FIA WEC/ALMS, 12 Hours of Sebring - Friday Afternoon Quotes

Bryan Sellers – Falken Porsche  “For the race, reliability is not an issue.  We have a Porsche and you never have an issue with reliability when you race a Porsche.  Right now, we’re struggling to get a good balance on the car.  The new Porsche was developed to address what was seen as some weaknesses.  The old car struggled with understeer when using Michelin tires, which are used on most of the Porsches in the world.  Our Porsche, with the Falken tires tends more towards oversteer, so we’re struggling so far.  Porsche doesn’t half ass cars – this car is much better than what we had, we just need to find a way to use it.”

“You’ll probably hear about patience being a key to the race here.  That’s not right.  Yes, it’s about managing traffic, but when you’re patient, you lose a lot and you can put yourself in danger.  You need to be both smart and aggressive in traffic.”

Dominik Farnbacher – Luxury Racing Ferrari  “The car was really good, finally.  We struggled with serious snap oversteer all through the practices.  The team finally found that the ride height was way too low.  The body was actually hitting against the chassis but we could not feel that in the car. They raised it up and pow!, it was good. I had no clutch at all during qualifying.  I thought I was not going to be able to get out of the pit at first.  I think my last lap was even going to be faster but the team called me in.  We will have to replace the clutch for the race. But the car really good to drive and has nice balance.  My goal is to set the car up so it is comfortable for the amateur drivers.  That’s how you get a win in this class; get the amateurs on pace.”
 
Gianmaria Bruni – AF Course  “It ended up very good, but the start was not so good. On lap 2 I was really on it, and I completely lost the car in the last corner.  I nearly crashed it.  I recovered and motored around for two laps to make sure I hadn’t ruined the tires.  So I went after it again and was able to get a really good lap.”  When asked what tire choice they used for qualifying, Bruni responded with a grin, “Michelins, black and round.”  He would not, could not tell us what compound they decided to use.
 
Jamie Melo - Luxury Racing  “It was a good run.  We were close.  Our strategy was to go out on hard tires and I think that will pay off in the race.  Maybe on a softer compound we could have qualified a little quicker.  It takes a while for the harder Michelins to come in, but when they do they are good for the whole stint.  If I would have stayed out longer maybe could’ve got a better lap but the decision was made to come in and save them for the race.  So I’m happy with that and think our car will be very good for the race.”
 
Stephan Sarrazin – Starworks HPD  “With the red flag I really only got in two flying laps.  I should have pushed harder a little sooner, but we didn’t know we would lose so much of the session to a red flag. But our car is good for the race.  It is very quick and easy to drive.”
 
Klaus Graf – Muscle Milk HPD  “We didn’t work on qualifying set up at all during practice.  With that in mind I’m pretty happy with our time.  We had a really good night session where we found some more speed in the car.  So to be this close to the Audis, and quickest out of the rest of the P1 class is really all you can ask for. We’ll just see during the race how far they car run on fuel and try to keep it close.  But we have to keep it all in perspective as the ALMS championship is our priority.”

RW & GH