13.05.09 Encouraging debut in Formula Le Mans

The new-for-2009 Formula Le Mans held its first race at the LMS weekend.

Formula Le Mans Spa

Formula Le Mans Spa

Formula Le Mans Spa

Identical sports prototypes are driven by a professional driver and an ambitious amateur racer – at least that was the initial idea. "My team mate Luca Moro currently only has GT experience and will do his first prototype racing this year. Meanwhile, some other teams have recruited their drivers from current F3 or A1GP. The organisers have some room for adjustments there."

On the other hand, the car has impressed Wolfgang Kaufmann: "It drives almost like an LMP2 prototype, and the 6.2l Chevrolet engine delivers plenty of torque". At the end of the qualifying sessions, the team occupied positions 6 and 7, respectively, for the two races. "We had to overcome some small technical issues but basically we are happy with the weekend. Luca is getting more and more accustomed to this new kind of car, and at the next round, the support race for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we want to launch a real attack."

Along with the Formula Le Mans races, another drive in Giovanni Lavaggi's LMP1 was on the agenda: "Giovanni's effort cannot be rated highly enough. While other teams have seemingly endless resources to draw from, he develops his LMP1 car with a small, effective crew of people. There was no roll-out or test before the race at Spa, simply because there is no budget for that."

They were late starters into the race on Sunday, a broken cable initially putting the LMP1 out of action. Eventually, Wolfgang Kaufmann and Giovanni Lavaggi used the 1000k race as a test session for necessary adjustments to the setup and aerodynamics. "With the mandatory smaller rear wing, we had a significant lack of down force on the rear of the car. In the super-fast segments such as “Eau Rouge” or “Blanchimont”, we had incredible down force in the front, but the rear end was extremely light and very sensitive."

Next weekend will see the man from Molsberg compete at Adria Raceway in the FIA GT3 European Championship. On this short track outside of Venice, Wolfgang Kaufmann and Luca Moro will share a Callaway Corvette Z06 R in the second round of the championship.