Powerless. It is a strong term, but it perfectly sums up the Ferrari 1000 Miglia Sebring, in very serious difficulty and through no fault of their own.
The first stage of the FIA World Endurance Championship is to be filed as soon as possible for the Prancing Horse men represented by AF Corse, but not to be forgotten for the FIA and ACO who manage the series.
Always talking about the problems deriving from the Balance of Performance gets tired and this is true for those who run, for those who read and also for those who have to write about it, telling and trying to explain what happens.
Unfortunately, the spectacle that did not take place at Sebring at times left us stunned, as if to wonder how it was possible that in the LMGTE PRO Class only the Porsches and Corvettes could have a certain pace, while the World Champions were missing in the rear, even pursued by LMGTE AM.
# 52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO: Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco
Photo by: Paul Foster
Before every event there is always the doubt that someone is playing with the times, hiding the potential that then comes out in the race. The Reds # 51 and # 52 this time had not worn any … mask, so much so that already in Qualifying the suspicions that something was wrong had had more than one confirmation (better than them even Ben Keating with the Aston Martin of GTE AM ).
Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado and Antonio Fuoco / Miguel Molina never had the pace to be able to stay with their rivals, accumulating over 1’13 “already in the first hour of the race and even coming to be lapped in a juncture.
The thing that obviously made us turn up our noses is the goodness of the 488, underlined several times by both crews during the weekend, a very heavy meaning that leaves no way out for answers related to the regulation, too penalizing for the guys from Maranello, who are excessively weakened. and therefore with parameters absolutely to be reviewed.
“It was a very long race and it developed as we expected. We did not have the pace of the others and we were struggling to overtake the AM cars – comments Pier Guidi inexorably – It was very difficult but we got the best possible result”.
“The car went well and was balanced, we just lacked power and speed but that’s something we already knew from the Prologue, it didn’t surprise us. For the rest the race was error-free, with good pit stops from the riders. guys. In the end we have never been competitive nor could we be, so we finished in the same position we started from ”.
# 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado
Photo by: Paul Foster
In addition to the damage, there was also the insult of a technical problem that hit the 488 # 52, as explained by Molina.
“It was not a positive race for us and we never had the pace to fight for the podium. We had a power steering problem, something that had never happened before so we’ll have to understand why it came up, “says the Spaniard.
“We tried to recover and bring home points for the classification. Until the problem arose the car was not going badly, we had a pace comparable to that of # 51”.
“We have to try to improve further, Antonio proved to be very fast and already at the level of the most experienced and this leaves me confident for the rest of the season”.
Paradoxically, the problem had better occurred in such an event, where it was impossible to fight even for the podium.
But after all the controversy with which the 2021 season had ended, starting again in 2022 with the same situations is somewhat cloying.
For the sake of entertainment and sport, because this is what it is, the hope is that in view of the 6h of Spa-Francorchamps the right balance will be re-established that will allow the LMGTE PRO Class to have all five cars registered to play it, not just two and a half.
#WEC #Ferrari #impotent #couldnt #pace