Not much can prepare you for the splendour of seeing the Red Bull Ring for the first time. The scenery and landscape is beautiful and instantly blows away any Schnapps induced cobwebs (well we imagine they do!).
History rattles around these Styrian sweeps. The Osterreichring is long gone but some of the track is still used and the soul very much remains.
Almost 40 years ago to the day the place had soul, and it was tangible. Matra v Alfa Romeo v Gulf Ford. The sound must have been like Miles Davies’ Bitches Brew was being played live in the peaks beyond the Hella Licht….with one of those big local horns!
Matra won out that day with Henri Pescarolo, flush from his Le Mans success sharing the champagne with team mate Gerard Larousse. The Ickx/Merzario Alfa 33TT12 was in contention until the Belgian genius’ braking heroics became too much for the burly beauties brakes. A surprise second was the Autodelta Alfa of Carlo ‘Gimax’ Facetti and Andrea De Adamich, just recovered from his leg breaking F1 shunt at Silverstone the previous summer.
More than a generation on, all those players are thankfully still with us and most are seen at races around the world in one function or other. A nice antidote to the often generic and doom-laden supposition that racing was macabre death trap in that time. Indeed Signor Facetti was spotted recently by this author at Monza, resplendent in an unacceptably ludicrous ginger wig!
A year later in 1975, Vittorio Brambilla won his only Grand Prix here and typically celebrated in erratic fashion, losing control of his March 761 and rattling the pit wall as he passed the chequered flag. Audi’s Martyn Pass, here working with Jota Sport was here that day and reckons he and Mrs Pass are still drying out such were the wretched conditions.
But here we are in 2014 the European Le Mans Series is offering up its own heady fare of great racing and diverse grids. Yes the numbers are down slightly on the previous two races, but it’s always the way as the season marches on.
The conditions were fine and warm as the 33 cars took to the track this morning. The only last minute change to the entry list coming with the confirmation of Paul Van Splunteren, Gilles Vannelet and Mike Parisy in the #75 Prospeed Porsche and the confirmation that Michele Rugolo is back to partner Cameron and Griffin in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari.
Immediately laying down a marker during the 90-mins session was Felipe Alburquerque in the Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan. The Portuguese peaked on a 1m24.698s lap, which compares to last year’s pole time of 1m set in the same car but with Oliver Turvey at the wheel 1m23.871.
However, Christian Klien, the local hero, who had a good crowd door-stepping him outside his pit this morning, turned in a 1m24.497s lap in the New Blood by Morand Morgan-Judd. Klien, from Hohenems in the far west of Austria, is keen to make up for the bitter disappointment of Imola where, with the race in the bag he was forced to retire with just three minutes of the four hours remaining.
“It is a good start but we have more to come for sure,” said Klien. “Pierre (Ragues) has fitted in very well and there is a good feeling. I hope we can be strong and in a position like we were at Imola but of course without the drama at the end.”
But it was the Race Performance ORECA-Judd that led the way as the chequered flag flew with Michel Frey setting a best time of 1m24.163s. The Swiss team, as close as they ever will be to a home race, maximised several clear laps on this short 4.326mile, 10-turn track. Frey looked impressive and committed through the final two quick right handers and he set the time to continue his impressive form so far this season.
LMGTE was headed by the SMP Racing Ferrari and current championship leaders, #72 SMP Racing. Andrea Bertolini getting his and the Russian teams weekend off to a solid start. The Italian, who was inspired last time out at Imola, was happy with his morning’s work saying: “It was positive, the car responded well to some changes we made. The slight lack of power is easy to notice and for sure the Aston and maybe a Porsche will be closer. But I think we will be at the front again this weekend because the team produce such a nice set-up and the tyres are working beautifully for us.”
Soheil Ayari completed a late quickie in the SOFREV-ASP Ferrari 458 Italia he shares with Fabien Barthez and Anthony Pons and was second on a 1m30.694s. Third was the Gulf Racing Aston Martin which encopuragingly was six-tenths behind the outright pace, Dan Brown setting the time of 1m30.696s. Could we finally have someone to challenge the Prancing Horse monopoly this weekend?
In the GTC class the #98 ART Grand Prix McLaren was fastest as Estonian Kevin Korjus set a best of 1m31.272s early in the session. Soheil Ayari completed a late quickie in the SOFREV-ASP Ferrari 458 Italia he shares with Fabien Barthez and Anthony Pons. Third was the #95 AF Corse Ferrari with Cedric ‘the entertainer’ Sbirrazzouli hustling his Ferrari up hill and down dale.
The session was largely trouble free in the perfect conditions with only a few gravelly excursions. The Proton Porsche spent much of the session in the garage as the tinkered with the electrics which were soon cured. Earlier the Felbermeyer father and son duo emptied their wallets as they were late for the official signing-on. And they only live around the corner too!
On the subject of the BoP changes implemented for this weekend there were some interesting observations. In LMGTE the Ferraris have had a 1.3mm reduction in their engine restrictor, which should help the Porsche and Aston Martin somewhat. In the GTC class the BMW Z4 (-40kg), the Porsche 911 GT3R (-30kg), the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (-2mm engine restrictors) and the McLaren MP4-12C (Turbo boost pressure) have all been amended.
“You never want to have any aspect of pace taken away but for the general interest for the fans and TV viewers it has to be a good thing,” said AF Corse driver, Michael Lyons. “I think it will be too and fro during the race. All in all though it should be safer for the LMP2 cars which should be able to take the LMGTE and GTC cars easier now. We will see as the weekend goes on .”
Early in the session, Pierre Kaffer in the AT Racing Ferrari and Marco Cioci in the #54 AF Corse 458 both had their best time deleted for a Turn 8 infringement after several warnings but he was very much not alone in exploring the tarmac limits. Interestingly the ‘sleeping policeman’ that was here for a test two weeks ago on the exits of Turn 1 and Turn 8 have been removed.
Unsurprisingly another hot issue this weekend will be the old chestnut of track limits. Already in the first session we saw numerous warnings, particularly at Turn 1 (always Hella-Licht to me!) and Turn 8. The delicate task of deciphering who is guilty and by how much will go on all weekend. It was an issue in the recent Grand Prix and it seems that Eduardo Freitas is using the initial common sense warnings before getting stricter as the action gathers pace.
One another sliver of news was that for their late withdrawal from the Red Bull event, Sebastien Loeb were relieved of five thousand Euros, as no ‘force majeure’ reason was given. They also have a fifteen…yes fifteen thousand fine suspended until the end of the season in case the same thing should happen again. Something tells me it won’t!
When DSC asked series CEO, Gerard Neveu for his comment he said: “It is disappointing, we have great teams here at Red Bull Ring competing in the great endurance spirit and this weekend we are focusing on these teams only.”
The second free practice session gets underway this afternoon at 15.00 local time.
Follow blow by blow updates on FP2 from 15.00cet at www.twitter.com/dscracelive
Sam Smith
