The electrical/electronics issue which stopped the #51 AF Corse Ferrari on track during Free Practice 1 was described by a team source as “the same” as afflicted the same car twice at the Nurburgring.
The continuing (and quite correct) purge on track limits continued throughout the day, the latest driver to be warned being none other than Dindo Capello, on media hot laps duty before the WEC night practice session in a very green Audi S3 with DSC ELMS reporter and WEC Press Officer Sam Smith was aboard!
The DSC Editor’s similar (but much more soberly coloured) S3 meanwhile was pedalled by a diminutive person of Celtic descent in impressive style.
The decision as to whether or not we hear the promised announcement of the 2016 FIA WEC calendar here tomorrow will apparently be made on a short call as final negotiations continue. If there is a decision there is potential for just a press release, or a very short statement to be made here, indicating little change to the current calendar.
It is clear that there are some frustrations about several aspects of the race meeting here at COTA amongst WEC senior management, many of which are shared with IMSA management. Circuit promotion and event management are understood to be on a long list of concerns, many of which are being laid at the feet of a very high staff turnover rate at COTA.
Whilst there is plenty of rumour and speculation about the calendar it is clear that very few people even within the WEC organisation are fully aware of the facts.
Benny Simonsen is relishing not only his first WEC race since Bahrain in 2012 (then aboard the JWA Avila Porsche) but also his first running in a GTE car since that race. “It’s a cool car and a great circuit, really very fast. I love it.”
The Toyota travails in Free Practice 2 were explained post session: “One of the track limits transgressions was actually a spin from Alex (Wurz) on cold tyres, one of the issues for Ant (Davidson) was that he made a mistake coming into the turn, had to correct and ran wide. Ant got out of the car after his penalty and went to speak to a pitlane marshal” (believed to have been Alain Tannier) requesting an explanation for the penalty. We’ll wait for the appearance or otherwise of further sanction after various outstanding transgressions are dealt with by the stewards tomorrow morning!
