[LM24] Porsche V's Ferrari at Le Mans (Prediction)

[PascaLM]

I think that the Ferrari Risi with Salo and Melo will finish first.

[NightStalk3r]

Originally Posted by PascaLM

I think that the Ferrari Risi with Salo and Melo will finish first.

To Finnish first, first you have to Finnish, and that's something risi haven't been doing this year.

[Stephan2738]

Some of my thoughts on the competitors of the GT2 class:

#76 IMSA Performance Matmut
Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - FRA - Michelin - Raymond Narac / Richard Lietz / Patrick Long

This French team is based in Delville-les-Rouen, in the 76th district of the Seine-Maritime department, hence startnumber 76. It was set-up by Frank Rava and Raymond Narac. The name of this team is an acronym that stands for "Ingeneering Mécanique et Sport Automobile”. The team made it's Le Mans debut in 2005 and competed in this race ever since. The IMSA Performance Matmut team has been entering Porsches for the last three years at Le Mans so they know this car very well, this will not only help them in terms of finding the right set-up but also in finding the right solution fast when it hits trouble.
The driver line-up is solid, Lietz and Long are fast, Narac is not as fast but perfectly capable of bringing the car home. These drivers can work together really well as they proved last year by winning the GT2 class together!

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: 2nd in class




#77 Team Felbermayr-Proton
Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - Michelin - Alex Davison / Wolf Hentzler / Horst Felbermayr Sr.

This German squad was just founded in februari of 2008. In 2008 it competes in the Le Mans Series championship. In the first race at Barcelona, they reached 2nd in class, at Monza they had to settle for 6th and at Spa they were again 2nd in class. This will be their first Le Mans. In the Le Mans Series they field a cracking driver line-up of Alex Davison and Marc Lieb, at Le Mans however this is not the case. With all due respect, Horst Felbermayr will definitely slow this equipe down quite considerably, and on top of that is less consistent I’m afraid.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: D.N.F.




#78 AF Corse
Ferrari F430-GT - Michelin - Toni Vilander / Christian Montanari / Thomas Biagi

The AF Corse team was founded by Amato Ferrari in 2002 at Piacenza (Italy). In 2006 thay started racing the Ferrari F430 GT in the FIA-GT championship. Two cars were entered and both driver and team championship titles were won.

In 2007, AF Corse matched that succes by again winning both driver and team championships by winning 9 out of 10 races! Because the AF Corse team won the FIA-GT2 championship in 2006, they were given an invitation to race at Le Mans. But this race was not part of the AF Corse 2007 program. JMB Racing wanted to race at Le Mans but it's entry was turned down by the organisers. So an agreement was quickly reached, resulting in the entry of a Red Bull sponsored Ferrari 430 GT with in it's line-up Adrian Newey. In 2007 the team again won the FIA-GT2 championship and because of that they were, like last year, officially invited to race at this year's Le Mans. In 2008, the AF Corse team again entered two Ferrari 430 GT's in the FIA-GT championship, the team is leading both the driver and team championships after two races. The AF Corse team will field their Ferrari under their own banner, with three of their regular FIA-GT drivers. The AF Corse team won the FIA-GT2 championship two times in a row and are leading the current championship as well. That proves they are not only fast but also consistent in the shorter FIA-GT races, but I’m afraid they will hit trouble at the much longer 24 hour race at Le Mans.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: D.N.F.




#80 Flying Lizard Motorsports
Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - Michelin - Jörg Bergmeister / Johannes van Overbeek / Seth Neiman

The Flying Lizard Motorsport team was formed in the beginning of 2003 to compete in the American Le Mans Series. The team is owned by Eric Ingraham and it's three drivers of that time, S. Neiman, L. Pechnik and J. van Overbeek, and is based at the Sears Point circuit in California. It was runner-up in the 2004 ALMS GT2 category and got, because of that, an automatic entry for 2005, what was to become their first Le Mans race. They must have liked it because they are coming back every year. In 2005 they finished an excellent 3rd on their Le Mans debut! The Flying Lizards have a lot in common with the IMSA Performance Matmut team. Very experienced at Le Mans, and they also have a steady driversquad, the non-top driver at this team being Neiman, not quite at the same level as Narac from IMSA Performance though. The Lizards finished 1st and 2nd in class at the Sebring 12 hours earlier this year, an excellent result!

