IMSA BoP "an embarrassing waste of time" - Di Resta



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Get alerts By: Jamie Klein, News Editor
2018-03-18


United Autosports driver Paul di Resta has described the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's Prototype class Balance of Performance system as an "embarrassing waste of time".

Di Resta and teammates Phil Hanson and Alex Brundle - standing in for an unwell Bruno Senna - finished fifth in Saturday's Sebring 12 Hours, and second among the LMP2 contingent.
IMSA operates a BoP system to allow LMP2s to race against the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) cars in the same class, based around the theoretical performance of the fastest LMP2 car.
But in both the Rolex 24 at Daytona season opener and at Sebring, the DPi cars have held a decisive advantage in qualifying and race trim.
DPi entries swept the top 10 in qualifying for Sebring, and locked out the podium in the race with the #22 ESM Nissan Onroak taking the win ahead of two Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, the #10 car of Wayne Taylor Racing and the #31 of Action Express Racing.
Ex-Formula 1 driver di Resta, making only his second sportscar racing start at Sebring, believes IMSA must urgently address the disparity between the DPis and LMP2s.

“Overall a satisfying result – fifth, and on the lead lap, is a decent result taking into account that currently it is totally impossible to race against the DPi cars," he said.
"The Balance of Performance is an embarrassing waste of time – IMSA must get it sorted if they want teams from Europe to head here.”
United owner and McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown echoed di Resta's sentiments, saying the LMP2 teams "cannot currently compete" against their DPi rivals with the rules as they are.
“I’m extremely proud of our team’s performance but it’s abundantly clear that the LMP2 class cars are in another category [compared to DPi]," said Brown.
"LMP2 cars cannot currently compete on development and subsequent pace. We are racing with the hope the DPi cars are unreliable. We didn’t have the speed to race them here.”
United is only entered for the four Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races of the 2018 IMSA schedule, and will make its next appearance at Watkins Glen at the start of the July.

 

Vautier on Sebring shunt: “The wall came to me pretty quickly”

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By: David Malsher, US Editor
2018-03-18


Spirit of Daytona driver Tristan Vautier has admitted to the error that caused the polesitting #90 Cadillac to pound the wall on the exit of the final turn in yesterday’s Sebring 12 Hours.

The former IndyCar driver had emerged from the pits with less than two hours to go, looking a likely contender for the podium.
However, while fiddling with switches in the cockpit, he skated wide exiting the final turn and struck the wall hard enough for the rebound to send the DPi-V.R three feet into the air.
The Troy Flis-owned team had recovered from a drive-through penalty and appeared to have the fastest of the Cadillacs in the closing stages, at least when Vautier was at the wheel. However, after solid stints from Matt McMurry and Eddie Cheever III, Vautier had just taken the wheel for a 105-minute run to the checkered when he made an error on cold tires.
“It started from the beginning of the out lap,” explained Vautier. “I flat-spotted a tire because I was too impatient trying to change a switch on the car. When I got to Turn 17, I locked up a bit.

“I didn’t feel as though I was as wide as I was, but when I realized my left side tires were in the marbles, I tried to get on the gas. But once you’re in the marbles, it’s like ice, and the wall came to me pretty quickly.
“I’m very sorry for the guys, because it was a big crash and it will take a lot of work to repair. But my hat is off to the entire team, they gave us an amazing car today. Our pace was good and the car was good throughout the entire race. I’m just sorry it ended like that.”
McMurry added: “We thought we could get a podium. The team did a great job getting the car ready despite mechanical issues early in the weekend. We held our pace throughout the race and kept the car in the top five, just getting ready for the final push. The car ran flawlessly the entire race, which makes it that much more disappointing.”
Flis, who also saw his car retire in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, said: "It’s a heartbreaker. We had a great car all weekend and our car ran great the entire day, so thanks to everyone at Cadillac.
“We’ve had a tough start to the year, but I know that’s racing, where there are super highs and super lows. This team is strong and we’ll be back to fight another day.”

