By Sam Tickell
Ferrari did it right
Well what can one say? A Ferrari wins without a Porsche in site.
Not only do Ferrari win by they take second, third and fourth. The best Porsche is that of Feblermayr-Proton, some 17 laps off the winning Ferrari – that of Risi Competizione.
So where did it all go wrong for Porsche? Or as we prefer to think – where did it all go right for Ferrari?
Ferrari had more cars. But does that really matter when your opposition includes Flying Lizards, IMSA Performance and Felbermayr?
In this case it did. Because the two major Porsche teams hit each other, sending the Flying Lizards in for lengthy repairs, and the IMSA Performance out of the race. This just left the Felbermayr car to battle a hoard of Ferraris.
So the numbers game Ferrari won. Not taking each other out – Ferrari won.
It didn’t matter that the heroes of the 2007 event – Krohn/Risi were the first cars out. It didn’t matter that after a gallant effort, Virgo’s engine failed and it didn’t matter that AF Corse stopped after completing over 100 laps.
Well it may have mattered for the teams, but it didn’t matter for Ferrari.
Porsche tripped up - or over each other
But no matter how many cars you have, it will make no difference if they are slow or fragile.
Ferrari have not had the distraction of developing a P2 car to beat a P1 car. They have not had to battle creating a P1 car or to battle the rules on diesel vs petrol.
Ok – that last bit we are assuming from a bit of rumouring going on but the point is clear – Ferrari’s sportscar division have been able to concentrate on making a great GT2 car. A car that can win Le Mans
Porsche hasn’t – and it showed.
But if Porsche had a bad race, the only other manufacturer in the class had a diabolical one.
Spyker was campaigning new cars with a new engine. They seem to be one of these guys that everyone loves. Well we certainly do anyway. The cars are beautiful, the spirit is there in bucket loads and the thing should be competitive – but they always seem to miss the mark.
This year the diagnosing the problem was simple. F1 in 2007 crippled the company. 2008 is a building year. The new car was late. The company is trying to put money in the bank. The car and particularly the engine were new.
As a consequence, it was slow and particularly unreliable. A shame really. Both cars were out after completing 43 and 72 laps respectively.
A performance that defies the looks of that car. We hope they will be back and we hope the ACO will give them more chances. They add an essential little bit of variety into a Le Mans field of Porsches and Ferraris.
But back to the original point of this story – what did Ferrari do right?
They had the numbers, they had the reliability, they didn’t hit each other.
And importantly they had the depth of talent in both the drivers and the teams.
A quick look at the first four finishers in GT2 will tell you that the 2007 ALMS Champs, won (Risi), FIA GT, LMS Champs, Ex-F1, sportscar team that has been round for yonks came second (BMS Scuderia Italia), LMS stalwarts and regular Porsche runners (!) Fanbacher came third and JMB – another one who has been round forever came fourth.
Spyker - the best way to remember them from Le Mans 2008
That depth in teams was matched in the depth of driving talent with Salo, Kaffer, Babini leading the charge supported fantastically by their equally talented teammates.
And that is where they did things right. They took luck out of it as much as they could. They could afford Virgo’s engine blowing up near the end because they had a depth of talent that bad luck avoided.
Spyker and particularly Porsche did not have that.
And that was the critical factor that made GT2 history and made Ferrari GT2 winners.