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: 3rd in class




#82 RISI Competizione
Ferrari F430-GT - Michelin - Mika Salo / Jaime Melo / Gianmaria Bruni

Risi Competizione, a professional race team, was founded in 1997 by Giuseppe Risi, team principal and Managing Director, as Doyle-Risi Racing. In 2001 the name Risi Competizione was adopted to reflect Giuseppe Risi’s sole ownership of the team. For 2006, Risi Competizione entered the ALMS series with the new Ferrari F430-GT, which made its North American Debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring with a strong 3rd place finish. The Risi team took the GT2 team championship in 2006 and earned an automatic entry for the 2007 Le Mans race. In 2007, Risi Competizione again entered the American Le Mans Series, this year the results were even better: Next to the team championship, the driver championship was won also! I think this is the fastest GT2 contender, I expect this Ferrari on poleposition for the race. But in my opinion, that will be their only highlight. The finishing record this year has been very weak and I don’t think it will be different at Le Mans.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: D.N.F.




#83 RISI Competizione
Ferrari F430-GT - Michelin - Tracy Krohn / Nic Johnsson / Eric van de Poele

The second Ferrari F430-GT RISI Competizione entered in 2007, was fielded for Krohn Racing of which Tracy Krohn is the owner. It reached an unexpected second place in class and therefore will be back this year because every class winner and runner up receive an automatic entry for next year's race. Having added Eric van de Poele to their line-up, this team did a great job in finishing third, and best Ferrari, at Sebring this year. For Le Mans, the same drivers will be in the car. At the Le Mans testday the car was heavily damaged. Although this might seem a disadvantage, I believe it is in fact an advantage. It will encourage the drivers to just keep it between the lines and not to over do it!
I don’t think they are fast enough to reach for the podium but expect them to finish the race.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: classified finish




Copyright for all photographs: Eric Gilbert Motorsport.com

[Stephan2738]

#85 Snoras Spyker Squadron
Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R – Michelin - Peter Dumbreck / Ralf Kelleners / Alexei Vasiliev

This year, Spyker squadron will enter the 24 hours of Le Mans for the 6th time in seven years. In 2002 and 2003 they used the Double 12R. De Double 12R finished the race in 2003 but was not classified due to not enough distance covered. From 2005 onwards, the Squadron entered the Spyder GT2R. The Spyder GT2R unfortunately did not ever finish a Le Mans 24 hour race, but it had it’s moment of glory when it led it’s class in 2006 for 2 hours!
After three succesfull years of competing in the international arena with the C8 Spyder GT2R, Spyker choose a new weapon for the 2008 season: The C8 Laviolette GT2R. It's not just the same car with a new Laviolette body, no, the car has a lot of new components. The chassis is upgraded and much stiffer now and, on top of that, has better aerodynamics. The roof of the Laviolette is more sloping than that of the Spyder which also improves airflow and reduces drag.
But the biggest changes were probably made in the engine department. A lot of up-dates are planned for this season, quite a few were allready implemented for the third LMS race at Spa. The crankshaft was altered, the firing order changed and the capacity enlarged, to name just a few. The race at Spa proved that the new engine was reliable over 5 hours, the team have doubts though if it will last for 24 hours. The new engine is quicker but has a lot more vibrations. The team is concerned that these vibrations will cause other components to fail.
The main goal for spyker at Le Mans this year is to finish the race and cover sufficient distance to be classified. In order to do so, the main focus will be on reliability. Therefor, only the updates that add reliability to the engine will be used for the Le Mans race.
The engine that will be used for the 24 hour race will have a capacity of 4,0 liter. The chaindriven system was judged not reliable enough and will, as a result of this, be replaced by the geardriven camshaft. Because the new crankshaft in combination with the rearranged firingorder gave too many vibrations, these will not used for the Le Mans race. The airbox is redesigned, because the roof of the Laviolette is more sloping than the roof of the Spyder, there is space for a larger airbox. So there might be a few extra horses onboard as well, that in combination with the changes made to make the engine more reliable does make me believe that at least one car should be able to get a classified finish. But I think it’s not going to be this one.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: D.N.F.