 

[h=2]Vautier explains Sebring crash[/h] Sunday, 18 March 2018


By RACER Staff / Image by Marshall Pruett


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Tristan Vautier took responsibility for the brutal crash that ended Spirit of Daytona Racing's hope for a good finish at Sebring, admitting his impatience led to a series of events that caused the shunt with less than two hours to go in the race.

Vautier, who put the No. 90 Cadillac DPi-V.R on pole with a new Sebring track record, started the race and led the opening 14 laps. Vautier, Matt McMurry and Eddie Cheever lll had overcome a drive-through penalty for contact that spun Juan Pablo Montoya's Penske Acura in the early hours and appeared ready to challenge for the win.
Vautier took the reins from McMurry just before 9:00 p.m., and on cold tires on his out lap from pit lane, got into the marbles in Turn 17 and made hard contact with the tire wall with just 105 minutes remaining.
"It started from the beginning of the out lap," Vautier explained. "I flat spotted a tire because I was too impatient trying to change a switch on the car. When I got to Turn 17, I locked up a bit. I didn't feel as though I was as wide as I was, but when I realized my left side tires were in the marbles, I tried to get on the gas.
"But once you're in the marbles, it's like ice, and the wall came to me pretty quickly. I'm very sorry for the guys, because it was a big crash and it will take a lot of work to repair. But my hat is off to the entire team, they gave us an amazing car today. Our pace was good and the car was good throughout the entire race. I'm just sorry it ended like that."
Team owner Troy Flis praised the strength of the team despite the "heartbreaker" of a finish.
"We'd just made our last driver change and had it scheduled to make two more stops and we could make it to the end," Flis said. "I feel badly for Tristan, because he knew he had a good car. All the drivers did a great job – Tristan was great in qualifying, Matt did great saving fuel even though we all know how hard it is to tell drivers to slow down, and Eddie put in some great laps mid-race. It was a huge, deep effort from the entire team.
"I feel badly for the crew as well, because they did such a great job of putting their heads down, going out there and making it happen. We've had a tough start to the year, but I know that's racing, where there are super highs and super lows. This team is strong and we'll be back to fight another day."
Said Cheever: "Everyone was performing so well – the team, the drivers, everything was good. But when you have just over an hour to go and you are pushing to the maximum, that can happen. It's a bummer for the team because we really wanted to fight for a podium until the end."

 

[h=1]Porsche boss hails “perfect” run to victory at Sebring[/h]

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By: David Malsher, US Editor
2018-03-18


[h=2]Pascal Zurlinden, Porsche’s director of GT factory motorsports said that Sebring 12 Hours victory in GTLM was down to a faultless run by the drivers and the team with a car that was “not the fastest over a lap.”[/h] Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki clinched the win just 6.2sec ahead of one of the BMW M8s, while Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Gianmaria Bruni overcame an off-track excursion to take third.
Porsche, which has 18 outright victories at Sebring Raceway as well as 71 calss wins, saw Vanthoor’s #912 Porsche 911 RSR hit the front of the class, while Makowiecki would later lead the race in the #911 car for two hours.
With less than two hours to go, Patrick Pilet pitted from the lead and Tandy drove the final stints, dueling with Alexander Sims in the BMW until breaking his challenge and pulling away.
Meanwhile Bruni, who’d caused a yellow flag by tearing off his rear diffuser and rear valance by straddling a curb, had his car quickly repaired and he and his co-drivers inched back up the leaderboard to reach the top three.
“It’s a great achievement to score two podium spots at Sebring,” said Zurlinen. “The secret was our consistency and the fact that we didn’t make one mistake. We may not have been the fastest over a lap, but over the distance the drivers and the entire team put in a perfect performance.


