Analysis

Planetlemans preview: The FIA GT GT1 season

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Only a few more days remain before the FIA GT championship kicks off at the Silverstone circuit. Around thirty cars will be entered in the opening round of the season, with almost half of them being GT1 cars. Planetlemans looks ahead to the Silverstone round and analyses the entries.

All ingredients are there for it to become a great race. A healthy entry list will provide a circuit full of race cars and the combination of Silverstone and racing there in April makes it almost unthinkable we will have a completely dry race. But before we even get to think of the race, two 80-minute sessions and a qualifying session will take place and once again the question is, will they be run on a dry, damp or wet track?

Three Maseratis, three Corvette C6.Rs, three Saleens and three Aston Martin DBR9s and three other cars (a Lamborghini Murcielago, a Corvette C5-R and a Ferrari 550) are competing in the GT1 category. Almost every team has either changed drivers or machine, but if the weather gods do not interfere there are two main contenders for the victory at Silverstone.

The first one is the #1 Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 of Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini. The 2006 champions are reunited after being split up during the 2007 season. With the Scuderia Playteam pulling out of FIA GT at the end of 2007 Bertolini was free to go back to Vitaphone where Bartels welcomed him back. This pair could well be the title favorite for 2008.

Jetalliance Racing will enter the second candidate for victory at Silverstone. The Wendlinger and Sharp driven #33 Aston Martin DBR9 took the pair to second place in the GT1 driver championship and they hope to take the title this year.

For all the other teams it remains to be seen what they can do. Planetlemans would give the Phoenix Carsport the best chance, after the two teams mentioned before, to do well. Deletraz, Fässler, Hezemans and Gollin have all raced the Corvette C6.R and won in the rain at the Spa 24 Hours. How they will do now that they are being split into two cars? We will see at Silverstone.

After running a Corvette C5-R in 2007 Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin have replaced the old lady with a newer Saleen S7R, the former Zakspeed car. The Belgian team could have one disadvantage over the other GT1 teams as it runs on Pirelli tyres with all its opponents running on Michelin. Knowing that PK Carsport was able to keep the C5-R at the front, they could well be outsiders at Silverstone.

The second Vitaphone Racing and Jetalliance Racing entries could be going after the win as well, even though both cars have unproven GT drivers. Xandy Negrao has switched from formula cars to GT cars and will join Miguel Ramos in the Maserati, while Alex Müller will be running a full season in the FIA GT with Jetalliance, after a one-off with Playteam at Spa.

During the Monza test it was the Selleslagh Racing Team Corvette C6.R that set the fastest time and with Christophe Bouchut in the car they certainly have a top driver in their car. The combination of Bouchut and a C6.R could do well, hopefully his inexperienced team-mate, Dutchman Xavier Maassen, will be up to speed very quickly. If so this team could become a threat to the existing top teams.

Another top pairing is driving a Lamborghini Murcielago. GT racing veteran Peter Kox is joined by Russian Roman Rusinov, LMES GT2 champion in 2004, in the IPB Spartak Reiter Engineering entered Lamborghini. If Reiter can make this car more reliable it could be in for some decent results later this season, but don’t expect to much of it at Silverstone yet.

Gigawave will have GT2 and GT3 ace Allan Simonsen racing their GT1 Aston Martin, the first GT1 race for Simonsen. He will be joined by Philipp Peter, an experienced DBR9 driver. Despite intensive testing during the winter season it is unclear where this team will be compared to the other teams at Silverstone. Midfield in GT1 for now?

Larbre Competition makes a return to FIA GT. Vincent Vosse and Greg Franchi will be racing the team’s Saleen S7R, but will they be able to match the Maseratis, Astons and Corvettes? Like the Gigawave DBR9 it seems unthinkable the two Belgians will be able to get a podium at Silverstone.

The other GT1 cars will more than likely not be able to fight for the win. Newcomers AT-Racing will enter the former SRT Corvette C5-R, with experienced Wolfgang Kaufmann driving for them, JMB Racing will enter a Maserati MC12 for Aucott and Kutemann.

Escuderia ACA Argentina will be entering a Ferrari 550 Maranello for former F1 drivers Esteban Tuero and Gastón Mazzacane. It is a good thing to see a team from Argentina joining the FIA GT ranks, but the Ferrari 550 is old and has not been updated for some years now. Realistically this car is just a field-filler.

A late addition to the Silverstone round seems to be the RBImmo Racing Saleen S7R. Andrea Piccini was announced to drive the car from Monza on, but Jos Menten announced he would share the car with the Italian at Silverstone already. The Saleen is a Konrad one though, and should be no match for the GT1 frontrunners.