In today’s qualifying session for the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone Ram Racing delivered a solid performance despite struggling for initial pace.
The team arrived at its home track intending to use the first three practice sessions to set up the car and dial in the settings ahead of Sunday’s six-hour race. The varying temperatures and track conditions over the last two days have had an effect, but it is also worth noting that this is the first time the whole team has been working all together in an FIA WEC race situation.
With endurance racing being very much a ‘team’ sport and the regulations requiring a minimum of two and a maximum of three drivers in each car, it was decided last year that FIA WEC qualifying should recognise this fact. So, two drivers from each car are nominated for qualifying and the average of the four best lap times (the best two of each driver) will serve as the reference time for establishing the grid. It’s a full team effort.
Driving the No. 52 Ferrari F458 Italia in the LMGTE Pro class, Matt Griffin and Alvaro Parente set a time of 1.59.485 to qualify in sixth place. The sister car of Johnny Mowlem, Ben Collins and Mark Patterson qualified seventh in the Am class for tomorrow’s race – amid an overall grid of 27 cars.
Dan Shufflebottom, CEO Ram Racing: “It was a challenging session. Qualifying for the WEC is a new format to us so we are learning a lot and contemplating our strategy based around our findings. The drivers are a lot happier after the final practice session, and we are fairly confident that the soft tyres are about a second quicker on pace than the mediums. A lot will depend on the weather tomorrow, but it’s a six-hour race so anything can happen.”
Matt Griffin, Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia No.52: “Qualifying went well but the position is not representative of where we want to be for sure. We took the decision to focus on the race strategy so we had to give a little bit away in qualifying which is reflected in our position. We have worked really well this weekend. Alvaro and I are very happy with the balance of the car, and we are looking forward to getting the race underway.”
Alvaro Parente, Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia No.52: “After this morning free practice I’m feeling a lot more confident. We did a few set up changes, which improved the handling for qualifying. We are running a different strategy than some of our opponents. Hopefully tomorrow our plans will pay off but it really depends on the weather conditions and tyre degradation. Obviously, I always like to be at the front and that is my main target. Today, we ran the medium tyres and our opponents ran with softs so we will see what happens tomorrow. We are definitely not slow and with the soft tyres we were right up there.”
Johnny Mowlem, Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia No.53: “We worked hard after free practice to improve the car and the team did a great job. For me the car was a lot friendlier, the balance and handling were significantly better so I’m feeling a lot more confident for the race. We have worked our strategy to factor in the weather. Ben did a great job on new tyres during his stint. In terms of a race car, I’m a little disappointed that we have not got more pace but, on saying that, we do have a good race car for tomorrow.”
Ben Collins, Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia No.53: “We are running a very different strategy on the set up which is based much more on endurance but a lot will depend on the weather. If it stays as it is, we will be in a very good position because we have extremely good consistency across the lap times. We used the practice sessions well and have made lots of changes and are really happy with the balance of the car now.”