Tag Archives: Gonzalez

That’s Entertainment – 6 Hours Of Siverstone

Last Sunday saw the runners and riders of the World Endurance Championship gather for the 6 Hours Of Silverstone with a smattering of new rules, new cars, cars and new faces.

Of the new rules the most significant was abandoning the safety car in all but the most extreme cases for full course yellow’s and this led to the race being disturbed for only 8 minuets over six hours and no unnecessary bunching of the field.

6 Hours Of Silverstone

Qualifying in the top LMP1 category was locked out by the two Porsche 919 Hybrids, reckoned to be more powerful than the 900hp Peugeot 908 turbo diesels, driven Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber with Brendon Hartley and Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb which can be seen leading the pack of Audi’s and Toyota’s on the opening lap.

Thanks to an electrics problem that knocked out his telemetry and gave him a misfire Benoit Tréluyer is seen on the extreme left of the photo above as he fell all the way back to tenth place in the opening laps before the problem sorted it’s self out.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Shaytar / Bertolini / Basov, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Despite qualifying only 5th fastest in the GTE/Am category Russians Victor Shaytar, Aleksey Basov with Italian Andrea Bertolini came through to finish third in class and 18th overall, with their #72 SMP Racing Ferrari F458 Italia seen above on the Hangar Straight.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Perrodo / Collard / Aguas, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Seen turning into the fast sweeping Abbey above is the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Frenchman François Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard who with Portugals Rui Aguas qualified 4th in LMGTE/Am and finsihed 2nd in class and 17th overall.

Dalla Lana / Lamy / Lauda, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Only 30 seconds covered the top three LMGTE Am class finishers after six hours of racing, Canada’s Paul Dalla Lama with Portugal’s Pedro Lamy and Austian Mathias Lauda converted their LMGTE/Am pole into a first place in class finish, 16th overall, driving the #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 seen at Becketts above.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Rigon / Calado, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Slowest of the 7 LMGTE Pro qualifiers were Italy’s Davide Rigon and Britain’s James Calado but they dug deep and finished the race third in class, 11th overall, less than 30 seconds behind the class winners.

Porsche 911 RSR, Chevrolet Corvette C7, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

German Richard Leitz and Denmarks Michael Christensen qualified their #91 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR in 4th place behind three Aston Martin’s, by the end of the race the Aston’s had all fallen one lap down on the three class leading LMGTE Pro cars.

The 2nd in class, 10th place overall, finishing #91 Porsche is seen lapping the returning Labre Competition teams new LMGTE Am #50 Corvette C7 driven by Italians Gianluca Roda, Paolo Ruberti and Denmarks Kristan Poulsen at Vale above.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Bruni / Vilander, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Winners of the LMGTE Pro class and 9th overall were Italy’s Gianmaria Bruni and Finlands Tony Vilander who qualified their #51 AF Course Ferrari 5th in class, the Ferrari is seen being chased by a LMP1 Toyota at the Arena.

HPD ARX 03B - HPD, Sharp / Dalziel / Heinemeier Hanson, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

While awaiting the delivery of a new pair of LMP2 Ligier’s the Extreme Motorsports team made their debut in the WEC with a pair of HPD (Honda Performance Developmant) ARX O3B’s.

The #30 HPD, seen above exiting Maggots, driven by American Scott Sharp, Britain Ryan Dalziel and Denmarks David Heinemeier Hanson qualified 4th in class and crossed the line third in class.

Regrettably the car was excluded because it was found in post race scrutineering to have been running with a thinner ALMS spec plank under the car than the mandated thicker WEC spec plank, this was a tough break for the popular US team.

Dome S103 Nissan, Leventis / Watts / Kane_6 Hours Of Silverstone

With the exclusion of the #30 the Nissan powered #42 Strakka Racing Dome S103 driven by Britain Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jony Kane was awarded third in class.

Watts ended up going into the kitty litter on the first corner of the first lap but with help from the marshalls the team recovered from last place to finish a respectable 8th overall.

Ligier JS P2 Nissan, Yacaman / Derani / Gonzalez, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Columbian Gustavo Yacaman, Brazilian Luis Felipe Derani and Mexican Ricardo Gonzalez qualified their Nissan powered #28 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2, seen at entering Becketts on class pole, but finished the race 2nd in class, 7th overall and 1 lap behind their team mates …

Ligier JS P2 Nissan, Rusinov / Canal / Bird, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Russian Roman Rusinov Frances Julien Canal and Sam Bird, who’s class winning #26 Ligier is seen above at Club.