“Even when we had to repair the #912 car in the pits, we pulled out all stops to get the car back up the front. Today was a great day for Porsche.”
Pilet agreed with his boss’s assessment, saying: “The pit crew didn’t make one mistake and our strategy was perfect. To celebrate this achievement with my friends Nick and Fred is incredible. After the qualifying, victory seemed a long way off. But when you’re determined to achieve something and you go for it, you can do it. This race is proof of that.”
Tandy added: “They say that the best victories come from the toughest races. Today was such a race. We didn’t have the slightest problem over the entire distance and that was the key to our success.
“My last two stints were incredibly intense, especially the duels with the [Risi Competizione] Ferrari and the BMW. We switched to new tires during the last pit stop – after that, nothing could hold us back.”
“That was one of my greatest successes,” said Makowiecki. “Sebring is my all-time favorite race in the USA and we knew that we’d only have a chance if we as a team didn’t make any mistakes. It was a really tough race, but that makes this victory all the more special.”

 

IMSA’s GTLM field “better balanced now,” says BMW boss



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By: David Malsher, US Editor
2018-03-19


Following the M8's pole position and runner-up finish in the Sebring 12 Hours, BMW boss Jens Marquardt says IMSA’s Balance of Performance for GT Le Mans is now better than in the season-opening Rolex 24.

Connor De Phillippi scored pole position in the #25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-run M8 GTE, and he, Alexander Sims and Bill Auberlen finished the race just 6.2sec behind the class-winning Porsche 911 RSR.
By contrast, at the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the BMWs qualified eighth and ninth in class and even before hitting trouble, offered no opposition to the victorious Ford GTs.
Since Daytona, however, the BMW has been granted a boost increase to its twin-turbo 4-liter V8, it has lost 44lbs (20kg) of weight and its fuel capacity has been increased by two liters – changes that Marquardt unsurprisingly endorses.
He said: “We have seen another exciting and extremely tough 12-hour race here at Sebring – and we can take many positives back home. Congratulations to BMW Team RLL and our BMW Motorsport crew on the maiden podium finish for our new BMW M8 GTE.
“Far more important than the result are two other findings. On the one hand, the BMW M8 GTE was able to show its potential, which is underlined by the fact we recorded pole position and the fastest race lap.
“On the other hand, the GTLM field was far better balanced than it was at Daytona. The fans saw a thrilling race with close battles and excitement to the very last lap. This is what we all want. We are now looking forward to the upcoming races.”
Aside from a brake change during a caution period that saw the #25 BMW just fail to exit the pits in time to avoid going down a lap, the team encountered no major hitches and smart strategy got the team back on the lead lap, and into the top group.


Sims then took the fight to Tandy after the final two restarts, only falling away in the final 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, the #24 BMW of Jesse Krohn, Nicky Catsburg and John Edwards retired in the final hour but had claimed fastest GTLM lap of the race as early as the opening hour.
“After Daytona, this has been a much more competitive race for us,” said team co-owner Bobby Rahal. “Naturally when you are that close you are disappointed not to win. But if you look at the big picture, we made a lot of progress.
“It’s been a lot of hard work put in by a lot of people. I’m just pleased we are able to bring home a second place. This is a pretty good Sebring.”
De Phillippi said: “This whole weekend has been super memorable for me: first pole as a BMW works driver, and our first podium position for the new BMW M8 GTE. I’m very proud of the guys. They deserve this one.”
“It was very nice to be in the hunt for the win,” added Sims. “The fight with Nick Tandy was fun. Ultimately they turned on the pace a lot in the last stint, so I couldn’t catch him really. Second place is pretty good.
“The BMW M8 GTE was working well, BMW Team RLL did a great job. We are in the mix now.”

 

[h=1]Mazda now "ready" to fight for IMSA wins, says Tincknell[/h]

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By: Gary Watkins, Journalist
Yesterday at 1:09pm


[h=2]The Joest Mazda team believes it is ready to start winning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races after challenging for the victory deep into last weekend's Sebring 12 Hours.[/h] Mazda Team Joest driver Harry Tincknell made the claim after he and team-mates Jonathan Bomarito and Spencer Pigot were deprived of a shot at the win in Sebring when the car failed to restart at its final pitstop.
"That performance proves we are ready to start winning races," Tincknell told Motorsport.com. "We didn't expect even to be in contention for a podium, but going into the final stages we definitely had a chance of going for the win.
"We were set up for the end of the race — it would have been maximum attack over the final laps."
Joest team boss Ralf Juttner suggested that it would have been difficult for Tincknell to overcome race leader Pipo Derani in the winning ESM Onroak-Nissan DPi, but he said that he was happy with the pace of the RT24-P over the full distance of the race.
"The speed was good throughout — I thought we might suffer in the heat during the day, but we were surprisingly good in all conditions," he said.


