GTE Pro: fortune favours brave strategists
James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi weren’t confident of their chances ahead of the start at Silverstone. The AF Corse Ferrari duo had only qualified ninth in GTE Pro and weren’t convinced that the 488 GTE was a competitive proposition. But a creative fuel strategy paid dividends and rewarded the reigning champions with a first class victory of the season.
Calado and Pier Guidi had by their own admission messed up their set-up for qualifying, but even so they reckoned the evolution version of the 488 once again wasn’t in the game despite a pre-race Balance of Performance tweak. That explains why they went for an aggressive strategy of fuel saving in the hope that they could benefit from any yellow-flag periods.
And that’s exactly how it worked out, while the pre-race favourites in GTE
Pro, the Ganassi Ford team, crucially lost out at half-distance.
Pier Guidi was in the lead early in the second hour only because everyone else in the class had made their second stops. When a full-course-yellow virtual safety car was called, he was able to duck into the pits to hand over to his team-mate.
The time gain propelled the car up from seventh to second behind the Ganassi Ford GT shared by Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell. When the Ford, and the sister car of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla, stopped just as the race was going green as the only safety car of the race ended on halfdistance, the Ferrari moved into the lead.
Calado lost out to Kevin Estre in the
#92 Porsche 911 RSR shared with Michael Christensen at the next round of stops but, when the Ferrari was given less fuel than the German car at its penultimate stop,
Pier Guidi was able to return to the front.
He edged away from Christensen to cross the line 14s up on the second of the Manthey-run Porsches in which Gianmaria
Bruni had flown in the closing stages after taking over from Richard Lietz.
“We knew on pace alone we were not quick enough,” said Calado. “So the plan was to save as much fuel as we could and try to get an advantage in terms of strategy by doing something different to the others.”
Calado admitted that the Ferrari was more competitive in the race. “The car was really good on tyres, which is positive moving forward,” explained the Brit, who also pointed out that the Ferrari still has a straightline speed deficit, particularly in qualifying.
This was one that Ganassi should have won. Mucke and Pla put the #66 car on pole without approaching the Ford’s best free practice times, but the race started to unravel for the team almost before it began.
Pla took to the Abbey run-off at the start to avoid the LMP1 commotion up front and dropped to the back of the class pack. Priaulx was able to take the lead in the second hour, but the post-safety-car stop cost him and Tincknell dear.
Yet such was the pace of the Ford that they were able to get back to third on the road, Tincknell pulling off a brave aroundthe-outside manoeuvre at Stowe on Christensen. Third became second when the Bruni/lietz car was excluded for a ride-height infringement.
Mucke and Pla ended up seventh after losing time when the door needed replacing after a pin in the catch mechanism failed.