Shameful F458 Italia performance at the Sebring ALMS Race

Out qualified by the BMW M3, ZR1 and F430. Then bad luck or slow performance during the race.

Ferrari needs to provide more track support to the ALMS teams, this is a growing series and a showcase and great marketing strategy. The F458 needs a lot more development.

Kudos to Michelin, Porsche, BMW and GM for their advertisement efforts, mixing the racing development with their street products. I liked the ZR-1 commercial, brilliant.

 

Give me a break! ILMS/ALMS GT2 is one of the most competitive GT venues in the WORLD!

In testing a few weeks ago, the 430's showed well. In practice they did well, the 458 GT was quite late in arriving, but if you talk to anyone who's driven the new car, the potential is enormous! All the other cars it's racing against have at least a full season behind them, too.

Hey, I'm glad Risi/ESM get the support they do get. Forza Ferrari!

 

Please keep in mind Risi got their car maybe a week before Sebring, there wasn't enough time for proper testing, setup, etc.. Give it some time & they will be back on top.

 

I do wonder just how much factory support the Ferrari teams get. I'm guessing it's not as much as the BMW's. Indeed the 458's were new and not fully tested and it would be nice to see some more factory support from Ferrari. They did put up a good fight though especially early in the race, it was also nice to see that the 430 was still competitive.

 

In their website they said 4 days.

I think it's a promising start.

 

The Ferrari 458 GT2's did very well in 56 car race, ESM van Overbeek was just bad luck. I blame Patrick Long from Porsche for not giving way to the Corvette while going hop skipping into that turn that made him spin out and take out the ESM F458. As for the other ESM that caught fire, well that's racing and anything can happen? Tragic!!! These new F458GT2 cost some $625K each!

Now Risi did very well as all have pointed out about the late delivery. Jamie Melo did a 2:02.29 in qualifying but was turning solid laps in the 2:01 range. The BMW were fastest with 2:01.526 and the 458 was doing 2:01.937 only a 0.353 difference! That's a lot but, still they had a chance for podium if it had not been for an electrical issue that sent them in. They will have to fight their hardest battle for the rest of the season to prevail and it will be hard.

BMW is the one to beat! They have no F1 program so, I would not be surprised if they are getting Super Support from BMW’s F1 crew? Ferrari has F1 and ALMS! Let's here it for Ferrari! Viva Ferrari!

Congrats to Khron with the F430GT2 in GT2-AM! Their First ALMS Win and it was 1st Place in his category!

 

I think that Melo, Salo, Bruni and/or Fisichella should have been in a F458. I didn't understand why Fisi and Bruni were in a F430.

The support the BMW Team is getting from BMW AG is outstanding, Mario Theissen (head of BMW Motorsport and former F1 team director) is directly involved with Bobby Rahal and team.

GM and Porsche are deeply involved with factory drivers in the roster.

Ferrari needs a deeper pool of drivers, probably Massa could use a jump start career in ALMS and FIA-GT.

F458 catching fire is not a Racing thing, the street cars do the same (j/k).

I was hoping for Ferrari to take the ALMS championship last year, it was close. I hope they can do it this year, and recover from this bad start.

 

We were there at the race. Slow performance? I think not. The Risi 458 and the Rahal M3 were trading 1st place for much of the daylight hours. If it were not for the electrical gremlin at the stop they probably would have been 1st or 2nd. And qualifying position does not mean much in a 12 hour race. It did not take long for Melo to get past the Vettes and snug up to the M3.

For a car they just took delivery of I think Risi did a bang up job. Give Risi a little more time and they will shine.

BMW gives Rahal significant support. Otherwise I doubt Bobby Rahal would even venture into this series. A lot of credit needs to be given to the Risi team for doing as well as they do with the amount of support they receive from the factory. They are pentultimate professionals.

Be patient. The 458 will be a successful racer. I hope they take it to Le Mans for the 24.

 

Am I right in saying the BMW F1 team was Sauber, used Sauber facilities and staff + BMW cash, so unlikely that there is much physical BMW F1 support available other than a few indviduals.

Nonetheless it's clear the BMW factory provide pretty impressive support one way or another for their teams.

 

all the guys at the top (BMW, Corvette, Ferrari) are basically quasi-factory teams-lots of $$, lots of tech support, etc. and remember how hopeless the M3 was its first few races?

I think for a fresh out of the crate car, the 458 did very well.

 

Funny thing, factory support...

An acquaintance has an ex-factory team Audi R8. He gets more support from Audi running in HISTORIC racing than did a (back-to-back) GrandAm Championship-winning dealer/privateer team during their campaigns.

CW

 

I'm glad Mika did well.
He will be driving for us on April 2 at The Ring for our first 6 Hour Race.
I too was very impressed with the BMW's.
I look forward to competing against the 458 at the Ring with our small, Private, Totally not supported by The Factory Team.

