Enzo Ide, the promising 20 year old from the Belgian West-Flanders, last year third in the FIA GT3 European Championship, is competing in the 2012 GT World Championship with AF Corse Ferrari. The fourth round of the Wold Championship was held this weekend in Slovakia, and if all the pieces of the puzzle had fitted as was hoped for, then Enzo Ide and his Italian team- mate Francesco Castellacci would have come out far better than their ninth place in the championship. During his stint Enzo Ide proved to one and all that he is made out of the right metal.
During the two weeks between the rather disappointing race weekend at Navarra in Spain and this last weekend on the Slovakian circuit, the Ferrari underwent some serious test work and this was shown in the first results. Enzo Ide managed to bring the Ferrari 458 Italia up into sixth place on the start grid, a position converted into a 5th spot as the result of a penalty incurred by another competitor.
Enzo Ide: “After Navarra this was a piece of good luck, but during our test sessions we also discovered the Ferrari 458′s Achilles heal. We are able to go full out into the attack for 10 minutes, but after that it’s over and out when it comes to the four rubbers. Our car is exceptionally heavy as compared to other cars, which in itself generates extensive wear and tear on the tyres. So we were fully warned for the first race.”
Just before the start on Saturday heavy dark clouds appeared over the Slovakia Ring, both literally and figuratively. Francesco Castellacci soon committed a mistake and the young Ferrari-duo were soon well down on the rest of the pack.
Enzo Ide: “The only thing left to do was to go into a full out attack, but on a wet track with slicks and with crafty opponents, of which some with 10 to 15 years more experience than I have, the risk of committing an error is pretty real. And in fact I did make that mistake, and unable to perform any better than a 12th place. The other disadvantage was the fact that we would have to start from 12th place on the grid for the championship race on Sunday.”
What Enzo Ide showed one and all on Sunday was of an exceptionally high level. The young West Flanders driver took off like a bat out of hell and in a minimum of time moved up from 12th into 6th spot, keeping the highly experienced Stéphane Ortelli in the Audi at bay until the halfway mark, on a circuit where overtaking is feasible.
Enzo Ide: “Even if I say so myself I thoroughly enjoyed myself out there, and did everything I could. Unfortunately matters turned sour during our pit stop, where we lost 10 to 15 seconds. After that Francesco then struggled with the tyres especially when you are trying to attack, tyre wear and tear becomes a real drama. The outcome was that he couldn’t manage anything better than the 9th place. A great pity, because with a decent pit stop we could easily have achieved a top-5 here. It was better than in Navarra, but there’s still a fair amount of work to be carried out before we can aspire to a podium.”
Source : Enzo Ide