GT World Challenge Europe 2023

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by J Jay

And here we have the classic knee-jerk, "I-couldn't-wait-to-tell-you-so" reaction the internet has made popular.

I'd wager it was premature to post this, unless you're also going to blame Farfus for the left-rear puncture, seeing as he was in the car at the time? Could it not be more likely that there was a problem (which has now retired the #46) that no driver could have done anything about?

He isn't rubbish, he's okay. Not great, not awful. Does this make him deserving of a seat with a top team? I don't think so, but his status/popularity has given him the drive. So far, the results bare out his performance; some glimpses of pace (such as the fastest lap so far) but otherwise at the upper end of the midfield. This isn't Vadim Kogay we're discussing.

The issue with Rossi(been his fan since 98) is that he is rated as a Platinum when actually he should be a Silver or a Bronze. Yes he is 9 times world champion but his racing experience is severely limited

I actually think he is doing really well, obviously he cannot compete with the top gt3 drivers but he is 85-90% there. Had he been Silver or Bronze I am sure he would have been winning in the pro am or silver classes and would have been highly competitive there

Yes they do mention him a lot, but he also probably brings a lot of fans and attention to the series as well. Like Alonso did for the WEC

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I think this is the problem. Rossi is doing fine, but is talked about much more than others.

Separate note. I've watched a lot of racing today - GTWC was by far the highest YouTube figures

FE - 5k
ELMS - 5k
GTWC - 15k

Also the quality of the stream is best on GTWC - image seems so much high quality even if ELMS also streams in 1080P at 60fps

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by PhilipR

The issue with Rossi(been his fan since 98) is that he is rated as a Platinum when actually he should be a Silver or a Bronze. Yes he is 9 times world champion but his racing experience is severely limited

I actually think he is doing really well, obviously he cannot compete with the top gt3 drivers but he is 85-90% there. Had he been Silver or Bronze I am sure he would have been winning in the pro am or silver classes and would have been highly competitive there

Yes they do mention him a lot, but he also probably brings a lot of fans and attention to the series as well. Like Alonso did for the WEC

I think he's too good for Silver or Bronze, but you're right, he should not be platinum. Not that Rossi isn't used to pressure, but at the moment he's up against the best drivers in the field, where the smallest misjudgements are magnified.

[chunterer]

So what's everyones views on the late BOP changes?
Clearly benefited BMW more than anyone else and Ferrari a bit?
Audi seems ok...
Merc drivers clearly have to push very very hard now, suggesting their 'ping' has set them back. Ditto Lamborghini.
Porsche also a bit at sea it seems?

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by chunterer

So what's everyones views on the late BOP changes?
Clearly benefited BMW more than anyone else and Ferrari a bit?
Audi seems ok...
Merc drivers clearly have to push very very hard now, suggesting their 'ping' has set them back. Ditto Lamborghini.
Porsche also a bit at sea it seems?

Is hard to tell..Monza is a high top speed track and will favour cars set up for top speed more than cornering speed. At other tracks with the same BOP we might get Ferrari and Lambo dominating whilst BMW is struggling.
When BMW was new last year it took a while until it was fully competitive in SRO

I would give it some time to see how the cars balance out on other types of tracks before making a judgement.

[v8supes]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I think this is the problem. Rossi is doing fine, but is talked about much more than others.

Separate note. I've watched a lot of racing today - GTWC was by far the highest YouTube figures

FE - 5k
ELMS - 5k
GTWC - 15k

Yep Akrapovic, the last 3 years the series has taken off in a huge way with respect to viewing figures. Credit to SRO for this. The video game ACC and Rossi joining the series has really helped to boost the profile.

[v8supes]

Originally Posted by PhilipR

Is hard to tell..Monza is a high top speed track and will favour cars set up for top speed more than cornering speed. At other tracks with the same BOP we might get Ferrari and Lambo dominating whilst BMW is struggling.
When BMW was new last year it took a while until it was fully competitive in SRO

I would give it some time to see how the cars balance out on other types of tracks before making a judgement.

I dont think you can underestimate the effect that the qualifying power outage played in this either. Some teams didnt run their fastest drivers in qualifying because the third session was cancelled.

Id argue that qualifying in this series is even more important than somewhere like F1 now. If you are outside of the top 6 then you have a really hard afternoon. The field is so good in the PRO class that once those guys get clear air, they dont tend to drop much time. Also the madness that happens midpack in this race can see good driver lineups and team losing so much time in the first hour, again hence my comment about qualifying.
Finally everyone is pretty much on the same strategy so theres little chance to make up any time by not changing tyres for instance.

[GT3_Fan]

Denis Boguslavskiy should get fired by the AKKA Asp Mercedes team after the stupid mistakes he did at the Monza race. What a moron. Goto the youtube replay of the Monza race and start at the 2 hour mark of the video time stamp. Watch the next 6 to 8 minutes after that.

[J Jay]

You mean Timur.

I'm not sure firing your principal backer is conducive to staying in business. Boguslavskiy isn't going anywhere; AKKA will have to work around him, as they have been doing since he propped them up.