Racing is tough and anything can happen but as my friend Mark did point out: When the flag drops the Bull**** stops.

Feel Free to remind me of that on April 3...

 

I didn't mean F1 Technology I meant the F1 Crew (Logistics personal that support the F1 team). It takes experience to foresee what is the best tactics for each race, tires, pit stops, drive change, how to deal with traffice, cautions, etc... What goes on behind the scene to support/keep the car up and running at it's best 100% of the time during the race. That is the very package they have on top of a VERY Fast and Tuned M3 and to add on top of that they have awesome drivers as well!

 

BMW Motorsports is the umbrella over all BMW's worldwide activities, that's where Theissen came from to manage the Sauber effort/buyout/sell-back. Now with Marquardt in charge, BMW Motorsport is focusing their efforts on GT and Touring Car racing with good effect.

BMW has ALWAYS had a very strong GT program and they've supported Schnitzer in Europe and first PTG, then RL (now RLL) in the US. There's a lot of sharing of information going on.

It's factory-backed racing at the highest level.

 

what are you talking about, the 458 did extreamly well for a first showing!, they were excelent, they showed speed and mechanical reliability, but had some small problems that cost them the race!

now for BMW many don't know that the bmw gt2 cars are actualy not in compliance with the gt2/gte regulations. The car has different suspension to the road model, the engine i moved to the more to the centar, and the transmision is fitted in the back. All of witch are forbiden unless the ACO gives you exclusive rights-witch means unless you pay lots and lots of cash!

expect the 458 to blow the season away, expecialy after le mans, since there are rules in place that prevent anyone car being more then 0.5% faster then the rest. one of the reasons the porsches ran so slow is probably to get restictor brakes before le mans. I dont belive for a second that they are really that slow

btw here is food for thoght the BMW m3 gtr cost close to a million dollars, while the street car is less then 100thousand, funny how their race car is more expensive hte a ferrari racer

 

Risi gets apsolutly no factory support what so ever, at least they claim that, I am sure they didn;t get it for the 430, now maybe during the first year of the 458 they will probably get more support.

as for BMW it is a full factory team, that is ran by rahal, but they do everything that BMW tells them including that they changed their name for the sebring race so that BMW mtorsport would earn points and not RLR. RLR did not win ono point for the sebring race in the teams championship, that says a lot.

same is for Corvettes, they are the official factory racing team. lizards are quazy factory, self funded but huge technical suport.
BTW, I'm probably the biggest Ferrari Gt fan and have been since the introduction of the 360 gt by jmb motorsport in 2000 fia NGTchampionship! and i have watched and folwed closly all that has happend in the class since

 

I was rather impressed by the 458's performance at Sebring. As far as I know, it was their first race! And they were up againt seasoned GT competitors. Not bad at all. Actually, a very promising start.

 

What an absolutely ridiculous thread title! Give me a break, man - Risi got the car just in time to throw it in the hauler and drive to Sebring! Sharp got his (well, Ed's) a few weeks ago but, still, sheeesh, it's a brand-new car and ALL of the drivers have been unanimous about how they haven't scratched the surface yet.

 

+1

Out of all the big 4 cars(Ferrari, BMW, Chevy, and Porsche), the Ferrari has probaly the least amout of factory support. Once Risi gets the 458 sorted out, watch out!

The ZR-1 commercial was a bit misleading.

 

The vey little ontrack performance I saw of the 458 was great, when the car is sorted properly it will be a beast.

 

+2 Its very early days yet and as disappointing as Sebring was, the car is new and they have the whole year to sort it out. Risi do a fantastic job with whatever they race so that 458 will win this year mark my words (it wont be easy though, ALMS GT is so competitive right now). ESM seem to be doing well too, I hope they have success this year also.

Would be interested also to know how much factory support Risi get? Thought it was some especially with the new car. And then you have the factory drivers in Melo/Bruni/Salo etc

 

I was at the race too and had a chance to sit behind the Risi pit. I was watching the lap time monitors. The 458 was a strong car. It set fastest lap at one point with a 2:01. About 3/4 of the race the 458 was leading the BMWs. The team had nothing but good things to say about the car. The future looks bright for the 458 GT. It's only a week old.
You have to understand the BMW team is very good this year. They drove the wheels off those BMWs at Sebring.

Also, you don't want to qualify to fast in a 12 hour because they will restrict your car. Everyone was watching 458! So it's good race strategy to be within the top three. So, don't read to much into the qualify times.

Here is a view from the pits.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gatorgreg1968?feature=mhum

 

Um, they won the manufacturers and team title, IIRC, last year...

 

I wanted to mention this also. Not only is the 458 a completely new car, and without enough setup time, but ALMS is a performance equalized series. It will take a bit to sort the car out and for the rules to catch up so that we have a race.

To say that the 458 was terrible ignores the fact that any car can be terrible when you throw rules at it. ALMS is not apples-to-apples racing.

 

I take it you are really not into endurance racing at all, right?