#90 Farnbacher Racing
Ferrari F430-GT - Dunlop - Pierre Ehret / Pierre Kaffer / Lars-Erik Nielsen

Farnbacher Racing was founded in 1992 in Lichtenau near Arnsbach (Germany). The first races for the team were those of the Porsche Carrera Trophy. In 1995 the team entered two series: the German Porsche Carerra Cup and the Porsche Michelin Supercup. The team continued fielding Porsches in several championships. In this year's LMS championship however, they are entering two cars, one Porsche on Michelin tyres and one Ferrari on Dunlop tyres. Only the Ferrari was invited for this year’s Le Mans race.
In the second race of the LMS championship this year, they scored an excellent 2nd place in class. But I don’t think they can match that result at Le Mans this year. Kaffer will do fine but both Ehret and Nielsen can’t match his pace and are likely to make mistakes.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: D.N.F.




#94 Speedy Racing Team
Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R – Michelin - Andrea Chiesa / Benjamin Leuenberger / Iradj Alexander

Theoretically, Speedy Racing Team is the first customer team racing a Spyker. In reality though it is run by the Spyker Squadron. In last year’s LMS championship they finished 5th in the final standings. This year they were able to finish in 4th place twice, the last round even fighting for third place. They may not have the ultimate speed, but are usually around at the end of the race to pick up some points.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: classified finish

That would be a well deserved achievement for the ever hard working Spyker Squadron team!


FINGERS CRSSED!




#96 Virgo Motorsport
Ferrari F430-GT - Dunlop - Rob Bell / Tim Mullen / Tim Sugden

In 2006, Virgo competed for the first time in international competition. Although it is probably the smallest team, they have only three full-time team members the rest of them being weekend enthusiasts, it didn't prevent them from scoring their first podium finishes and pole positions that year in the 5 race Le Mans series. In 2007 they became champions in both driver and team championships, thereby earning a Le Mans entry for this year's race. It will be their maiden Le Mans experience. This year the enthusiastic Virgo Motorsport team, are again entering their Ferrari in the LMS championship. So far they have won two out of three races. Unfortunately, Gianmarina Bruni, on of their regular LMS drivers, is now driving for rival Ferrari team AF Corse. For this race Rob Bell will be teamed up with Tim Mullen and Tim Sugden, making this driver squad on of the best in the GT2 class. Dunlop is their tyre developing partner and that could prove to be an advantage.
As far as I’m concerned, all the ingredients are there to win!

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: GT2 class winner!




#97 BMS Scuderia Italia s.p.a.
Ferrari F430-GT - Pirelli - Fabio Babini / Matteo Malucelli / Paolo Ruberti

The BMS Scuderia Italia team, which has racked up an impressive string of results, will be back for this year's Le Mans race. It's fifth in total but it's first in the GT2 class. This season they scored one podium finish out of two races so far in the FIA-GT2 class. At the testday they did very well, only being one second behind the fastest Ferrari. The line-up is not top notch, but still very good. If the Pirelli tyres work well they will have an advantage, as they are the only team that use them. I think the team is up to the task, but for some reason they never seem to deliver at Le Mans.

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: D.N.F.




