A welcome addition to the FIA World Endurance Championship paddock in Bahrain this weekend is the BR01 LMP2 car entered by by AF Racing.
The car - the engineering team of which was led by former Courage and Peugeot designer, Paolo Catone - debuted at the Imola European Le Mans Series race in May and has since become a leading runner in the 2015 ELMS where it scored three podium positions.
Development has been swift so far with the BR01, and Catone believes that there is more to come from the car.
“We were late this year and we worked for the first 7,000kms of testing on reliability,” he said. “We didn’t start the real performance running until after the first race at Imola; we did one day at (Le Mans) the Bugatti circuit before the race.
“After what we learnt at Le Mans, we began to see the results immediately at the Red Bull Ring in both testing and the race,” continued Catone. “For Paul Ricard we swapped to the Dunlop tyre which was a significant piece of the jigsaw. But we are still working hard on the set-up side. I estimate we are at 90% of the potential now. We will see where we are here, but I think for 2016 we will see the 100% potential of the car.”
Joining Russians David Markozov and Mikhail Aleshin on the driving squad this weekend will be team regular Nicolas Minassian. The experienced Frenchman has been a valuable asset in the continuous improvement of the project and believes that this weekend will be a real gauge of where the car sits within the competitive LMP2 hierarchy.
“Nicolas and Mikhail have been very good in working with us on development,” said Catone. “They are experienced with many teams and many types of racing and have been instrumental in ensuring that we keep progressing the way we have done.”
Next season is likely to see an expanded programme for AF Racing with the BR 01 LMP2 car with potential entries in both the FIA WEC and ELMS, as well as a mooted campaign in the Asian Le Mans Series.
Sam Smith