[Osella]

just watched free practice from Brands - the #27 green Sainteloc Audi was running without those fence parts past the rear wheels

[AndrewCherry]

Interesting qualifying, but hard from the split sessions to really get a view on who is in the best position when you take both drivers into account. If you just look at one driver then it's rather distorting. However, they've not given any kind of indicative averaging (so I did - attached: BH_Quali_Averages.pdf!).

Based on that (and it's only an indicator, all bets are off when the lights change), the EFR 296s are looking good, as are a couple of the Audis. There's a few others in there that can really challenge, but a lot is going to come down to how much seat time some of those pairs give their quicker driver.

Should be some interesting racing - the lack of AMs this year means the spread is smaller than it sometimes is, and there are going to be far fewer mismatched pairings falling away on either side of a pitstop, I suspect.

[AndrewCherry]

Oh and incidentally, the old chestnut "covered by less than a second": for average qualifying, that's the top 18!

[fergus_r]

Pretty exciting finish to the first sprint race at Brands Hatch. Bogulavskiy *just* held on but I feel it would be a different story if they’d had another lap.

Marciello’s win comes nearly 10 years to the day since his first visit to Brands, and his first win there, albeit on the Indy circuit - the second European F3 race at the DTM meeting in 2013.

[v8supes]

Made up for Boguslavskiy because he had a torrid time during the Monza race and because hes partnered with Marciello the scrutiny on his pace is intense. He gets a lot of disrespect on the Youtube streams and social media. I dont like it personally.

Brands Hatch is a great place to watch these cars, not so good for racing but we already know this.

[stuart thompson]

The white Lambo is a bit of a mobile chicane isn’t it? ?

[v8supes]

Originally Posted by stuart thompson

The white Lambo is a bit of a mobile chicane isn’t it? ?

I was quite surprised tbh, i knew it was not going to be fast but it was so far off the pace.

[AndrewCherry]

Ah, back from Brands; a pretty good day overall (except for my sunglasses focusing seemingly all of the sun's rays on to my nose, which is now a surprising shade of pink).

Two pretty good races - more intriguing than exciting, but you know that's what you'll get at a track like Brands, which is as much the challenge as the other drivers.

I agree that the criticism of Boguslavsky is overdone, and I think he had two solid drives today. No, he's not as quick as Marciello, but nor is anyone else - he's got a mid-pack pace, which is not terrible. More importantly, in his first stint, he didn't panic, didn't make any mistakes, didn't try and push too hard when things were getting close at the end, and brought it home under pressure. In his second, he looked quite punchy and certainly had more pace than his position suggested, but it's hard to pass. However, he made the most of the safety car and in-laps to hand over in as good a position as possible - he did a decent job.

Today was also the first time I've seen a drive from Rossi which made me think he might get a seat without being called Rossi - again, not spectacular, but consistent, reliable, at a good pace, and never looked troubled for second - I don't know how much Weerts would really have pushed him given the team scenario, but he still had to get it done.

Marciello was mighty, as usual around there, although he looked from the driving post-chequered to be pretty exasperated with not being able to pass Legeret - who I thought did very well to keep Marciello behind.

A great day for Drudi and Feller - really maximised any potential and made every lap count, they looked serene - very impressed, and I hadn't really picked them out beforehand as having that kind of potential - clearly shows what I know!

Given the potential, Ferrari will probably be disappointed with their day, but the 296 has shown it's got a good pace, and on other days, things might go their way, I suspect.

And finally - yes, good grief, that 18 Lamborghini was slow. I don't know much about them, but I'm almost surprised they let them race; the pace difference was that much. I wouldn't even say they were a chicane - chicanes are predictable; you can plan for a chicane. They were just randomly in the way. Good luck to them, and I'm guessing they have a lot fewer resources than most other teams, but I hope they can find some pace from somewhere, or I worry that they will be part of an incident at some point.

[stuart thompson]

One other pleasing thing about the meeting nowadays is there is far less downtime with more support races than in the past.

[dwh43scale]

Originally Posted by stuart thompson

One other pleasing thing about the meeting nowadays is there is far less downtime with more support races than in the past.

Although at first sight they could be regarded as somewhat clubbie in nature, I enjoyed the various support races yesterday. Big grids and decent racing (Equipe had reserves !!).

An initial selection of photos of the GT races here - https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjADH3S

[v8supes]

I agree. It was good when GT4 and GT Cup were the support races, felt like a real "festival" of GT racing BUT there were always a lot of red flags.

[v8supes]

https://sportscar365.com/sro/world-c...-for-comtoyou/

Sounds like the first day of the SPA 24 hours test was fairly eventful.

[Badlands99]

Interesting to see that the ComToYou Audis were up at the pointy end for the first three sessions of the prologue ......... and then I guess a couple of the other Audi teams 'suggested' that they put the sand back in for session four or risk a sizeable BOP issue come the race .........

Good to see the 992s getting a bit quicker though!

[N Martin]

Paul Ricard 6 Hours underway. Playing banger cars at the start safety car out.

[N Martin]

Without trying to jinx it now it's settled down a bit after the start it's a pretty good race on right now.

[rika]

Great save by who ever is driving #96 Porsche !