Apprenticeship week end for Bhai Tech Racing at Paul Ricard
Spotlights were focused on the first season of the Padua-based team in the International GT open Championship, whose opening race was run on the transalpine track of Le Castellet, last weekend.
The opening race was featured by rough weather: rain, fog and low temperatures gave the team, who is directed by the engineer Mr. Roberto Costa, the chance to gain experience at the wheel of the two new McLaren MP4 12 C GT3, driven by the two couples of drivers Pantano/Suzuki and Van der Drift/Razia, who all made their debut in the International series.
Given the fact the Mestrino-based team was making an all-round debut in the series, it didn’t let anybody down, as it gained km, collected data and set encouraging split times since free practices, leading the two cars at the top of the standing. In qualifying 1, the four Formula car racers showcased all their talent by qualifying in the second row; the car #65 driven by the Italo-Brazilian couple Pantano/Suzuki qualified ahead of the team mates. During the race luck was not at the side of the Italian team, as Van der Drift’s race was ruined by a collision with the Aston Martin, because of which the driver from New Zealand had to quit the race in advance after a turnabout.
In the final stage even the second car, driven by Suzuki, exited the scene. The crash was violent and the damages caused by that couldn’t be fixed on time to take part in the second qualifying session, during which Luiz Razia cheered up by qualifying in the first row and setting the second best laptime. Once again the final verdict didn’t do justice to Van der Drift who, after taking control of the car and pitting for a long time to have some parts of the bodywork fixed, finished 15th .
“We cannot be pleased with the final result, as we didn’t manage to solve few problems in the wet. Everything was new to us and we had never raced in such conditions before. The choices we made unfortunately didn’t pay off. Now we’ll work side by side with McLaren to analyze all data, even the ones concerning Dunlop rain tyres”, says the technical director Mr. Roberto Costa “The car was competitive in the dry. We don’t have to forget that we’re only at the first stage of the development. The team is so competitive and it’s composed by experts. We’re thinking about next race in Portimao.”
The staff is ready to go back to the cutting-edge Bhai Tech Advanced Vehicle Science Centre to analyze all data and get ready for the next challenge to be held on the track of Portimao (May 11th /12th).
