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TESTING TIMES
TESTING TIMES
Spa-Francorchamps plays host, this weekend, to the second Le Mans Series (LMS) race of the season. The 1000km race, which is also the second round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, will take place on Saturday afternoon and will run through to the early evening. The seven kilometre Spa track is one of the most beautiful circuits in the world. Drivers from every branch of motor sport love to race there and this weekend should see four Gulf liveried cars participating in the event.
Since the Paul Ricard LMS opener, in which the Aston Martin AMR-One made its debut in a race, the development programme of the new car has continued and two cars recently took part in the Le Mans 24 Hours Official test.
Although the new car has made noticeable progress since what was effectively an expanded test session at the Paul Ricard LMS encounter, teething issues with the all-new inline six cylinder engine re-occurred at the Le Mans test and the amount of track time was severely curtailed, as a result.
Following on from this, Aston Martin Racing has made the decision not to contest this weekend’s Spa LMS race with the new AMR-One, in order to continue the testing and development programme, ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
Gulf Oil Vice President International puts the Aston Martin Racing decision into context, “Obviously we support Aston Martin Racing with their ongoing development and testing plans, because the AMR-One is an ambitious two to three year project which is still in its early stages and which only began late last year. Therefore to allow the Aston Martin Racing team to concentrate on the car's development and give the crew the best chance of running competitively at Le Mans, the AMR-One will now undergo a series of tests in the run up to June.”
Aston Martin Racing's Official Partner team, Gulf AMR Middle East will, of course, still be competing at Spa in its Aston Martin Vantage GT2. The recently formed racing team completed a full day’s testing programme at the official Le Mans practice day with drivers Fabien Giroix, Roald Goethe and Mike Wainwright managing more than 700 kilometres of trouble-free running.
All three Gulf AMR Middle East pilots completed the mandatory 10 laps for drivers who haven't raced at Le Mans before, or in the past three years and additionally worked with Aston Martin Racing to assess a new aerodynamic package for Le Mans on the Aston Martin Vantage GT2.
Completing the line up of Gulf branded race cars at Spa is OAK racing. The team’s two LMP1 OAK Racing Pescarolos and a further LMP2 version – all in Gulf colours, thanks to this sponsorship initiative by official French and Belgian Gulf Lubricant Distributors, Caroil also reported a successful Le Mans test.
The team’s primary objective for its pair of LMP1s at Le Mans was to evaluate the new aero package developed with the 24 Hours principally in mind, while the aim for the LMP2 car, as with the Gulf AMR Middle East car, was to qualify the two rookies that help comprise its three-man crew. The majority of OAK’s Le Mans testing programme was successfully accomplished despite some technical issues and off-track moment for their number 24 LMP1 car at the end of the morning’s session.
Qualifying for the 1000 KMs of Spa-Francorchamps will take place on Friday 6th May, with the race starting at 14.00 CET on Saturday 7th May.