Toyota TS040 Hybrid, Davidson / Buemi / Nakajima, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

At the head of the field representatives from all three leading manufacturers took turns at the lead after qualifying fourth reigning World Endurance Champions Brit Anthony Davidson and Swiss Sébastien Buemi, who were joined by the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima came through to a third place finish just 15 seconds behind the the winning car.

6 Hours Of Silverstone

After easily leading the opening 90 mins of the race from pole position Mark Webber had to retire the lead #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid with transmission issues before team mates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley had a chance to drive it, leaving the sister #18 front row starter driven by Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani with a small lead over the fast recovering #7 Audi driven by Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fässler and Andre Lotterer.

A fantastic battle between the two leading cars ensued from the half way stage of the race, which included this linked scrap with 50 mins to go, at the end of the day the inferior tyre wear on the faster Porsche swung victory away from them despite trying a two tyres only final stop.

Above Neel Jani slices past the LMGTE Am #96 Aston Martin driven by Francesco Castalocci, Roland Goethe and Stuart Hall while the #1 Toyota awaits to slice past the LMGTE Am Dempsey Proton Racing #77 Porsche driven by Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried and LMGTE Pro #99 Aston Martin driven by Alex Macdowall, Fernando Rees, and Richie Stanamay.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro, Fässler / Lotterer / Tréluyer, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

With 15 minutes to go the #7 Audi driven by Marcel Fässler had lead of over a minute when it was called in for a splash and dash stop. At the same time the #7 was also awarded a stop go penalty for an overtaking maneuver beyond the track limits at club.

The #7’s lead was just 37 seconds after the splash and dash and less than 10 seconds after the penalty stop, but there were not enough laps left for Neel to chase the #7 down and with a winning margin of less than five seconds it was the Audi Sport Team Joest drivers who’s names were added to the base of the 110 year old Tourist Trophy at Silverstone.

Despite starting with an electical failure the #7, seen passing the 3rd placed #1 Toyota in the Arena above, came through to win by covering a record 201 laps.

Thanks for joining me on this “That’s Entertainment” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Chrysler 300D. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Reliability Dividend – Marussia Cosworth MR02

In 2009 John Booth’s Manor Grand Prix was one of three teams selected to join the Formula One™ Chmpionship series in 2010, by which time the team had change it’s name to Virgin Racing in deference to their principle backer the Virgin budget airline.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

None of the three new teams did particularly well in 2010 and Virgin racing finished the season with the Championships would spoon for scoring a seaoson high two 14th place finishes like Hispania Racing F1 Team (HRT) but with only one 15th place were unable to match the Spanish teams three 15th place finishes.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

In 2011 Russian automobile manufacturer and sponsor Marussia’s increased involvement in the team was recognised by a change of name to Marussia Virgin Racing but the team finished the season with a second consecutive wooden spoon with three season high 15th place finishes unable to match the single 13 th place finish scored by HRT.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, British GP P1, Silverstone

In 2012 the team became known as the Marussia F1 Team as Virgin ceased it’s involvement after two disappointing years. With two season high 14th place race finishes Marussia finally bested HRT who could only manage a season high 15th place race finishes before the Spanish team folded at the season’s end.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Bianchi, British GP P1, Silverstone

Rookies Jules Bianchi, seen above during Practice Session 1 (P1) of the British Grand Prix and Max Chilton, seen during the Young Driver Test below joined Marussia for 2013.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Chilton, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Marussia also hired former Renault Technical Director Pat Symonds to act as a consultant and employed input from McLaren Applied Technologies wind tunnel on their MR02 design.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, González, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

By now Marrusia were the only team still using the most affordable but unfancied Cosworth V8 spec motors, closest rivals Caterham having switched to Renault power in 2011. Venezuelan test driver Rodolfo González is seen driving the Marussia Cosworth MR02 during the Young Driver Test at Silverstone above.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Despite regularly qualifying behind the Renault powered Caterhams Jules managed not only to regularly out qualify team mate Max but against expectations Max also finished a season high 13th in Malaysia which turned out to be enough to save Marussia from regaining the Formula One wooden spoon in 2013.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Max meanwhile became the first rookie in the history of Formula One to finish every race of the entire season, Jules had three retirements, a finishing feat only matched in 2013 by seasoned McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Sergio Perez.

