ELMS: 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring Preview

[Akra]

Just trying out something new before I launch a new project. Comments welcome.

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» 36 Cars on the entry list. 13 cars make up a very healthy LMP2 field, 17 LMP3 entries and a thin but high quality 6 GTE-Am entries are due to take the start.

» SMP return to the series with a Dallara P217. Piloting the car will be Formula V8 3.5 drivers, Egor Orudzhev and Matevos Issakyan.

» Gustavo Yacaman replaces Franck Matelli in the #40 Graff Racing car. He joins James Allen (no not that James Allen) and Richard Bradley for Monza.

» Ryo Hirakawa is racing in the SuperGT Championship this weekend. His seat in the #22 G-Drive Racing Oreca will be taken by DragonSpeed sporting director, Nicolas Minassian.

» Ligier factory driver and all-round superstar Olivier Pla will replace David Zollinger in the #28 IDEC Sport Ligier JSP217 for the remainder of the season. With Pla at the wheel, the IDEC Ligier might upset some champion contenders during races.

» Tockwith Motorsport return from a difficult WEC race at the Nurburgring. The car retains the Gulf colours for the rest of the 2017 season.

» Although the class size remains the same, there is an additional Norma M30 scheduled to start at the Red Bull Ring. Duqueine Engineering have swapped one of their Ligier JS P3s for a Norma, raising the number to 3.

» JMW will run the new Ferrari 488 GTE in the European Le Mans Series for the first time. The car made it's debut at Le Mans, replacing the aging 458. It is the first time since 2011 that there will be no Ferrari 458 on the ELMS grid.

» Larbre Competition will not race at the Red Bull Ring. After a single race at Monza in preparation for Le Mans, the team has opted not to return to the series.

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

Awesome article! Thank you!!!
I still need to watch Silverstone and Paul Ricard. Have downloaded them, but geocaching and real life motorsport is taking too much time.
I will attend Spa, it's something I'm looking for since last year.

JMW already are ultrafast. I hope this doesn't become boring too soon in GT. Well, or last year repeats itself...
Funnily enough, I had a nice chat with Andrea Bertolini about their pace and the strategy. We both had very similar thoughts. And then the car broke down.

 

[Kasti]

Sadly in Europw we only have the restricted LMP2`s. Wish we have the DPI rules... than we can put those LMP1 battery cars into the litter.

 

[Akra]

ELMS has absolutely flourished under the LMP2 regs. I'd rather not see DPi introduced to what is an already oversubscribed grid. Remember ELMS is a feeder series to the WEC, not a top series in its own right.

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

I'm glad the waste ans pollute car nation sticks to their continent. ELMS with LMP2 and LMP3 is fantastic to watch without marketing crap from the states.

 

[Akra]

I'll be honest, I like them all. LMP1-H is a fantastic display of technology, and anyone who enjoys technology should ADORE the LMP1-H cars.

LMP2 is a brilliant level for Pro-Am teams to get in, and ELMS gives them the chance to race for overall victories in a series.

DPi addresses issues in the US, where there simply isn't the budget to run full development factory cars, but factories don't want to just run DPs and LMP2s. So DPi fits.

I genuinely don't think any are better or worse than the other. Some might be more sustainable than others, but that's it. They address different markets and have different targeted audiences. DPi in ELMS would be bad for the series. LMP1-H in IMSA would be a non-starter. Right now, apart from the low health in LMP1, I'm very happy with the state of sportscar racing. So much so I'm launching a new site soon!

 

[Kasti]

Agreed. LMP1-H are history, and that is fine, cause they are much too expansive and they exclude private teams from victory. We need buyable top LMP`s like in group C the 962(or earlier the 917) was - remember private teams won the 24 hours with it and the private Brun team was world champion of WSC with it.

My thought was an upgraded LMP2 car with free engines would be a good replacement for the hybrids. But with Todt and FIA... I fear they "halo" around...

 

[Akra]

Photo: United Autosports

United Autosports held off a recovery charge from G-Drive by DragonSpeed racing to take the win at the 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring. Proving there is more to winning that owning an Oreca, the team executed a brilliant late race pit stop to leap the #22 G-Drive car in the last 20 minutes of the race.

DragonSpeed looked to control the race from the start, locking out the front row in qualifying, but United Autosports threw a spanner into the works at the start and split the DragonSpeed cars into turn 1. Super-silver driver, Leo Roussel used the clear track to his advantage and ran off into an early lead in the G-Drive branded car, whilst Lapierre played catch-up in the sister Oreca.

Despite leading much of the race, the win never looked comfortable for DragonSpeed. In the final splash and dash pit stops, United Autosports and Filipe Albuquerque emerged 12 seconds in front of Roussel. With just 18 minutes to go, there wasn't time for Roussel to respond.

The #21 DragonSpeed car would never reach the podium, and spluttered to a stop at the end of the 3rd hour. The team reporting fuel problems were the cause of the DNF. Graff Racing managed an unexpected 3rd and 4th places, with SMP in 5th in their first race back in the ELMS. The win for United closes the gap in the championship to G-Drive to just 4 points. High Class Racing are currently third in their debut LMP season.

After the domination of the Oreca 07 at Le Mans, it was clear that the playfield was more level when the cars were fitted with the regular high downforce kits. DragonSpeed may have been fastest over a single lap, but United Autosports Ligier JS P217 was never out of contention. Equally encouraging was the bursts of speed from the Dallara P217 chassis - SMP, High Class Racing and*Cetilar Villorba Corse all showing they had pace at various points.

Photo: United Autosports

The LMP3 race had an equally dramatic finish, as the leading #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 receiving a drive through penalty for track limits violations in the final moments of the race. The car emerged from the pit lane with a small lead over the #11 Eurointernational Ligier, which it held to the end. Like the opening round at Silverstone, United Autosports celebrates wins in both LMP2 and LMP3 classes.

The race ebbed and flowed, as LMP3 races tend to do, and the early bets were on*Duqueine Engineering with the Norma - the M30 once again proving it has the pace to fight with the Ligiers. With 90 minutes to go, the #7 Norma spun and was unable to rejoin under its own power, leaving Ligier to sweep the top 6.

At the time of writing, the results are provisional. The first and second placed cars are under investigation for speeding under FCY.

Photo: ELMS

Ferrari took a dominant 1-2 in the GTE class as #55 Spirit of the Race won by almost 20 seconds over JMW. Ferrari were only robbed of a 1-2-3 in class by*Nicki Thiim, piloting the TF Sport Aston Martin. The podium was perhaps a surprise to the championship leading TF Sport crew, as Salih Yoluc complained that the unfavourable BoP crippled the Aston Martins.

At the time of writing, the results are provisional. The third placed car is under investigation for speeding under FCY.

Provisional Results
Report by Dave Ellis / theRacingLine.net

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As usual, comments welcome!