The FFF Racing Team by ACM were amongst the leading teams during their GT Asia Series debut in South Korea last month, and the three-car McLaren outfit showed from opening practice that they would be ones to watch as the season progresses.

Coming into Okayama for the second event on the 2015 calendar, expectations in the team are high given the technical nature of the circuit, and the experience that Hiroshi Hamaguchi, Andrea Caldarelli and Tonio Liuzzi have on the 3.703-kilometre, 13-turn layout.

“I like it here,” Hiroshi Hamaguchi admitted, the Japanese driver having experienced the podium twice during the GT Asia Series’ last visit to the venue in 2013.

“It’s a very busy layout, and certainly rewards experience. Last time I was in the McLaren MP4-12C, so have experience too with the turbo car here, so that will give me a small advantage early in the weekend, however I expect that as the weekend progresses the other teams will close the gap.”

As for Caldarelli, the Italian enjoys a strong relationship with Okayama, having been a back-to-back winner in Super GT (GT500) at the venue over the last two years.

“I don’t know what it is about Okayama, it must just suit my style because I’ve always gone quite well here,” Caldarelli admitted.

“As to how the McLaren performs, that we’re not quite sure of yet, but certainly the tighter technical layout of Okayama is more suited to our cars than the long straights in South Korea where the Aston and the Ferrari enjoyed an advantage.”

For team-mates Jiang Xin and Max Wiser however, Okayama will be a new circuit for the Chinese-based drivers to negotiate, although both admitted that the depth of experience within the FFF Racing team will certainly work in their favour.

“Andrea, Tonio and Hiroshi have done plenty of miles at Okayama, so we will be able to call on that ourselves, although there’s never any substitute for laps,” Wiser admitted.

Since the opening round, Sean Fu, Caldarelli and Liuzzi have also turned testing laps in Europe, with Fu spending two days at Rockingham in the UK, whilst Liuzzi was able to turn laps in a McLaren with factory driver Alvaro Parente.

“For Tonio it was an opportunity to test some new developments on the car, whilst Sean just needs more time behind the wheel, and he experienced that along with a big step forward in pace,” Caldarelli confirmed.

“For us the big focus during pre-event practice is getting our ‘amateur’ drivers up to speed,” team manager Alf Boarer admitted. “Sean has been testing at Rockingham in the UK between rounds and Tonio too has managed to gain some additional knowledge about the car.

“We have some minor upgrades for the car too which weren’t available ahead of South Korea, although they’re unlikely to give us a significant gain, however it will all help to breach the gap to the established GT Asia Series teams.

“As Andrea said, Okayama will better suit the McLaren, although from what we hear the weather conditions are likely to be unpredictable and play a significant part in the outcome, but that too could work to our advantage. We’ll see what happens come Sunday afternoon!”

All GT Asia Series teams will conduct an unofficial test at Okayama on the Thursday prior to official practice to give teams and drivers an opportunity to prepare their cars for the weekend, before the official part of the weekend gets underway on Friday, with two 45-minute practice sessions for all teams, and a dedicated 30-minute session for the amateur drivers.