Barcelona Weekend Race Report: positive Debut for WF01 in Spain
08.04.2008 by Joey Foster
The season LMES season opener took place last weekend at the Circuit de Catalunja near Barcelona.
Testing got underway on the Friday morning. With only 3 hours of running split into three 1 hour sessions it was incredibly important to maximise the use of any track time. My team mate Jonny Kane took to the track in our #46 WF01 for the start of the first hour. His experience would be very valuable in gathering as much information about the car as possible so we could get a decent setup quickly. I ran the last few laps of the session to find my way around a track which I had only ever seen on a playstation. It appeared a whole lot tighter than I had imagined at the wheel of an LMP2 car. However, I quickly grasped the flow of the circuit and knew I could get the best out of the Embassy Racing WF01.
Due to our limited running of the two cars previous to the race weekend we had a mountain of technical data to analyse. Working with team mates Jonny Kane, Warren Hughes and Mario Haberfeld over the limited running we had it was clear that we all had the same thoughts about which direction we had to take on setup.
When Saturday afternoon arrived along with the short 20 minute qualifying session we were curious about where we would find ourselves amongst the other runners. With Jonny qualifying the #46 machine and Warren in the #45 the cars ended up 10th and 7th respectively. Our pace was a lift for the whole team who had been working incredibly hard for months previous to the weekend.
The race itself started very well with both cars running well and holding the pace of rival LMP2 machinery. Just before the hour mark Jonny brought the #46 into pitlane for the driver change, a fresh set of tyres and a load of fuel. The driver change for Jonny and I ran smoothly and when I joined the track it was behind the safety car. A car was stranded and whilst the recovery was in progress the safety car would remain out. When the race resumed a few laps later I found myself in the midst of a busy pack of LMP runners. It remained this way for several laps until eventually we became more spread out. The pace of both cars remained solid and we ran close on the track. However, on lap 41 with I felt an issue with the steering and it became impossible to carry on. With safety in mind the #45 was also brought into pitlane by the team and out of the race.
Despite the whole weekend being disappointing for the whole team everyone is talking about the positives and a sense of excitement looms for the Monza weekend.