Ferrari’s James Calado, who won the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps alongside his teammates Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, told media that Ferrari’s strategy won them the race.
‘I think they were spot on with a strategy today probably,’ said the Briton in the post-race press conference.
‘The reason why we won the race. So thanks to them more than anyone, and, yeah, look forward to the next one!’
Ferrari used a ‘splash’ strategy at the end of the race, with the #51 car pitting with just over 10 minutes to go. Calado’s teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi was in the car at the end and backed off after his stop, with the gap starting at around 13 seconds and ending at 4.2 when the cars crossed the line to take the flag.
“When I knew that they had to stop and someone has not to stop, I had to push like quali lap every single lap. And yeah, I was able to create the gap,’ said Pier Guidi.
‘Then the traffic is also another matter, because if you are unlucky with the traffic, you get some GTs at Eau Rouge you lose so much.
‘So it’s always the key of management, even the traffic, maybe it’s better to slow down before.
‘You learn something in the duration, to lose less time even in the traffic. And at the end, we put all together and was the key to succeed,’ he concluded.
A tough Thursday turns into a race win
Meanwhile, Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi spoke about how this race was tougher than the other races this year — as they’d expected.
‘We were on the back foot really, after the practice sessions and it was actually a little bit… you didn’t have the knowledge going into the race,’ said Calado.
‘So I was on a bit of an unknown on really what to do, how to save the tyres and things like that. I managed 10 laps before the race pretty much.’
Giovinazzi, who crashed heavily at Eau Rouge in practice on Thursday, echoed his teammate’s comments.
‘First of all, I want to thanks my teammates and mechanics especially, ’said the Italian.
‘Because they did a fantastic job during Thursday to put back the car for for Friday.
‘It was not a good start for the weekend, but I think we fight back. This is a good mentality from from our side.
Like James say, I had a few laps for quali sim and then I didn’t do any laps for the race [in practice].
So it was a little bit, not smooth like it was in Imola, that we were really on target and everything, in race pace and quali and everything.
Here was a little bit more difficult, but I think we show that we were really strong, you know, from the start with James, and with me, and then with Ale [Pier Guidi].
‘The strategy, I think James already covered. Every call was the right one and I think if you want to win a race in WEC you need to be in the right moment in the in the right place,’ he concluded.
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