Prior to qualifying for the FIA World Endurance Championship 1000 Miles of Sebring, Toyota drivers Sebastien Buemi and Mike Conway told MotorsportWeek.com that it’s ‘too early to say’ who their biggest challenger will be in the race on Friday.
‘It’s too early to say, because up to qualifying, I don’t know what people can do. I’m trying to look at the the lap times, the Ferrari and the Cadillac seem to be maybe better than the Porsche and the Peugeot, but… and obviously then the Glickenhaus and the Vanwall. But it’s a bit hard to say,’ Buemi said when asked who he sees as their principal challenger for the race win.
Conway echoed his teammate’s thoughts as well. ‘Well, from what we’ve seen from the practice and and stuff like that, I think Ferrari look look like a closest guys, but we’re not 100% sure,’ he said to MotorsportWeek.com when posed the same question.
He continued, ‘We’ll know more after qualifying, but I think in the race we’ll understand more of what cars are capable of. But I think Ferrari, they look pretty close. We’ll see what they can do’.
Buemi also said that he feels Ferrari has been hiding pace so far at Sebring. ‘Ferrari certainly went a lot faster between yesterday and today. Already, yesterday, I would say. So we have to wait and see, because maybe they find more lap time again later in the day.’
And, when the Swiss driver was asked directly whether Ferrari were hiding their true pace, Buemi was emphatic in his response. ‘I think they were hiding definitely, because they came here to test a few weeks ago and they were doing 46s. And up to yesterday, they were in 48,49’.
Commenting on their own car’s race pace, Conway felt it was looking good for Toyota. ‘From what we’ve seen, from rollout at the Prologue and the last two days, I think we look pretty good. Long runs, short runs… that’s the main thing. But you just never know what everyone’s up to.’
And finally, Conway also had some thoughts on the strategy for the race on Friday. ‘Tyre wear is going to be a key factor here with the heat we’re going to see tomorrow. It’s hard on rear tyres round here so we’ve just got to manage things, and double stints are key. There’s no point being quick for one stint and terrible for another.’
