The Championship leading #8 Toyota will remain as a two man squad for the remainder of the 2014 season with Nicolas Lapierre still absent from the team.
(Sir) Tom Kristensen observed that the only real surprise over the Audi’s relative lack of pace at Fuji compared to the Toyotas and Porches was that the latent advantage in pace from Audi’s main opposition hadn’t shown itself before. “I think we were surprised to get this far into the year before you saw that advantage really take hold. Fuji was exactly where we thought we would be and there’s nothing to suggest that we won’t be there for the rest of the season.”
Rebellion Racing’s spare chassis is here, sitting in the rear of the garage. The team has had this third chassis since Le Mans.
The Lotus CLM rebuild was completed in time for the car to take to the track this morning – Christophe Bouchut has withdrawn from the car for the remainder of the season and James Rossiter too has not appeared in Shanghai, both drivers were known to be very concerned about the circumstances of the car’s Fuji fire
The flash fuel fire in the Proton Competition pit ended with a lot of powder and very little damage. The car was being cleaned up post session. Wolf Henzler joins the team as supersub this weekend with Klaus Bachler Supercup-tied in Austin .
The #90 8Star Ferrari this weekend is actually the red full season #61 AF Corse car, the orange #90 car is here but Gianluca Roda asked to race in the red colour scheme this weekend and with neither the #61 nor the #81 managing to attract takers for this race that option was easily available. Matteo Cressoni joins the Roda/ Ruberti duo here.
Steve Wyatt has a racing commitment in Malaysia counting out the #81 car in China, but it will be back for the remainder of the season. AF Corse are actively seeking takers for the #61 for the remaining two races of 2014
Richie Stanaway is again subbing for Nicki Thiim in the Championship leading #95 GTE-Am Aston Martin.
The Oak Racing Morgan Judd that finished on the LMP2 podium in Japan is all change in terms of driver squad – David Cheng and Ho Pin Tung are joined by the ever popular Mark Patterson.
The ever so slightly jetlagged Patterson was in the midst of a pre practice briefing but observed that “This may not be the quickest car in this field but she sure is the prettiest.”
The weekend in Shanghai features a packed support schedule with the Audi R8 LMS Cup, Asian Formula Renault and locally based GT Series Boss GP on the bill.
