Once
more unto the breach . . .
The
opening round of the 2009 Le Mans Series sees
the championship reconvene at the Circuit
de Catalunya near Barcelona, also scene of
last year’s first race and the regular
home of the Spanish Grand Prix.
In
2008 RML’s primary concern as it headed
into the new season had been the question
of incompatibility between the MG XP-21 engine
and the newly-introduced bio-fuel formulation.
Having blown two engines in the official pre-season
test at Paul Ricard only a few weeks previously
there was justifiable cause for apprehension,
especially as the team faced a strong new
challenge in the form of the Porsche RS Spyder.
A year later, and much has changed. The team’s
links with MG have been consigned to the history
books, and a fresh and exciting era with Mazda
has begun.
The
opposition has changed too. A dominant year
in 2008 for Porsche also demonstrated that,
while an extraordinarily competitive race-winner,
the RS Spyder was somewhat profligate in terms
of running costs. Amid the current climate
of economic cut-backs and constraint the simple
expense of running one of these cars appears
to have been a deterrent to their return,
and while some of the LMP2 Porsches are expected
to feature in the Series later in the year,
they remain absent from Round 1.
Although
their departure does level out the playing
field to a degree, the competition within
LMP2 is no less intense. Including the RML
Lola Mazda, a total of fourteen cars are entered
for the opening round, and at least half of
the teams behind them, perhaps more, can believe
they have a realistic chance of ending up
on the podium.
Having
won the team and drivers’ titles in
2007, and been runners-up in 2005 and 2006,
RML’s Mike Newton and Thomas Erdos have
enjoyed a highly-rated status in the pre-season
speculation, with several of the leading publications
and on-line agencies picking them out as favourites.
Not only do they have the experience, both
in the cockpit and in the garage, but the
team’s Lola coupé chassis now
also has the benefit of Mazda power. The underpinning
on the chassis is the culmination of six years
of joint development between RML and manufacturer
Lola, and much of the componentry that made
the earlier MG EX265 a Le Mans-winner has
been carried forward into the new car. Reliability
and technical understanding are the lynch
pins of success in endurance racing, and RML
has both in spades.
Last
season’s MG XP-21 was a fantastic engine,
but after nearly seven years of concentrated
development, the unit had arrived near the
limit of its potential. The extent of refinement
meant that the engine was close to the edge
in every way, and when the issue of fuel incompatibility
was thrown into the mix, reliability was compromised.
The only option had been to de-tune the engine,
and RML’s drivers raced at a disadvantage
for the rest of the year. They begin 2009
knowing that they have a new engine behind
them that offers huge potential. It is youthful
in development terms, and clearly has so much
more yet to offer. It is a reassuring position
to be in.
With
the exception of the final round at Silverstone,
RML raced through 2008 with the open-topped
EX265 chassis. Revealing the new coupé
before the end of the year gave them the opportunity
to make back-to-back comparisons between the
open and closed configurations. They’d
been up against the Speedy Sebah coupé
all season, and recognised the potential of
the car, but being able to transfer the running
gear directly from one chassis to the other
gave the team a unique insight into the inherent
advantages of the coupé.
The
Speedy Racing Team Sebah coupé is back
again in 2009, with the added support of an
LMP1 version in the form of last year’s
Charouz Racing Aston Martin powered car. Also
back is Quifel ASM, but after so many years
as direct rivals to RML with a similar Lola
chassis, the Portuguese team has jumped ship
and come back with a new Ginetta Zytek GZ09S.
Polished performances in testing suggest they’ll
be vying for the front row come qualifying.
Others
likely to be in with a shout include both
the Racing Box Lola coupés, with strong
driver line-ups in each car, and the GAC Racing
Zytek – last season’s Trading
Performance entry under the revised name of
the Gstaad Automobile Club.
Another
team returning under an assumed name is Oak
Racing. The French outfit ran as Saulnier
Racing in 2008, with a single Pescarolo Judd
in LMP1 and another in LMP2. For 2009 they
have (perhaps wisely) elected to run both
cars in LMP2, this time powered by the same
basic Mazda engine now being employed by RML.
On past form they may not always have been
among the quickest, but reliability gave them
several strong results.
The
full entry for Barcelona is:
Images
for the remaining entries will be added as
soon as the new liveries have been seen.
Television
Coverage
Coverage
for the first race of the year is slightly
less than we've come to expect, but still
live if you've got access to Eurosport. The
satellite broadcaster will be covering the
start of the race and first half hour as it
happens, starting at 11:15 CET and through
to 12:00. They will be returning for a further
half-hour between 12:45 and 13:15. However,
you'll have to wait until midnight to see
the finish when a mere 26 minutes of "highlights"
are promised.
This
meagre offering falls short of the promised
coverage, and it is to be hoped that the extent
of these broadcasts improves in time for Round
2.
The
Circuit
The
Le Mans Series organisers introduced Barcelona
to the annual calendar for the first time
in 2008, and it proved to be very popular
with the teams and drivers, although public
attendance was hardly encouraging. With increased
local publicity, including television promotions,
there are hopes for a larger crowd in 2009.
The
circuit was one of the first to be built to
what are now considered "F1 standards",
back in 1991. A further raft of refurbishment
and new support structures followed just a
few years ago, and the Circuit de Catalunya
is now exceptionally well equipped. It is
also suitably challenging for the drivers,
while offering plenty of good viewing opportunities
for the public.
