James Calado expects the Bahrain 8 Hours to be a tough race for his Ferrari AF Corse and is “scratching” how he can get to the front of the hypercars.
Since winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, both factory Ferrari 499Ps have endured a difficult second half of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.
On Thursday, Ferrari finished eighth and ninth in the rain-interrupted first practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit, followed by 10th and 11th in the second free practice session.
Calado, who won Le Mans with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi, told the media that Ferrari is currently “poor in all areas,” including straight-line speed. Thursday’s trap top speed figure at 499P was 8.1 km/h (5 mph) slower than the overall top speed.
The Italian manufacturer is known to have been dissatisfied with the performance balance of the cars presented for the final three rounds of the season.
“There’s no pace at all right now,” Calado said. “I’m a little confused. The car is driving and feels great. Everything seems normal. [but] I’m just a few seconds off the pace.
“For some reason, a lot of it is straight-line speed. Usually we can match Toyota in top speed, but for some reason now we have a huge gap.
“Overall, we’re missing a bit of corner speed as well. The only thing we can really compare to is the last race. We’ve been out of action in all areas.”
Ferrari finished fourth and fifth at the Fuji 6 Hours, and apart from an initial test with one car, they prioritized running on hard tire compounds until the final stint.
Michelin continued to use hard and medium compounds for the final race of the Bahrain season.
“Aside from Le Mans, we’ve always struggled a bit with degradation throughout the season,” Calado said.
“This is the worst track of the season in that respect. It doesn’t bode well for the race.
“Normally we would be able to get into the front for at least one lap, but for some reason we are still not competitive in that area.
“We still have FP3 left and we need to see if we can make some changes and consider what we need to do. There are some unknowns, but we’ll just do the best we can. ”
Ferrari tested at the Bahrain International Circuit last month, where conditions were hotter than this weekend.
“We tested, we implemented the program, and from the testing reality came back and here we are.” [and] I know it’s going to be difficult,” Calado said.
“It was clear it was going to be really, really tough. It was about 10 degrees. [C] more.
“We were hoping that the temperature here would drop and it would help, but the reality is the same.” [situation] As a test. ”
Calado suggested that Ferrari arrived in Bahrain with a different set-up to reduce degradation at a circuit that is notoriously taxing on tires.
“If the tires are new at the start of the stint, you’re probably sacrificing a little bit of one-lap pace, but you’re working on increasing your endurance,” he suggested.
“I’m about to do a double stint.” [with consistent pace] This track isn’t easy, so we’re focused on doing our best in the race, but we might not be as good in qualifying.
“I don’t think we will use the medium.” [in the race]. We can’t have them work on our car.
“We tried it in testing, and we tried it here.” [in Free Practice]. For us, that doesn’t work. I need a harder compound. ”
Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars, Ferdinando Cannizzo, struck a more optimistic tone when asked about the team’s chances in the seventh-ever WEC contest.
“Of course, our goal is always to fight to the end,” he said. “Obviously there’s something we need to do [do]it’s a huge challenge.
“As Ferrari, we never give up before a race, even if the mission seems impossible.
“But I’m trying to find something in everything, whether it’s strategy or set-up, to at least create the conditions to fight for a podium.”