‘Those who go slow, go healthy and go far’, goes the well-known saying, which partly applies to Vanwall’s debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
At the 1000 Miles of Sebring the Vandervell 680 #4 driven by Jacques Villeneuve, Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri finished in eighth place in the Hypercar Class, with no big ambitions other than to finish the 8 hour race avoiding problems.
There is still work to be done on the ‘going distance’ because clearly the first race of the year cannot be the sole and last judge of the fate of the season, but at least the Hypercar built by ByKolles Racing has not had serious and repeated problems as it was happened often when the team had fielded the LMP1 in the past.
#4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680: Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Jacques Villeneuve
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The troubles that arose during free practice were not repeated in the race, where the only two forced stops in the pits occurred due to a rear-end collision suffered by Guerrieri by a Peugeot (which at that moment hadn’t slowed down properly going into full speed Course Yellow) and then due to a failure of the rear suspension, which cannot be ruled out as being due to the hit received earlier.
The fact is that the Vanwall reached the end of the race by collecting precious data on a track never seen before, which as we know is decidedly difficult for the vehicles, and with few tests behind it. The speed to compete with the rivals in the category is still lacking, but the feedback from this first outing is judged positive by the riders.
“Unfortunately, I had a problem with the suspension that caused me to spin without being able to avoid it; I don’t know if it was the fault of the bumps, but the track is the same for everyone and I don’t feel like saying it was because of what something broke,” admitted Villeneuve.
“As the first race we managed to put together the km we wanted, unfortunately we lacked a bit of speed and we need to understand the car better, so we’ll work on it for the next rounds”.
#4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680: Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Jacques Villeneuve
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Guerrieri was also happy: “We managed to complete the race in all of its 8 hours and I must say that it was very positive for us because we did it considering that we are a new team, with a new car and on a track where we’ve never been before.”
“We never stopped and the car finished the race, the only problem that occurred was with a rear suspension, we lost some time to fix it in the pits, but that’s part of the game in endurance and if you have a breakdown there is time to fix it. The team did a great job to put things right and I was able to get back on track for the last few laps.”
“All in all, I’m happy with the pace we had, even if we were far from the best, but it was important to finish the race and collect data and information, learning a lot to grow and do better in the next races. I come home from Sebring with excellent sensations, we are a good team and there is an excellent harmony between all of us, which is important to improve more and more. Now let’s recharge the batteries for Portimao”.
#4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680: Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Jacques Villeneuve
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Dillmann, who is the one of the three to have lapped the most in the few tests carried out, commented: “The race was demanding, but we managed to finish it with an encouraging eighth place, taking 6 points in the championship. There is still a lot of work to do do, but we are very motivated to improve and get closer to the top teams in the category, so we are already thinking about the next one!”
At this point the bar will have to be raised and the team knows it well: “We did what we had to, that is to finish the race. We scored 6 World Championship points, now we will have to analyze everything, the performance of the team, cars and drivers. For the next time, getting to the finish line won’t be enough!”