There was no repetition of the engine problems that hit Mazda at the Rolex 24 at Daytona IMSA opener in January and last month's pre-Sebring test.
Tincknell had moved the car up from fourth before two quick-fire safety cars at the end of the 11th hours to second position ahead of the final round of pitstops with just over 40 minutes left.
Three minutes were lost getting the car going, which dropped Tincknell and his teammates Spencer Pigot and Jonathan Bomarito to sixth.
Two problems combined to prevent a regular getaway. A clutch issue had been forcing the Mazda drivers to leave the pits on the starter motor, but a falling battery charge — another on-going problem — precluded that.
The second Mazda finished 10 laps behind in eighth position after losing time when the right-hand brake caliper needed changing after a freak failure of a seal on the bleed nipple.
Oliver Jarvis, who shared the #77 car with Tristan Nunez and Rene Rast, subsequently set fastest race lap.

 

[h=1]Is Acura Team Penske ready to beat IMSA's established stars?[/h]

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By: David Malsher, US Editor
Yesterday at 3:39pm


[h=2]The potential of Acura’s DPi is obvious: cutting-edge design, a strong engine, Penske in charge of operating the cars and an all-star driver lineup. Small wonder, then, that wins are expected sooner rather than later.[/h] Roger Penske’s latest foray into sportscar racing is still just three races old. There was the “warm-up” at Petit Le Mans last October, in which The Captain’s crew members reacquainted themselves with IMSA’s regulations and the specific demands of this branch of the sport.
Using a single Oreca-Gibson V8, and the talents of Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud behind the wheel, the result was pole position and a third-place finish.
By then, testing had also begun with the Oreca-based Acura ARX-05s, which have been blessed with HPD’s 3.5-liter twin-turbo engines, and fulltime lineups of Castroneves/Ricky Taylor (car #7) and Montoya/Dane Cameron (#6). Pagenaud and Graham Rahal are the third men for the endurance races.
For the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Penske-Acuras qualified second and 10th, but suffered major setbacks that led to them finishing only ninth and 10th, 15 laps behind the winner. At last weekend’s Sebring 12 Hours, the pair started third and sixth, both looked at least podium contenders, but then both retired.
Motorsport.com caught up with Penske team manager Kyle Moyer to get his view on the Acura Team Penske story so far, and find out what he’s expecting from the remainder of 2018.
DM: I realize you probably can’t go into specifics, but what can you tell us about the DNFs at Sebring last Saturday?
KM: We’re still diagnosing the issues but they were both motor failures – and it’s really strange because we haven’t had motor problems at all up to now. We’ve done a lot of testing since way back in October, and a lot of our tests weren’t about car handling – they were just about putting laps and laps and laps on the car.
The drivers were yelling and screaming at us because we were making them double-stint tires to get more laps! And we’ve never really had to do anything to the engine. We’ve modified an ECU as things progressed, things like that, but nothing with the motor itself.
So to have those issues at Sebring wasn’t something we expected at all. The motor that ran Daytona in the #7 car, we took that motor down to Sebring for the test in February, and put another 1100 miles on it! Now we’ll have to work out what went wrong and why. What I can tell you is that the problems with both cars were the same…
So it was pure coincidence that Montoya’s Acura received a whack up the backside from another car just before it died?
Yeah, our #6 car was perfect going through Turn 7 and then going through 10, it decided to do exactly what happened to the #7.
In terms of pace, the Acuras have looked on it. What’s your perspective on IMSA’s current Balance of Performance equations for the Prototype class?
I think if you look at Sebring, the BoP was great, they’ve done a fantastic job. You’re really looking at four areas – horsepower and driveability off the corner, straightline speed, downforce level and fuel mileage. And I think they nailed it – no one was strongest across all four aspects.
The only thing that stood out for me was that the red cars [Mazdas] seemed to be able to go four or five laps longer than everyone else in each stint… but on the other hand, it’s good to see them up at the front now. I think IMSA helped them get to where they need to be, so at Sebring every manufacturer in Prototypes had a chance to win, which is what the aim is.
Given the vast difference between Daytona and Sebring, and the fact the Acuras were fast at both, would that indicate you’ll be strong everywhere? Or is there a particular type of track that you think that will favor your cars?
Long Beach will be all about qualifying and I think we’ve got some top guns in the cockpit for getting the job done there – they all know their way around there, so that’s good.
To your point about tracks suiting the car, though, I think Mosport and Mid-Ohio. We don’t exactly have the legs that others have down the straights, but I think the real technical tracks – difficult tracks where there’s a lot of turning back and forth – I think that in terms of maximizing our car, we have the drivers to do that.
Have you identified areas where you think the Acura is already the best?