#99 JMB Racing
Ferrari F430 GT - Michelin - Alain Ferté / Stephane Daoudi / Ben Aucott

JMB Racing was founded by Jean-Michel Bouresche in 1995. JMB RACING has gleaned 15 titles among which, three Sports Prototype’s World Cups in 1998, 1999 and 2000, with a Ferrari 333 SP and a World Champion drivers title and team title in the FIA N-GT class in 2001 with a Ferrari 360 Modena N-GT. They stayed in the different FIA-GT championships untill 2007 but were never able to repeat their 2001 succes, although they finished second in the championship four times! JMB entered one Ferrari F430 GT in the 2007 LMS championship and wanted to race at Le Mans in 2007 also, but it's entry was turned down by the organisers. AF Corse had an automatic entry but Le Mans was not part of their schedule. So an agreement was quickly reached, resulting in the entry of a Red Bull sponsored Ferrari 430 GT with in it's line-up Adrian Newey. Against all odds it came home fourth in class!
This year they were able to score points in every LMS round, thereby proving their reliability. On top of that they finished on the podium at Monza, proving some speed as well. The driver line-up for this year's Le Mans is changed for the better, in my opinion, but still not top class. So they need other competitors to run into trouble to get a good result. I think the GT2 field is better than ever so a podium finish is probably out of reach for this squad, but expect them to be there at the end!

Prediction Le Mans race 2008: classified finish




Copyright for all photographs: Eric Gilbert Motorsport.com

[Spyderman]

Fingers crossed that your crystal ball is off.

[dxk1]

Risi Ferrari pick smelling pretty good right now. Lizards pretty much out of it unless a miracle occurs (Salo could still take out all the Ferraris in one shunt. Oh right that's Enge!)

DK

[vorsprung]

Risi wins! Ferrari 1-2-3-4

Very sorry about the late retirement of Virgo

[Dario911]

Without any Porsche... it's obvious!

[FIRE]

Congrats to Ferrari.

1-2 for Porsche in LMP2. What position did Ferrari finish in LMP2? Oh, wait they have not the guts to join prototype racing.

[Nicola]

1-2-3-4! Ferrari, what else?

Forza Ferrari

[Dario911]

Do you like to win easily? Without any opponents?
Yes! It's Ferrari style!

[arakis]

Originally Posted by Dario911

Do you like to win easily? Without any opponents?
Yes! It's Ferrari style!

buuu huuuu cry me a river. quit bloody wining. oh read the signature by the way

[NightStalk3r]

Richard Lietz single handedly cost Porsche victory in GT2 i hope he gets a right telling of by Porsche.

Originally Posted by arakis

buuu huuuu cry me a river. quit bloody wining. oh read the signature by the way

Porsche aint dead, did you miss the P2 domination?

[arakis]

Originally Posted by NightStalk3r

Richard Lietz single handedly cost Porsche victory in GT2 i hope he gets a right telling of by Porsche.

Porsche aint dead, did you miss the P2 domination?

they are the only major manufacturenr in lmp2 , who was gona chaling them?

in gt2 porsche had 3 cars, the first 2 were not faster then the risi car wich showed that after 2 houres, there wasnt more then a 5 sec lead for anyone, and when they crashed out, the felmbayer car was still in the race, and ferrari kept its lead of 40 sec or the next few houres and outlasted the PORSCHE, I repeat outlasted the porsche. And felmbayer had bouth Henzler and davidson driving all the time, and it was the second fastest car in qualifiying,

Ferrari won fair and square, well actualy ferrari took 1-2-3-4 fair and square and that is what history will remember, so please quit embaresing yourselfs with your pitty whining.

[FIRE]

Come on don't take it all serious. I thought all in this topic was written with a ''?
EDIT I was confused with that other Porsche vs Ferrari topic.

[dj choc ice]

at last a ferrari win, its been overdue for the past 2 years but now we have it, well done risi

this is cause for celebration i think

[dxk1]

Congrats to Ferrari and to Risi. Finally, their luck has turned around. Sort of ironic I guess that they lasted the whole race with no dumb shunts and it was the "careful" "conservative" porsche guys that wound up taking each other out. As for those of you whining about Ferrari out-numbering Porsche: Toooooo Baaaaad. You never complained when it was the other way around, all those years that 2 360s battled 8 Porsches!!

DK

[Spyderman]

We shall return!