FIA WEC 2016 – Round 4 – 6 Hours of Nürburgring

no images were found

no images were found

WEC – Ferrari one-two at the 6 Hours of Nürburgring

Posted: 24.07.2016 / Source: Ferrari

no images were found

Nürburg, 24 July 2016 – At the Nürburgring, Round 4 of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the Ferrari 488 GTE and the AF Corse team erased the disappointment of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 488 GTE took the two top spots and, finally, James Calado broke the spell with a win in WEC. The British driver, teaming up with “Gimmi” Bruni (with his first win on the 488 GTE), succeeded also thanks to the strategy of the team and gave proof of his universally acknowledged high standards. Davide Rigon and Sam Bird finished in second place on car No. 71 culminating a great comeback race that saw them start in the third to last place on the grid.

GTE-Pro. In GTE-Pro class, Bruni was able to keep his fourth place at the start, while Davide Rigon started out in full attack mode, overtaking immediately all cars of the GTE-Am class and tailing the Porsche that brought the rear of the GTE-Pro group. Shortly after, the Italian driver managed to overtake Christensen too and began chasing the No. 66 Ford. The No. 95 Aston Martin in the lead kept gaining ground, while Bruni lacked the speed in the straight to challenge the No. 67 Ford. At this point, the AF Corse team chose to operate an undercut, stopping the 51 car slightly ahead of plan. James Calado took the wheel and climbed to second place, taking advantage of the troubles of the 67 Ford and of the great work of the mechanics. The two following pit stops took place in full course yellow mode, with the cars forced to travel at 80 km/h: Bruni completed a double stint during which he did a masterpiece overtake of the Aston Martin No. 95 to take first place, while car No. 71 went up to third place. Then, at the start of the last hour, Bird and Rigon took advantage of yet another full course yellow period to leapfrog the Aston Martin, which had stopped under green flag. This completed a great comeback that places them two points away from the top of the standings.

GTE-Am. In GTE-Am class, the 458 Italia GTE of AF Corse team driven by Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas (the only Ferrari in this class) had quite a complicated race. After starting in fourth place with Collard at the wheel, it found itself vying for first place two hours into the race with Perrodo at the wheel. However, at that very moment, the French driver ended in the sand at the Schumacher chicane and lost precious time. To make it even worse, there was a drive-through for speeding during a full course yellow period. However, late in the race, thanks to a great stint by Rui Aguas and yet another yellow flag, Collard, Perrodo, and Aguas were able to climb back to third place in the race won by the Aston Martin of Lamy-Lauda-Dalla Lana, thus confirming themselves solidly in the lead of the championship standings.

WEC – Rain scrambles qualifying at Nürburgring

Posted: 23.07.2016 / Source: Ferrari

no images were found

Nürburg, 23 July 2016 – Qualifying for the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Round 4 of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), starting tomorrow at 1 p.m., were chaotic and extremely difficult. The wet track and intermittent rain greatly complicated the task of drivers and teams. In GTE-Pro class, by the end of the 20-minute session, the Ferrari 488 GTE number 51 of AF Corse team secured fourth place with James Calado and Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni at the wheel, while its sister car, the number 71 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird, paid for a far-from-ideal choice of tyres and was relegated to seventh place. In GTE-Am class fourth place for the no. 83 AF Corse 458 Italia GTE driven by Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo who will be joined by Rui Aguas for the race.

GTE-Pro. In GTE-Pro class, James Calado and Davide Rigon started qualifying on cars 51 and 71 respectively. A few drops were still falling and the track was rather wet. James clocked 2’06”477, the second best time at that point. However, shortly after, some cars started coming into the pits for slick tyres as the track was drying quickly. In the meantime, Rigon recorded a time of 2’06”996 later improved to 2’06”371. Bruni came out of the pitlane with wet weather tyres still on, but did not even complete a flying lap and came in for slicks. The Italian driver went off the track immediately after coming out of the pits, but was able to come back on the track. This episode led the crew of car 71 to continue with wet weather tyres with Sam Bird too but this choice turned out to be too conservative. Bruni was fastest overall with a time of 1’58”548, however, there was no time to have Calado in the car again and the combined time was 2’02”512, fourth fastest. Bird was unable to do better than 2’07”120, which brought the combined time of car 71 to 2’06”745: seventh in class. No. 95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen took pole position.

GTE-Am. In GTE-Am class, Emmanuel Collard started the qualifying session on the no. 83 AF Corse 458 Italia and clocked 2’09”741. He then passed the controls to his teammate François Perrodo, who was able to stop the clock at 2’11”535. At this point, as the track was drying, the team sent Collard back to the track with slick tyres and he delivered an excellent 2’01”644. The combined time of 2’06”589 brought the car to fourth place in the standings led by no. 88 Porsche of Abu Dhabi Proton Racing team driven by Patrick Long, Khaled Al-Qubaisi, and David Heinemeier-Hansson.

WEC – Bird and the 488 aerodynamics/span>

Posted: 22.07.2016 / Source: Ferrari

no images were found

Nurburg, 22 July 2016 – Sam Bird invite us to the AF Corse garage to show us some of the new aerodynamic features of his all-new Ferrari 488 GTE ahead of Round 4 of the FIA WEC, World Endurance Championship at the Nurburgring.

Two-time winner. The Ferrari 488 GTE no. 71 has already won two races this season in Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.

Five more races. There are two free practice sessions scheduled for Friday at 12 and 16.30, while qualifying will be on Saturday at 14.15 with the 6 Hours of Nurburgring to start at 13 on Sunday. Five more races will follow this season, in Mexico (3 September), United States (17 September), Japan (16 October), China (6 November) and Bahrain (19 November).

WEC – Three Ferrari crews on track at 6 Hours of Nurburgring

Posted: 21.07.2016 / Source: Ferrari

no images were found

Nurburg, 21 July – The World Endurance Championship (WEC) resumes with its fourth round on the short track at the Nurburgring, just over a month after the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

GTE-Pro. Two AF Corse 488 GTEs will be on track in the GTE-Pro class. The Piacenza based team needs to put the disappointment of the 24 Hours of Le Mans behind it and get back to the route plan of the first two races of the season, both won by car no. 71 of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon, who presents the round in this video. The pair are second in the drivers’ standings and at the Nurburgring will be endeavouring to retake the first position they held until Le Mans. Ferrari is itself second among the manufacturers. James Calado and Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni, crew of 488 GTE no. 51, are even thirstier for revenge after a very complicated start to the season.

GTE-Am. Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas are in a much stronger position in the GTE-Am class where they are competing at the wheel of the 458 Italia no. 83 of AF Corse. The trio, on the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and first among the WEC permanent entries, hold a 38-point lead over David Heinemeier-Hansson and Khaled Al-Qubaisi in a Porsche and have more than twice as many points as Mathias Lauda, Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana in an Aston Martin.

Programme. Free practice sessions are on Friday while qualifying in the GT class will be at 2:15 pm on Saturday. The race is due to start at 1 pm on Sunday. Ferrari has chalked up over 60 previous victories at the Nurburgring, in its various configurations. Piero Carini was the first winner, driving a 340 America in 1952. The most recent success happened last week with the 458 Italia of NGK Spark Plug by Racing One of Mike Jager, Christian Kohlhaas and Stephan Kohler in the VLN Endurance championship.