I thought at Daytona we were quick in the slow corners, the infield, so although we lacked some straightline speed, we made up for it OK. And we worked hard at getting the cars good for the Bus Stop chicane, too, so we could carry as much speed as possible onto the straights – or rather, the oval section. That made it hard for someone to get a run on us, even if we lacked top speed.
At Sebring… I don’t know. I think everyone stepped up their game, the opposition have some good drivers and it’s a difficult series to stand out in; I don’t think anyone’s going to do that this year.
Have you had any problems reminding the ex-IndyCar drivers on the Penske squad that this is endurance racing, and they shouldn’t always drive the hell out of the cars?
Ha! Well, Ricky and Dane have had to do a lot of teaching on that, and having someone like Simon for the endurance races is good because he’s done a lot of sportscar racing in the past – very successfully, too. But yes, we’ve had to rein in two of our boys pretty hard.
One of them seems to be getting it, but the other one seems to have a problem with a couple of cars out there at some time during a race. But overall they’re getting better and better at understanding the circumstances.
The problem is that sportscar racing has really changed, especially in Prototypes. As recently as last season, people were talking about endurance. This year, even at Daytona for the Rolex 24, it was flat-out for the first 14 hours, almost running qualifying laps, and it was only the last four or five hours that a couple of cars really broke free at the front.
That surprised Ricky and Dane, but it wasn’t such a big deal for Juan and Helio because they find going flat out at all times comes completely naturally! If you look back at Petit Le Mans when we ran the Oreca, I think all the teams were running quali laps for all 10 hours there, too. It’s a long race, but it’s still flat out from Lap 1.
Considering your crews have to perform, say, 15 stops in a 12-hour race, do you think operationally that Penske is right up with the best of the opposition already?
Hmmm… I’d say we’ve closed the gap since Daytona. We’re on par. Most of the time at Sebring we held our spots, didn’t lose anything, so we’re getting there. The thing is, you can practice and practice and practice – and our guys do – but race conditions are tougher.
At Daytona, each crew did 22 or 24 stops, and we got 11 or 12 of them in at Sebring before the cars retired, so we’re now getting practice in race conditions. So that’s the way to get better, to feel that pressure you get only in race conditions.
How about you guys on the pit wall – have you adapted to the very specific strategic demands and rules you have to deal with in IMSA?
Well, it’s very different to IndyCar. You’ve got the first pass around, the final pass around, and then this year the class split, which you need to be paying attention to. We saw a couple of guys get in trouble for doing it the wrong way, and that’s because it’s hard to keep on top of it.
I feel sorry for the GTLM and GTD teams because they’ve not only got to worry about their class leader and reacting to them, they’ve also got to keep an eye on what we’re doing in Prototypes as overall leaders. At least in Prototypes we know who the overall leader is and we know who we’re working against.
So is it more difficult to call than an IndyCar race? Yeah, because of all that. We have longer stints to think things through, yeah, but you still better be on your A-game because there’s a lot of things that can happen.
Fortunately, we’ve worked really hard on all that, we’ve gone through the rulebook and we’ve had a lot of debriefs and pre-race meetings, and in the three races so far, we’ve not had a penalty. That’s what we keep saying – go penalty free and we might have a shot at winning.
Are you confident that Acura Team Penske will be a winning team by the end of the year?
I hope so because that’s absolutely what’s expected of us – everyone at Acura and everyone at Penske expects it. That’s what we’re here to do and I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t. There’s nothing that stands out where I’d say, ‘we have a problem.’ So far we’ve just had little things here and there that we need to clear up in order to get into Victory Circle.
And did you have those expectations going into this project, or have they developed on account of how quick the Acura has been?
I don’t know if we expected that, but we certainly hoped that would be the case, and we’re always prepared to work hard at it. The Cadillacs were pretty dominant last year and we knew they’d be hard to catch. But two races in, a Cadillac wins Round 1, a Nissan wins Round 2, and I see no reason why an Acura can’t go to Long Beach and win.

