Balance of Performance between the 2016 and 2015 cars will be hugely important for the 2017 GTE Am class, that’s the conclusion from Proton Competition Team Principal and driver Christian Ried in the wake of the ACO decision to retain the single year break between the GTE Pro and GTE Am classes.
That means, of course, that the class will now welcome the theoretically much faster 2016 cars, including, principally the Ferrari 488 GTE, alongside the current 2015 spec cars.
“I have had some long discussions with the ACO about the Balance of Performance, that needs to be very carefully thought through and monitored. I can only progress on what is being promised and, on that basis we want to be back here and in the ELMS in 2017.”
At present that commitment looks set to produce a car apiece in either series, with the team working very hard and targeting to double up in both.
But with which spec. of Porsche?
The team currently run a single 2016 spec 911 RSR in GTE Pro in the FIA WEC (the #77) and a pair apiece of 2015 spec Porsches in both the ELMS and FIA WEC (including the KCMG entered WEC car).
There is clearly a financial implication to upgrading the cars to 2016 spec, and a perfectly sustainable argument that if the promise is, for instance, to balance a Ferrari 458 to a 488 then there should be no performance penalty to running the older-spec Porsches.
“That’s part of the current question for us of course. I would like to run the 2015 cars if at all possible.” There’s another potential outing for one of the Proton Porsches in the offing too, a return for Reid to a race he last contested more than a decade ago:
“Yes, it’s been more than ten years since I raced at Daytona and it’s an event I really enjoy. It is very early days yet, we haven’t had discussions with IMSA and will need to find out what they say about the balance with a 2015 car in GTLM.”
The effort would be a firmly Pro-am affair, “definitely with two Gentleman drivers. It isn’t done yet but we definitely want to do it.”
Off season work to do then but it looks like Proton Competition will be busy again in 2016.
