Emil Frey Racing: Second goal missed 🎥
NO FURTHER PODIUM As in the Sprint Cup, Emil Frey Racing aimed for third place in the annual standings for all races at the GT World Challenge Europe endurance finale. Despite leading for a long time, it did not succeed. Where in mid-March, immediately before the Europe-wide lockdown, the official test drives heralded the start of the season, which was interrupted for months immediately afterwards, the races held from the end [...]
Where in mid-March, immediately before the Europe-wide lockdown, the official test drives heralded the start of the season, which was interrupted for months immediately afterwards, the 1000 kilometers Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, postponed from the end of May to November 15, marked the end of the season. It was also the 50th endurance race since the launch of the Blancpain Endurance Cup within the GT Series at Monza in spring 2011.
The second bronze medal as a goal
The GT World Challenge Europe, known as the Blancpain GT Series until 2019, has been held in compact form over eight race weekends since the end of July and lasted just under three and a half months. Emil Frey Racing finished the Sprint Cup, which consists of four two-hour races, in an excellent third place in the team standings. The highlight was victory at Zandvoort.
The Safenwil team also set itself the realistic goal of third place overall in the South of France for the overall standings, which consist of all eight sprint races and four endurance races.
Good omen
The endurance race, which lasts either 1,000 kilometers or six hours and ends in darkness, brought back fond memories for the team. Two years ago, a sensational triumph was achieved with the Lexus GT3.
With the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo - dominant in last year's GT Open - competing at the highest level for the first time, things also looked very good at the start of the final round on the 5771-meter variant of the Circuit Paul Ricard. From a promising sixth starting position in the field of 40 sports cars, Giacomo Altoè soon worked his way up to third place.
Only P8 after 22 lead laps
From lap 11 to 29 and after the first fuel stop from lap 34 to 36, i.e. for more than 42 minutes, the Italian with the blue Lamborghini #163 was in the lead. However, nothing came of the hoped-for podium in the race and in the championship.
In the end, Giacomo Altoè, Albert Costa and the substitute driver Mikkel Mac from Denmark, who had stepped in for Franck Perera, who had been engaged in the USA, only finished eighth. The reason was explained by the outstanding starting driver.
Giacomo Altoè: "After the first pit stop and the tire change, I was struggling with the car. The rear tires in particular were giving me a hard time. That's when the race started to get tough for us."
Spin and too little speed
The second car #14 with Norbert Siedler, Mikael Grenier and Ricardo Feller as the only Swiss driver ran in eleventh position and thus just outside the points. The Austrian summarizes their race performance.
Norbert Siedler: "In the beginning, a Lexus unfortunately touched our Lamborghini, which caused Mik to spin. In terms of speed, we weren't quite there. This was particularly noticeable in the middle of the stint. In summary, we were good at the beginning, in the middle we struggled badly and then towards the end our performance was okay again."
Team runner-up two years ago
So in the end, instead of 3rd place, the result was a still respectable fifth place overall in the GT World Challenge Europe 2020 out of 23 ranked teams and 8th place for the Altoè/Costa duo.
In retrospect, the zero number three weeks earlier at the Spa 24 Hours (accident for one team, P16 for the other) weighed too heavily, which was reflected above all in the separate Endurance Cup. Two years ago, Emil Frey Racing was runner-up in the prestigious team classification with Lexus, but now it couldn't get beyond twelfth place overall.
In the specially produced video, Emil Frey Racing reviews the 24 Hours of Spa, which did not go well.
Great effort under difficult conditions
The final conclusion drawn by the Technical Director was correspondingly sober.
Jürg Flach: "Our goal was to finish third overall. Unfortunately, our pace today was not sufficient to achieve this. The task now is to analyze the reasons for this and bring about the necessary improvements for the 2021 season. In addition to the many strong moments, this should be our motivation to develop further. I am proud of our team and what we have achieved under sometimes difficult conditions. We thank everyone for their tireless commitment."
The overall classification of the 1000 kilometers Paul Ricard is available at here. The best-placed Swiss is Rolf Ineichen, who finished 5th overall with Audi factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde.