 

Scuderia Corsa requires new chassis after Sebring crash

Tuesday, 20 March 2018

By Marshall Pruett (words and images)


1.2k Shares The heavy crash suffered by Scuderia Corsa's Frankie Montecalvo during the opening stint at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring will require a new chassis to replace the one that landed upside down in Turn 17.

Triggered by an aggressive passing maneuver by Sebastien Saavedra in a prototype, Montecalvo's No. 64 GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 was left with no room to avoid the spinning Ligier P217 and was subsequently flipped high into the air once car-to-car contact was made. Crashing down on the Ferrari's roof, Montecalvo emerged under his own power, but the car was too severely damaged to continue.

As a result, his Scuderia Corsa teammates Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler were unable to drive in the race, and a quick inspection of the 488's frame confirmed it met its end in Sebring's final corner.

"Frankie was a total innocent bystander in this situation with Saavedra," Bell told RACER. "We're less than 20 minutes into a 12-hour race, [Saavedra's] charging through like it's for the win, and Frankie had no options in front of him other than to get pulled into the crash. He finally came down from 10 feet in the air on the roof, which wasn't a pleasant experience for him, and it was hard enough that it maxed all the G meters on the car. So, we'll need to get a new chassis coming over from Michelotto and build a fresh car around it."

Repairing a crashed Ferrari will never be an inexpensive venture, although from Bell's description, there were a few aspects of the incident that fell in their favor.

"Most of the other expensive bits; the engine, transmission, suspension, and a lot of the stuff beneath the bodywork came out OK, so it could have been a lot worse in that regard," he added.

Bell hopes his next outing will involve more time behind the steering wheel.
"Our next scheduled event is the six-hour at Watkins Glen, but we're hoping to do a spring race or two before then – maybe Mid-Ohio, or who know – since we didn't get to stay very long at Sebring," he said. "I did a total of three laps the whole time I was there. One lap in practice, and two in night practice. I'll be ready to work if we can get through to my turn to drive next time out."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=g156o1Jqj94
Video at finish of Sebring 12 hours

Tequila Patron ESM Racing celebrates as Pipo Derani, Nicolas Lapierre and Johannes van Overbeek drive the No. 22 Nissan Onroak DPi to a 12-second win at the 2018 12 hours of Sebring.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=g1KdUh1oNXs
[h=1]RACER: Sebring Day & Night Comparison with Mazda's Oliver Jarvis[/h] 2,037 views




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Let the impassioned narration of Mazda Team Joest factory driver Oliver Jarvis convey the relentless approach required to lap Sebring's 3.7-mile road course through 12 punishing hours. Starting at 10:40 a.m. and concluding under cover of darkness at 10:40 p.m., Jarvis depicts the real-life environment found inside his Mazda RT24-P where anything less than maximum attack will lead to an unrewarding finishing position. so climb inside and ride with one of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's finest as he unlocks the secrets to his craft around one of the most harrowing circuits to navigate on the limit.