Halliday is happy to be back in a prototype, and she’s the senior driver on the del Bello team. Petrov has never driven at Le Mans, while Romain Iannetta hasn’t raced a prototype here. Liz will be teaching the Russian the way round the 13 km track. The Bruichladdich Radical LMP2 plan for tomorrow is that “Stuart (Moseley) will do a couple of installation laps, then I’ll do my ten laps,” says Tim Greaves. “Then we’ll work on set-up. We’ve go some new Dunlops to try, and we’ve got a lot of set-up options to work on to optimise the car for the three drivers. We’re not interested in lap times tomorrow.” And without worrying too much about a broad spectrum of comments across the classes, there we are for now, until the action starts in the morning.
MC
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