James Calado admitted his disappointment after a problem on his #51 AF Corse Ferrari during qualifying for the Six Hours of Silverstone prevented the British driver and his Italian team-mate Gianmaria Bruni from securing pole position on Saturday.
An engine issue during Bruni’s run meant the time Calado set during the session came to nothing, meaning the team will start at the back of the grid and be forced to take a three-minute time penalty as well.
“It’s been up and down,” revealed Calado of the Silverstone weekend. “In terms of speed and pace it’s been pretty good, but in quali the engine went down for Gianmaria’s lap and unfortunately that meant firstly we didn’t get a qualifying position and secondly we have got a three-minute penalty for the race.
“Gimmy will be stopping on lap three or four to take that penalty, but that has kind of ruined our chances of a win, which is really disappointing but we’ve got to try and do the best we can, damage limitation I guess, and try and get as many points as we can.
“It’s a shame because we have been quickest in everything we’ve done, including pre-season tests, and to get to the real thing, that lap I did yesterday was pretty much perfect.”
Calado moved to the #51 car having raced in the sister #71 car in 2015, and has high expectations, not just of himself, but of the potential of the team as a whole, with Bruni rated amongst the world’s best GT racers.
“I’ve got high expectations from Gimmy, he’s so talented,” said Calado. “It was almost a guaranteed, easy pole position, and it’s a shame it’s all gone so downhill so suddenly. But that’s racing, and it happens. Realistically, if everything goes perfectly, we can get to P4.
“Being with Gimmy is a really good thing for me, it’s a good thing for him, we both work really well together, and its nice to be promoted to that side, we’ve both had to raise our game, and its shown in terms of pace, and hopefully we’ll be strong.”
