Yesterday I visited a VLN race at the Nürburgring. Only ONE ferrari 458 challenge (GT4-ish conversion by Racing One gmbh) Where are the 458GT3s???? BMW m6 gt3, sls and porsches by ALL big German teams Some of these teams also race Blancpain GT; where are the Ferraris? Where is Ferrari in GT3 racing?
Might just be the Nurburgring. I've been to the Nurburgring 24Hr three times and the consensus seems to be Ferraris (and McLarens) aren't durable enough to compete there. My friend is Racing One's photographer, I will ask him.
Not only Nürburgring. Blancpain series: mclaren/audi/mercedes/bmw (many factory backed) No factory backed F teams. 488GT3 too slow? Maybe due BoP
Maybe after this year's Le Mans, Ferrari people saw that they have to develop further the 488 platform. Who knows.. Time will tell.
Le Mans = GT2/GTE not a GT3 Ferrari (GT3) never won OA 24H Spa or 24H Nurburgring Did a GT3 ever win the Blancpain series Pro class?
In the US, I only know of one GT3 in the IMSA Weathertech GTD (GT3) class, and one in Pirelli World Challenge. Not too common!
WOW F teams should get more factory support and pro drivers to clinch the blancpain world title or win a the major 12/24H race That is: Sebring, Daytona, Nürburgring and Spa But the factory is not really interested to win these and invest imho. F1 is. Regarding Nurburgring 24H: 458/488 too fragile they will fail. You need an Audi/Porsche/BMW or Mercedes GT3 to win that one.
Especially 458 GT3s were so beautiful to watch and listen to. And I miss that now. Maybe running costs and no factory support is killing the number of ferraris on the grid. No ferraris - means for me less interest in watching races. -A pity. Sometimes BoP rules RULEZ ;P See also how changes in F1 rules were turning the pack upside-down. They became winning teams: Brawn, RedBull, Mercedes ..
It probably has to do with costs to be competitive, as well as support. There are cheaper, better supported alternatives.
For Ferrari the GT3 class is customer racing so there is no full works driver PRO Team. you need a guy who pay the overall bill and so, by nature as an AM Driver you rather compete in the PRO-AM Class or GENT Trophy instead the overall class. Ferrari won the Blancpain PRO AM Titel 4 Times in 5 years. Ferrari's Work engagement in GT Racing are only the 2 WEC Cars #51 and #71
imho I do not think the succes of the 458 will be repeated with the 488. In todays GT3 car market there are many more manufacturers to choose from then in 2011 and would offer full factory support or built a better car maybe. I have never understood why the well known teams AF Corse, Rinaldi Racing, etc did not enter a 458 for the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring. The only attempt was a 458 GTE by Farnbacher in 2011 (due sponsor Hankook) with no factory support.
Its not the Team who decide... Its the Customer. If there is a customer who wants to race there with one of the mentioned teams, they would be there but its a freaking crazy expensive experience..... ....and, there are other reasons why we dont see any Ferrari in ADAC GT and 24 Hrs but cannot mention them here. In Blancpain there are just two full factory teams witch are Nissan and M-Sport Bentley. All the rest are private teams with sometimes more or less factory support. I can assure you, the 488 is a big step forward but also more difficult to Setup and current BoP is not in his favor.
That is why (BoP) Frikadelli tested a BMW M6 GT3 (Engine of their Porsche GT3 not ready but they also told me that BoP for the Porsche was not fair) BoP rules are in favour of McLaren, BMW and Mercedes. Other reasons not to drive on the Ring? Must be something political. I will ask Amato Ferrari.
Political reasons in car racing and participation? IMHO this is pathetic and of course not fair at all.. I know some cases in other sports but in car racing?? For what??
Ferrari is the Bruce/Katlin Jenner of the sport, clueless as what way is up, all ego Would be really nice to get factory support anywhere down the supply chain but that would just de-value the brand according to them.
De-value lol Ferrari are scared to race the Ring... A modified (strenghten the chassis and suspension) 488 could do the job. A 430GT came 2nd OA in 2010 (Farnbacher racing)
They are scared of F1 along with many other things. They are just paranoid like a crackhead. If they put time into actual work and not drama they would advance quite nicely. BTW if they want to move race HQ to beautiful SoCal I would be happy to be the guy that fires everyone that sucks
In English (raw translation). [...The goal for Proton is the return to the GTE-Am championship. In the semi-professional rating Proton Competition would return the focus to customer inserts. The guys around Ried planning a two-car use in the gentlemen drivers standings. Moreover, a recurrence of two Porsche 911 RSR in the European Le Mans Series was planned. But this effort could quickly be at falter. If the FIA ​​and the ACO should authorize the 2016er generation the GTE Pro cars in the GTE-Am, will not start with his Porsche Ried. "It is certain that if a Ferrari 488 should be allowed to start in the GTE-Am, we will stop our program", emphasizes Ried against Sportscar365. "We've seen it this year in the GTE-Pro. No customer wants to drive a Porsche under the Balance of Performance. And I'm not well. "]
Michael Bartels? (Of Vitaphone?) Do you know what he's up to these days? Shame the team is no longer racing. I remember the days of the Farnbacher Ferrari in vln with much happiness mainly because I'm a big fan of Alan Simonsen RIP and Dom Farnbacher. It was wonderful to see a competitive Ferrari in the series taking it hard to the big three German manufacturers.
As far as I know Michael lives in MC and is still involved in some motorsport driver management activities, he still owns one of the famous MC12 GT1. good old GT1 Memories.... maybe the 3 GER manufacturer haven't been that much amused? ;-)
The Nürburgring 24 is the world's toughest endurance race for a car, number of (slow)competitors, track conditions (road surface) and weather conditions make it very difficult for a imho fragile 488 (read: fragile suspension) Ferrari could win OA by entering a squad of at least 3-4 cars and modified (stiffened) suspension. Ofcourse there is BoP.....
GT Open had many many Ferraris 458 in the recent past......2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG9DtDxjApI ONE 488
In ELMS and FIA WEC at least, the short answer is that it's complicated: Deadline Looms For GTE Decision ? dailysportscar.com AF Corse has been a steady LM entrant and Risi have certainly waved the flag as hard as they can in IMSA (and had an epic but largely overshadowed run at the Rolex 24 this year).