Marussia Cosworth MR02, Chilton, British GP P2, Silverstone

For the first time in the teams history Marussia will keep the same driver line up for 2014 while much else changes, Pat Symonds has been snapped up by the, relative to their own Championship winning standards, struggling Williams team.

So far we know that Marussia will employ a Ferrari power train on the 2014 MR03 design, to keep abreast of Marussia’s developments you might try joining the fastest growing Formula One Team facebook page on this link or try Marussia’s official web site here.

Thanks for joining me on this “Reliability Dividend” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a field full of Indiana State law enforcement vehicles. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Weight Distirbution – Lancia Ferrari D50 Replicas

Keen to project a successful image through participation in Formula one with it’s new 2.5 litre / 152 cui engine regulations Lancia commissioned Vitorrio Jano to design a new challenger in 1953.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Over the development period of the car several different noses were used above is the original short nose.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Jano paid a lot of attention to how the weight was to be distributed in his new design which led to the D50’s most distinctive the pannier tanks between the wheels that did away with the need for a rear fuel tank which was de rigueur for contemporary formula one cars.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Jano selected a compact 90° V8 motor configuration that was offset 12° from front right to rear left. The motor featured twin plugs per cylinder produced around 260 hp. Unusually for the time the motor also functioned as an integral stressed member of the space frame chassis.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

The car also featured a gearbox that was transversely mounted into the rear axle. The cooler for the transmission unit is seen just ahead of the rear axle between the panier tank and the rest of the chassis.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

1952 and 1953 double World Champion Alberto Ascari and Italy Luigi Villoresi drove the D50’s on their first appearance in the World Championship in the last race of the 1954 season at the Spanish Grand Prix held on the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona. After qualifying 1st Ascari led for three laps before retiring with clutch problems on lap 10, Villoresi started 5th and retired after two laps with brake issues.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Lancia entered three cars in the 1955 Argentinian Grand Prix for Ascari who started from second and retired after an accident on lap 22, Villoresi qualified 11th and again only lasted for two laps before his car retired with a fuel leak. Villoresi replaced Eugenio Castellotti who had started 12th only to be involved in an accident on lap 35 from which the 3rd Lancia did not recover.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

At Monaco Ascari again qualified 2nd but his car famously ended up in the harbour on the 81st lap which he survived, only to die the following week testing a Ferrari. Castellotti qualified 4th and finished 2nd, to Maurice Trintignant in the Ferrari 625A I looked at last week, while Villoresi qualified 7th and finished 5th one lap down. Monaqasque Louis Chiron drove a forth D50 Lancia from 19th on the grid to 6th 5 laps down.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Castellotti started on pole in Belgian Grand Prix but retired on lap 16 with gearbox problems on the Scuderia Lancia teams final appearance. At this point Lancia ran into financial difficulties and the company ended up in the hands of the Pesenti family while Gianni Lancia handed over the racing cars to Enzo Ferrari who was not having a lot of joy against the might of Mercedes Benz with his Squalo and Super Squalo models.

de, Cadenet, Lancia Ferrari D50 Replica, Goodwood Revival

The D50’s next appeared at the 1955 Italian Grand Prix where they were entered by Ferrari for Giuseppe Farina who qualified 5th and Villoresi who qualified 8th. However Farina crashed on the Monza banking when a tyre failed and Enzo chose to withdraw the D50’s. Over the off season Ferrari developed the cars for his new signing reigning world champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

Lancia D50 Replica, HGPCA Test day, Silverstone

Fangio won first time out in the D50 at the 1956 Argentinian Grand Prix, but only after his car retired and he took over the car that started with Luigi Musso at the wheel, at Monaco Fangio finished 2nd again after retiring his own car and jumping in his team mate Peter Collins car.

Collins then won in Belgium and France with Fangio winning in Britain and Germany to give him an eight point lead over Collins going into the final race of the season at Monza. Fangio qualified on pole but a steering arm on his D50 broke, his team mate Musso refused to hand over his car and on learning this team mate Peter Collins did not hesitate to hand over his car, thus giving up the opportunity to win the championship which Fangio won after finishing second. Collins finished the ’56 Championship third in points behind Stirling Moss who drove for Maserati.

