[FIA GT] GT3 European Championship 2011

[cmk]

Originally Posted by Joe Taylor

You mean the Corvette that dominated the series last year?

In a performance-balanced series, last year is a million miles away.

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally Posted by cmk

In a performance-balanced series, last year is a million miles away.

Thats true, but what is to say that the Corvette wont be competitive again this year? Call me stupid but I would be suprised if the Corvettes arent somewhere near the front once again this year if they are run by decent teams with good drivers.

[helgi]

R8 LMS won 2009 and then "suddenly" they found themselves somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I don't think the situation with Callaway is going to be different. Everything was won last year, and now it's time for another "brand". There's no engineering logic with that "balance". Show must go on and so on.

[Speed-King]

Well, Callaway had two top fives in the first two sessions of the GT-Masters season:

Keilwitz/Alessi in P4 in FP1
Frentzen/Hannawald in P5 in FP2...

Qualifying in about an hour so we should know a little more then....

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by helgi

There's no engineering logic with that "balance". Show must go on and so on.

Well Helgi gets the difference between a show and a race. If you performance balance a car so it’s incapable of winning what’s the point entering events. Last year when Callaway had the driving championship locked up prior to last race they put so much weight on the car (minimum ballast, not success ballast) it had no chance to win the team championship. The FIA/SRO also restricted the car for the third time in a season prior to that race. What was so funny is that the Vette was already slower than a lot of cars out there; it’s just that Callaway was not spinning out like Van Splunteren when he had the faster car. The bottom line is they handed the team championship to Prospeed last year. The Vette suffered more ballast and restrictors because of other team’s incompetence, not the Vettes overall performance.

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Well, Callaway had two top fives in the first two sessions of the GT-Masters season:

Wow, a top 5 in a warm up session for one of last year’s FIA GT3 driver champions, now that’s something to write home about. They have taken a car that could easily qualify on pole and turned it into grid fodder (in the voice of the taunting French guard in Monty Pythons Holy Grail) with their so called B-o-P.

[Speed-King]

Wow, a top 5 in a warm up session for one of last year’s FIA GT3 driver champions, now that’s something to write home about.

In a 40 car field it is, especially when there are 16 cars within one second!

And seriously: Driver quality in GT-Masters is at least as good as in the FIA series!

[AndrewF31]

It appears to me that GT Masters will have, overall, better drivers than Euro GT3 since FIA established some new rules on how many pros can be in the cars for 2011.

It would still be sad not to see Callaway entering a Vette or 2. And looking at their site, it doesn't look like they will.
Maybe a good result this weekend will convince them to do otherwise.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Thats true, but what is to say that the Corvette wont be competitive again this year? Call me stupid but I would be suprised if the Corvettes arent somewhere near the front once again this year if they are run by decent teams with good drivers.

Nothing to say for sure, but it is important to note that no marque has won consecutive team championships or driver championships in the five years of FIA GT3. Sure, it's a relatively small sample size, but top marques have frequently found themselves buried mid-pack the following season. Coincidence?

[Speed-King]

GT-Masters-Spoiler, hence in white-on-white, highlight ro read:

Keilwitz and Alessi with the drive of the day in today's GT-Masters race, going from 10th to 2nd with what was clearly one of the fastest cars on the straights. If anyone needs help, it is Porsche, but I'll reserve final judgement on that until tomorrow, especially seeing how they are doing pretty well in Brit GT.

[kyoung]

No Z06.R in French GT, a car that was consistently on pole and winning races.

Z06.R 11th for race 1 and 19th (dead last) for race 2 in British GT, driven by G4 class title winners from 2010.

ADAC Masters Weekend Oschersleben

RACE 1, 4 SLS, 4 R8s in the top ten

1 BMW ALPINA B6 GT3
2 Corvette Z06.R GT3, driven by last years GT3 Champion
3 Audi R8 LMS
4 Audi R8 LMS
5 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
6 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
7 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
8 Audi R8 LMS
9 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
10 Audi R8 LMS
15, 19, 26 Corvette Z06.R GT3 grid fodder

RACE 2, 4 SLS, 2 R8s in the top ten

1 Lamborghini Gallardo LP600plus
2 Audi R8 LMS
3 BMW ALPINA B6 GT3
4 Corvette Z06.R GT3, driven by last years GT3 Champion
5 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
6 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
7 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
8 Porsche 911 GT3 R
9 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
10 Audi R8 LMS
14, 22, 27 Corvette Z06.R GT3 grid fodder

The SRO/FIA BoP is a joke.

[Chiana]

It is. What about the GT3s in VLN/N24, are they always affected by FIA's newest performance balancing?

[Speed-King]

14, 22, 27 Corvette Z06.R GT3 grid fodder

Driver line ups might have had something to do with that...
Additionally, Frentzen parked his car with a technical defect in race 2, and Toni Seiler was spun by Peter Kox in race 1.

When you have 10+ all pro-line ups in a race, top 10 finishes will be hard to come by for Pro-Am teams.

At Oschersleben the Corvette was the fastest car in a straight line....

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by Chiana

It is. What about the GT3s in VLN/N24, are they always affected by FIA's newest performance balancing?

I think VLN uses the FIA GT3 BoP as a baseline, then adjusts as they see fit, last year when the FIA threw a 100KG on the Vette and cranked the restrictor down to 49mm, the VLN allowed the Vette to run with a 50mm restrictor but didn’t pull the weight.

What really sucks about the SRO/FIA is when they BoP it affects a car in all these series, which is why there is no Z06.R in French GT, Graff just said to hell with it and got some SLSs. They knew which way the wind was blowing, and it wasn’t in the Vette’s favor.

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

At Oschersleben the Corvette was the fastest car in a straight line....

Are you implying/reinforcing the myth the Vette can’t corner, because before they started piling on the weight and restrictors last year in GT3 the Vette had no problem driving around Porsches and Ferraris in the corners.