Isotta Fraschini made her first appearance in the FIA World Endurance Championship in a difficult, but also very useful weekend in Qatar.
On the Lusail track the Tipo 6 LMH-C was making its debut in a competition and also sharing the track with the prototypes of the Hypercar Class with which it will compete during the 2024 season.
The car from the Milanese manufacturer prepared by Team Duqueine traveled to the Middle East with the primary objective of gaining experience, collecting data and information, but above all learning about the world it has immersed itself in.
This is because, in addition to the arrival in November of the new French team for the preparation of the Tipo 6 after the stormy separation from Vector Sport, the few tests carried out during the winter and the debut at the wheel of Antonio Serravalle and Carl Bennett put the team Italian-French ahead of many new things to discover.
Among other things, the last two real tests on the track took place in October and December with Jean-Karl Vernay at the wheel, but without ever testing the new lightened bodyshell which everyone actually saw in action for the first time in Lusail.
Once the first session of the Prologue was chosen, it was necessary to check the gearbox which caused a couple of hours of activity to be lost in the collective tests, which prevented Serravalle and Bennett from starting to get to know the car better.
Unfortunately, the gearbox failed during Free Practice 2 on Thursday when Vernay spun, losing further precious time, as Claudio Berro explains to Motorsport.com.
“Unfortunately the gear shift clutches were scratched, probably due to the spin due to the vibrations and the movement in the opposite direction to that of travel – says the team's Sports Director – So, when Jean-Karl was pulled out of the escape route and he returned to the track to return to the garage and the gears came out.”
#11 Isotta Fraschini Isotta Fraschini Type6-C: Antonio Serravalle, Carl Wattana Bennett, Jean-Karl Vernay
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In Qualifying, Vernay himself placed 19th at 1″490 from the Lamborghini #63 of Iron Lynx and 4″ from the best time achieved by Matt Campbell with the Porsche on which he then achieved the Hyperpole. But the Frenchman didn't have an easy time even at the start of the race, when when setting off for the formation lap he was forced to reset the hybrid system.
As mentioned, having no desire for particular placings, Isotta continued her race trying to stay out of trouble and doing her own laps, with Vernay achieving the best in 1'43″883 and an average of 1'44 “546 in 57 laps, while Bennett and Serravalle – who had in fact never driven the Tipo 6 before Lusail – achieved a 1'43″950 (average 1'45″366) in 66 laps and 1'44” respectively 332 (average 1'45″977) in 34.
And if we consider that Campbell was also the fastest in the race in 1'39″748 with an average of 1'42″348 in 170 laps at the wheel of a much more competitive Porsche for obvious reasons, there may be ample margin for improvement for the Type 6, which among other things found a Balance of Performance making it the second heaviest car in the category with 1085 kg (4 less than the Toyota).
Three penalties were then imposed: the first two for speeding in the pit lane (Stop&Go of 90″) and under Full Course Yellow (Drive Through), infringements committed by Bennett, while another Stop&Go of 200″ occurred due to excessive use of the permitted power.
“When it came to rest on a curb, the tire found itself suspended and, without touching the ground, it spun freely. In this way, the systems used an exaggerated use of power”, explain the team.
The race finally ended after 6 hours and 157 laps combined due to a failure in the front right suspension which the Duqueine and Michelotto Engineering mechanics could have also fixed on the spot, preferring however to stop and analyze the causes of the failure in more depth to do not run into further problems by placing the so-called temporary 'patch'.
#11 Isotta Fraschini Isotta Fraschini Type6-C: Antonio Serravalle, Carl Wattana Bennett, Jean-Karl Vernay
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“The race ended prematurely due to a mechanical problem, but the team did a great job to get us to this point and we as drivers also managed to improve lap after lap,” commented Bennett.
Serravalle adds: “We have gained a lot of experience and I am very grateful for it, the team is improving the car's performance in every session and I believe that by mid-season we will be much more competitive.”
Here is Berro's analysis: “Objective halfway achieved, we are satisfied with the data collected in the first five hours but unfortunately we missed the second part of the race due to a suspension problem”.
“It's also a repairable problem, but it deserved further investigation and it wasn't worth the risk. The data collected both during testing and in the race is encouraging and the gap that separates us from the other cars, especially in terms of race pace, is as positive as we expected.”
“We must now examine at home the problem that stopped us today, improve our performance in qualifying and obviously get closer to the top in the race.”
#11 Isotta Fraschini Isotta Fraschini Type6-C: Antonio Serravalle, Carl Wattana Bennett, Jean-Karl Vernay
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Alessandro Fassina, President of Isotta Fraschini Milano, comments: “The weekend went positively, given that all debuts in the world of endurance racing are difficult. We had peaks of excellence, given that if we take the best laps of our drivers, then also the two younger ones who had to do kilometers, they all had good laps.”
“And if you manage to do good laps, it means that there is substance both in terms of the car and the driver. We had some youth problems, but in fact only one real one, the one that made us retire. I'm happy with this weekend.”
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