Following a 2012 season with Ferrari in the World GT Championship, Enzo Ide is taking on a brilliant double assignment in 2013. The young West-Flanders based driver is competing with Phoenix Audi in both the Blancpain Endurance Series as also the FIA GT Series, together with his fellow countryman Anthony Kumpen and for the longer races the German GT1 World Champion Markus Winkelhock. During the third round of the Blancpain Endurance Series on the Paul Ricard circuit, the team proved that it was able to fight back from a highly difficult position and not throw in the towel, even when the victory is no longer in sight. Starting out from a 40th place on the grid Markus Winkelhock, Anthony Kumpen and Enzo Ide managed to fight their way through to an 11th place in the Pro-category, one point away from scoring points. Notwithstanding that the trio still believe in a strong finish in the championship, where two races are still on the agenda: the 24 Hours of Spa and the 1000 Kilometres of the Nürburgring, two classic events where even more points are to be scored than in the three previous races at Monza, Silverstone and Paul Ricard. “We didn’t experience an easy weekend, however there are two things I would like to emphasize”, Ide commented after the weekend. “In the first instance there is the fighter mentality which showed that we climbed from 40th into 11th spot and more especially Markus Winkelhock’s stint, bringing us in one hour from 40th up to 21st place… I have an enormous respect for what he did for us this weekend!”
Already during the qualifying sessions we knew that it would not be an easy weekend for the Phoenix Audi Team. The Audi R8 LMS Ultra is quite clearly not in its element on tracks with extremely long straights. Through the Balance of Performance there is a lack of pure power and top speed. The German sports car’s qualities come into their own on the technical parts and the car is sound in the rain. However this was not the case in the sun drenched south, where the temperature ran up to 30°.
Enzo Ide: “This all became very clear during the free training and qualifying sessions. We just could not get up to the level of our rivals: the Nissan, BMW or other makes that do find themselves in their element on a fast track. The outcome of all this: a fortieth place on the grid! If there are 39 other GT cars in front of you, then you realise that victory is far from achievable. But to hang down your head and not take up the fight is something we never do! We opted not to give in easily and to go flat out for every place. Throwing in the towel is not in our dictionary.”
And so it came about … 40 turned into 35, 35 became 30 and Markus Winkelhock then carried on down to 21st place. Enzo Ide and Anthony Kumpen, clearly motivated by the example set by their German world champion continued the climb up through the pack to 11th spot, where in fact the top-10 score points.
Enzo Ide: “It’s a pity that we just missed out on scoring points, because we were just one place short. I would have enjoyed scoring a few units towards the championship. But it cannot be helped, so let’s concentrate on Spa and the 24 hours race in a few weeks time. But first we’re heading off to Zandvoort in a week’s time for the European Sprint Championship!”
Source : Enzo Ide