DSC’s Daily Notebook (19/07/2023)
A look at the Enduro and 7TSix cars for Portimao
Pictures of Enduro’s new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT4 for the British GT Championship have been revealed ahead of this weekend’s meeting at Portimao.
All change at @enduromsport!
Its new Aston and Merc join us in Portugal this weekend. pic.twitter.com/9IiGZKAz09
— #BritishGT (@BritishGT) July 18, 2023
The livery for 7TSIX’s new Mercedes-AMG GT3, which is guest-entered for the trip to Portugal, has been shown off too.
7TSIX returns! And it’s got a new GT3:
Tim Creswick, Konsta Lappalainen and a Mercedes-AMG join us in Portugal this weekend. pic.twitter.com/lWHCnSwVav
— #BritishGT (@BritishGT) July 18, 2023
Insight on Corvette’s ‘one team’ approach
Corvette Racing has revealed that during the weekend of the FIA 6 Hours of Monza and IMSA at CTMP, its two crews assisted one another from distance.
During the race at Monza, the Corvette crew on the other side of the Atlantic connected remotely to the team intercom, telemetry system, timing and scoring and engineering and strategy tools. That allowed them to assist the FIA WEC effort, which was pushing to wrap up the GTE Am title, from afar.
“During the Monza race prior to the green flag at CTMP, the IMSA team was providing input on strategy through real-time communication with the engineers on the pit wall in Monza,” said Marc Maurini, the Corvette Racing WEC team manager.
“They were bouncing some questions off Kyle (the chief engineer, who is usually on the WEC side but during that weekend was with the IMSA crew),” added Corvette IMSA driver Jordan Taylor. “He’s been around for so long and seen pretty much everything there is to see even though he’s so young. Ben (Keating) was on the intercoms too. Both teams on both sides of the ocean are working together.
“If we have electronics issues, Neil (Schreiber), who set up our car is on the WEC side now so we can bounce questions off him. It’s nice to have that constant communication between the two.”
Then when the IMSA race was on and the newly-crowned (GTE AM champion) WEC crew had finished their duties in Italy, they did the reverse. However, the Corvette crew in Canada were already poised to take the win by the time everyone on the WEC strategy table were online.
“By the time the Monza race ended and the WEC crew were able to tune into IMSA and follow along, those guys were already in the lead with 45 minutes to go and didn’t need any help from us!” Maurini explained. “We cheered them on and listened to the celebration when they crossed the finish line.
“At most events where there is not a conflict between series, the engineering team on an “off weekend” will be online to provide support during practice sessions and the race,” he continued.
“Pre-event, a one-team approach is clearly on display with IMSA drivers and engineers running DIL (Driver in the Loop) test sessions to develop WEC setups, and vice versa. It is not uncommon to see certain individuals in IMSA for one event and at the next WEC race. Any lessons or procedural updates from either series is shared across the programme through singular operations and engineering meetings at the programme level.”
24H Series at Barcelona attracts more than 50 cars
A provisional entry list for the forthcoming 24H Barcelona event in September has been released by Creventic. It features more than 50 cars for the race, which is set for its 24th running this year.
At the top of the list, the entry features a healthy 15-car GT3 field, among which will be four overall Dubai 24 Hours winners, representing five (of the event’s 11) brands, including Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes-AMG and Aston Martin.
Solus GT Goodwood victory a “fantastic achievement” for McLaren
McLaren has spent the start of this week celebrating the Solus GT’s victory in the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed Timed Shootout Final.
On Sunday, the Solus GT, which weights less than 1000kg, is powered by a 5.2-litre V10 engine and was first designed for the video game Gran Turismo Sport, completed the 1.16-mile run in 45.342 seconds with factory driver Marvin Kirchhöfer at the wheel.
“Victory for the Solus GT in the Timed Shootout Final crowns a milestone Goodwood Festival of Speed for McLaren,” said Michael Leiters, Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Automotive.
“Coinciding with 30 years of the Festival, our 60th-anniversary celebrations had already seen a Triple Crown tribute at McLaren House and on the Hillclimb and powerful public dynamic debuts for both the Solus GT and the new 750S, and now we have again claimed victory in the Timed Shootout Final – a fantastic achievement by an incredible team.”
McLaren is set to build 25 Solus GT customer cars.
Images courtesy of IMSA, McLaren, 24H Series
The post DSC’s Daily Notebook (19/07/2023) first appeared on dailysportscar.com.