The following season Fangio went to Maserati with whom he won his fifth and final championship. Ferrari entered no fewer than seven D50’s for the first race of the 1957 season in Argentina which were lined up against seven Maserati 250F’s. Fangio won in his 250F the best D50 shared by Alfonso de Portago and José Froilán González which finished 5th and two laps down.

Mike Hawthorn was the last person to drive a D50 in a Championship race in the ’57 Monaco Grand Prix where 5th but retired after an accident on lap 5. Ferrari swithched it’s efforts to the Lancia V8 powered 801 for the remainder of the 1957 season.

All but two of the original D50’s were broken up, the cars seen here are both, so far as I know replica’s using some of the left over parts from the broken up cars. Six replica’s are known to have been built by Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd.

Thanks for joining me on this “Weight Distribution” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Just Waiting – Ferrari 500/625A/750 #3/2/0482

Wondering around the pits at Silverstone during an HGPCA test day a couple of months ago I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of cars just waiting for their stories to be told, one such was today’s featured Ferrari which was built in 1952 as a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 122 cui Ferrari 500 chassis #3 for the Formula 2 season which was also designated as the World Drivers Championship Formula.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

This car is said to have raced alongside the sister chassis #005 raced by Alberto Ascari to two consecutive World Drivers Championships, though I have yet to discover who drove it or the results it achieved.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

In 1954 new Formula One regulations were adopted for the World Drivers Championship mandating 2.5 litre / 152 cui motors and when Ferrari ran into problems with it’s intended ‘Squalo’ 553 challenger they converted some of the old Formula 2 cars to “625” specification with larger 2.5 litre / 152 cui 4 cylinder motor. This particular car then became a 625 with the chassis number 2.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

With no progress on the Squalo and later 555 Super Squalo designs Ferrari updated this car further to 625A spec for the start of the 1955 season with a more aerodynamic tail, the chassis was lengthened by just under two inches, the additional length being inserted by cutting the chassis just ahead of the cockpit and the suspension was revised with coil springs replacing the transverse leaf spring at the front.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The cars first race of the 1955 World Drivers Championship season was in Argentina, which lent it’s initial to the 625 designation. Two 625A’s were entered and they finished second and third behind reigning champion Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes Benz. Unusually the two 625A’s were each driven by three drivers coming in second were Gonzalez, Farina and Trintignant and third were Maglioli who shared with Trintignant and Farina !

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The next race was at Monaco where Maurice Trintignant qualified today’s featured car 9th behind a pair of Mercedes Benz cars, three Lancia D50’s and three Maserati’s. During the race Trintignant, for whom everything outside racing was ‘just waiting’, guided his car to an unlikely victory as those ahead retired with mechanical issues while the Lancia driven by Ascari famously fell into the water which he survived only to be killed four days later testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The 1955 Monaco victory was the first World Drivers Championship event to be won by a Frenchman since it’s inception in 1950, the first to be one on Englebert Tyres and Ferrari’s only victory in the 1955 Championship season. At the end of the year the car was fitted with a 4 cylinder 3 litre / 183 cui Ferrari 750 sportscar motor and sold to British wool merchant and amateur racer Peter Whitehead, with Peters old customer chassis number #0482 to compete in the unrestricted Formula Libre races being held in New Zealand in 1956. Peter won both the Lady Wigram Trophy and the Southland Road Race, note some sources incorrectly point to this car being driven by Peter Whitehead to two victories in New Zealand in 1957, by then he was actually drove and won both races with in a Ferrari Super Squallo 555 fitted with an 3.4 litre 860 Monza sports car motor.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

Late in 1956 Froilan Gonzales bought the car and took it to Argentina where it appears to have remained until it resurfaced in the United States in the 1990’s. Current owner Alexander Boswell bought the car in 1999 and found the three chassis numbers which confirmed the cars identity and history welded one atop the other.

Mr Boswell had the car restored to the same 3 litre / 183 cui 625A/750 #0482 specification as it was when supplied to Peter Whitehead by Ferrari for his New Zealand adventure.

Thanks for joining me for this “Just Waiting” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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