A brief catch up with Gerard Neveu yesterday saw the ELMS CEO in ebullient form, happy with the growth of the series and the variety of entries this season.
“The grids have been up as we all know but the different cars and entries has been a strong point of the series,” said Neveu. “We have close fights in all three classes and I am confident that most of them will go down to the last race at Estoril in October.”
On calendar plans for 2015, Neveu was tight lipped but seemed satisfied with the five race four-hour format.
“We listen to our teams and last year they said longer races and we delivered,” continued Neveu. “The four hour format seems to be popular with everyone. For next season we want to maintain stability which is paramount. We come to fantastic facilities like here (Red Bull Ring) and the teams like the challenge and the atmosphere.
“What I can tell you is that at Estoril we will make lots of announcements on details for 2015. The awards party will be held on the Sunday evening and we will announce the full calendar. The philosophy of the series is stability and sustainability which is what the teams appreciate.”
Neveu also confirmed that he is still looking in to the solution and procedures of how the ‘four person only per pitstop’ for the new LMP3 cars will function next season, particularly in relation to re-fuelling.
Panciatici handed severe reprimand
Signature Alpine driver Nelson Panciatici felt the full force of the stewards last night after FP2 when he was handed out a suspended ban from the meeting.
The reigning champion was one of three drivers penalised by race director Eduardo Freitas for improving his time under yellow flags when the corner workers at Turn 3 were recovering Mike Parisy’s Prospeed Porsche which had stopped with a broken driveshaft.
Panciatici had all his lap times from the beginning of the session until that point excluded with an additional penalty of an exclusion from the meeting which is suspended until the end of the season. However, if a similar infringement were to occur it could have dire consequences for the Frenchman.
Emmanuel Collard (#70 AF Corse) and Marco Cioci (#54 AF Corse) were handed similar reprimands but without the suspended exclusion. It is presumed that their offences were deemed not as serious as Panciatici due to the amount of time gained during the lap in question.
Tristan Gommendy was initially also asked to go to see the stewards but was deemed to have passed the corner as the incident occurred, just behind him.
The stewards are also likely to have a very busy qualifying and race in relation particularly to the constant abuse of track limits at turns 1 and 8.
Sam Smith
