Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus Team Owner Jim Glickenhaus has confirmed to DSC that the switch of the start of the 2021 FIA WEC calendar means that the revised opening round at Portimao will now see a two-car SCG 007 Hypercar entry.
The originally planned season opener at Sebring would have meant that the planned testing programme for the cars would have made freighting the cars to the US impossible but with Portimao, a sensible truck drive away from the team’s Italian base a full season effort is now possible.
The first SCG 007 chassis passed its crash test in recent days and the team, based at Podium Engineering in Italy are now working to complete the first car and have taken delivery of the second tub.
Bench testing of the 3.5 litre Pipo Moteurs developed turbo V8 is going well too, the team delighted with the numbers that are being produced by the bespoke unit.
Ongoing logistical difficulties related to the COVID-19 situation have delayed delivery of some other parts, principally bodywork but the team are confident that the first car will be ready for its first roll-out test on 15 February with testing planned thereafter ahead of a race debut at Portimao on 2-4 April.
Already ticked off on the worksheet has been a 24 hour Sim test, back to back with Toyota to help the rulemakers understand the shape of the task ahead to BoP the two very different cars, the Toyota GR010 a four wheel drive hybrid, the SCG 007 a rear wheel drive ICE only powered car, the tests produced some interesting, but for the time being private results!
Before all of that though we’ll get to hear publicly who will crew the two cars, likely at some point in the next week with some very well-know names from the endurance racing world on the list alongside the already revealed Gustavo Menezes and Ryan Briscoe.
The team are preparing too to reveal what Glickenhaus describes as a significant technical partnership and sponsorship that should encompass several of the brands racing programmes in GT and off-road sport as well as the Hypercar programme.
Already on board as a technical partner/ supplier are Sauber as the team’s aero/ wind-tunnel partner, the selection of the Swiss F1 outfit had been in the offing from the very start of the 007 programme with not only the standard of the facility being a stand-out positive, but also the relative logistical closeness to the Podium Engineering facility, but also another very sensible factor:
“The homologation testing of the car is going to be done at Sauber in any case,” explained Jim Glickenhaus. “So it makes perfect sense to develop the car at the same facility. That gives us total confidence that the numbers that we are getting as we design and develop the car will be replicated when the same car is put into the same tunnel by the FIA/ ACO.”
The selection of Joest as the team’s logistical and technical support partner has been made for similarly pragmatic reasons:
“They have absolutely everything we need to supplement the team that we have in-house.
“They have the people, the equipment and the trucks to ensure that we can get the cars where they need to be and to prep the cars efficiently.
“On the race engineering front there will be a joint effort between our resource and theirs, we’ll finalise that structure as we get into and through the testing programme but, of course, we are delighted to have them on-board.”
That support is going to be critical if the racing calendar in June stays as currently planned with the mandatory Le Mans Test Day on the same day as the Nürburgring 24 Hours where the SCG team is set to race a revised version of their new 004 GT car.
“That’s not the best arrangement for us at all but with the resources that Joest provide as part of the partnership we have enough to get through, though it’s going to be tough having both of the efforts on track at the same time and not being there to see one of them!”
What we do now have though is a touch more certainty about the start of the Hypercar era, and the first signs are that whilst many will be sorry to see Sebring off the WEC calendar again this year, the out-turn should be a positive one for the prospects for the season overall.
