Le Mans 24 Hours - Scrutineering Tuesday 3

Ferrari Folk Part 1 – ALMS Teams

Monday saw the three Porsche entries scrutineered in the Place des Jacobins but it was all about the opposition in a blisteringly hot Le Mans today.

All seven of the Ferrari 430 GTCs entered for the race were processed today, no problems for any of them have emerged and if ever there was a year that looked likely to see the dominance of Porsche challenged in GT2 it will surely be this year.

Eric van de Poele
“This is my first time here in a real GT car – I have raced in a Nissan R390 GT1 and the old IMSA GTX Nissan 300 ZX but this is really my first proper road car derived GT.

“At first I was a little worried about traffic but here in particular it’s not too bad, there are long straights so you can see the lights of the prototypes closing in and the visibility in the car is quite good too.  It’s trickier in the Porsche Curves where they can close in very fast but all in all I was very comfortable.  It really is going to be a shakedown though for the car after what has been a pretty major repair job after Tracy’s accident last weekend.

Jeff Hazell:
“The impact broke some of the major structure of the chassis and we’ve had some of our guys working at Michelotto to fix it all – everything forward of the engine was absolutely fine but everything back from there needed fixing or replacement.

As for the race to come Hazell had this to say on the team’s prospects for matching, or even bettering, their second in class finish last year:

“The more unsettled the weather the more unusual the result.  In 2006 Jorg crashed whilst fighting out on track.  If he’d kept his head he would have won easily. 

EvdP: “You have to keep up a rhythm.  Its not easy to do that but when you find that pace you need to have something in reserve to get extra speed if there is an advantage to be taken.  Repeating the lap times, aside form the obvious traffic issues, is really the key.

Mika Salo
“We’ve had a dreadful run in the ALMS and basically our title challenge there is over, we can’t seem to race without bad luck. But this is a different matter, it is one race and we want to win it.  This is my third year here and I want to finish and to win.  For me this is not about Ferrari vs Porsche, It’s not about Ferrari, or the team, its about us.  I prefer to think about our future and not about racing history.”

Jaime Melo
“In ALMS now our target is to win the remaining races.  We know that it is too much to ask for the cars ahead to all hit problems race after race but we want to win races. 

Gianmaria Bruni:
“I have a very busy year of course.  This is one of 17 races I have on my programme in 2008 with Le mans, the five Le Mans Series races with Virgo, Sebring and the 10 round FIA GT Championship with AF Corse.  Wit 10 or 12 das testing to add to that it’s a hard year but it’s exactly what I wanted at the start of the season.

“The best thing for me of course is being part of the Ferrari family, my job is to put Ferrari on top and all of the teams they have placed me with, Virgo, AF Corse and Risi, are excellent.

“I am particularly enjoying my Le Mans Series racing with Rob Bell.  We drive in a very similar way and we look pretty similar too!  Virgo is a really good team that has not forgotten how to act as a racing family and that is a good feeling.”

Steve Pruitt – Corsa Motorsport Owner (right)
“We’re having a look here this year to try out the lay of the land.

“As for our 2008 programme we’re reasonably happy.

“We got a whole lot from just a single day’s testing on the Dunlops but then we took a step back after everyone hit us at Miller. 

“We used our 07 car for Sebring and the early season street races to save the new car but then we had a bad time at miller and it has left us a lot of work to do.

“The Dunlops are coming on well and as the development rubber comes along we find ourselves at a different level again.  I also want to use my time this week to talk to Virgo and exchange our experiences, and see whether they have anything to say that could help us.