Quote:
Originally Posted by NaBUru38
I don't understand the Aston Martin - Bamboo deal. Are they AMR-Prodrive customers? Do they replace Prodrive?
|
They are customers, they do not "replace" Prodrive, per se.
---
As far as the GTE class goes, I am tremendously excited, for both GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. You've got AF Corse with Bruni and Vilander back on board with Rigon as a newcomer and D'Ambrosio, Bird, and Calado vying for the final seat alongside Bruni or Rigon. Fisichella and Kobayashi were usually the two slowest drivers in AF Corse GTE-Pro cars, so they've been dropped and moved to different domains. However, I think it's likely we'll see Fisichella at AF Corse for the LM24, as well as Olivier Beretta. Malucelli is currently reserve-listed for Team Taisan in GTE-Am, which I have a feeling will find a way in.
I'm still not completely convinced by Ram Racing. Truth be told, Matt Griffin just wasn't up to GTE-Pro pace last year, and I can't see there being a difference this year. Parente still has some room to grow as a driver, as well, but tremendously fast. If it isn't Gunnar Jeannette in the final spot, I'm supposing it'll either be one of the two AF Corse rejects (probably D'Ambrosio and Calado -- I'm pretty sure Bird will get in) or Malucelli if he really doesn't see Team Taisan getting in and/or they drop out of the reserve list beforehand.
Aston Martin really needs help putting together a solid lineup for this season. It's difficult on a team to swap drivers every race, but it looks like they'll be doing that again this year after a rather bizarre call with Bamboo and AMR partnering up in a GTE-Pro entry. Either the no. 99 goes to GTE-Am with the current driver lineup (they'd have to find a bronze driver, though), O'Young moves back to Craft, or O'Young and Rees move to GTE-Am AMR entries and MacDowall is joined by two pro drivers. It's all very complicated and there are a bunch of variables involved, but I don't think Richie Stanaway will be staying in an Am car. Also, I think we could see both James Davison and Bertrand Baguette in AMR cars given their performances at Daytona and Spa, 2014 and 2013, respectively. If Stanaway was to move from the no. 96 to the no. 99, for instance, I think it would be replaced by a Goethe/Hall/? entry, the ELMS entry. Perhaps Michael Wainwright or Christoffer Nygaard will fill that spot? At this point, I can't really judge AMR's performance since the lineup looks dubious.
Porsche AG Team Manthey is another lineup that is somewhat hard to predict. I don't know what is going on with Mako... such a waste of talent to see him jump around the board like this and find himself between a rock and a hard place. Holzer and Pilet are for sure, with Bergmeister almost confirmed. If Mako does make it onto the team, that leaves two extra -- perhaps Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy from TUSC?
Aesthetically, I don't care for the C7.R, in both the uninspired livery and the new car in general. However, you can't ever count them out. But I think they'll be slow just like last year, or slow enough to fall behind pretty much all of the AF Corse, AMR, and Porsche Manthey cars in the first few turns.
The same doesn't go for Viper. That car has been making leaps and bounds and damn nearly won Daytona if it hadn't been for a few silly problems. I think they can stay with the WEC teams, especially the no. 94 car. They will at least be battling with the no. 52 Ram Ferrari, probably ahead of the two Corvettes.