Uphill battle for Aston Martin Racing at Fuji
Friday, October 14, 2016
Both Aston Martin Racing GTE Pro cars appeared to be making steady progress during both the Free Practice sessions at Fuji Speedway today all in readiness for the 6Hrs of Fuji on Sunday.
That comes off the back of further negative Balance of Performance adjustments made to their Pro class cars after the #95 Young Driver car's class win at CoTA last month. For Fuji, the AMR team have confirmed a 0.4mm decrease in engine air restrictor size alongside a 30mm rear wing gurney adjustment. That equates to less power being delivered from its V8 engine at any point and a reduced top end speed.
Free Practice 1 saw both the #95 and #97 propping up the tail end of the GTE Pro entry a full 1.3 seconds off the class leading Ford GT, before that deficit was reduced to 0.8seconds by the end of the second session.
With performance over the 2.8 mile circuit improving there is nothing to suggest that the cars negative BoP adjustment will remove either of them from fighting for the class win again.
The #97 Turner/Stanaway car also appears to be carrying revised a sun visor strip bearing the name of the teams long time sponsor Immun'Age rather than the AMR name.
Over in GTE Am, the #98 car of Paul Dalla-Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda continues its miraculous rise since the disappointment at Le Mans and its win last time out at CoTA by first matching (almost) and then beating the best times of the Am Championship leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari.
The choice of the car to swap back to Michelin prior to CoTA appears to be making huge dividends as they strive to reduce the deficit in the championship.
Photo credits - AMR / Adrenal