Despite their best efforts to be race ready for the first round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus have announced they will not be taking part in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps at the end of this month.
The team have conducted four tests with the 007 LMH Glickenhaus machine in the run up to the twice delayed start to the 2021 WEC season, but throughout the process they have been very open about the possibility of having to skip the first round. James Glickenhaus, the team’s owner, stressed that they would not be homologating the car – which would lock the designs and technical aspects of the vehicle for five years – until it had completed a 30-hour endurance test. This is currently scheduled by the team to be held at Aragon Circuit in early May, after the first round.
“We are definitely not going to Spa; it’s been a rolling decision,” Glickenhaus told Motorsport.com. “We have always planned to start racing when we have everything exactly where we want it to be, because this is a five-year programme and we are playing the long game here.
“We have never changed our tune and have never been in a rush to get to Spa.”
The team now look ahead to the second round of the championship – the 8 Hours of Portimao, now taking place on the original date of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 12 June – where they aim to give the 007 its racing debut. Between now and the 30-hour endurance test, the team are focusing on aerodynamic configurations, utilisng the Sauber wind tunnel in Switzerland.
“We have two configurations we are working on — one is a little higher v-max and one is a little higher downforce,” Glickenhaus continued. “We will decide what is best because you are only allowed one aero configuration, and then we will have another test at Vallelunga.
“That will be the final test before a 30-hour test and then we will be ready to race both cars in Portimao.”
The withdrawal of both Glickenhaus 007 LMHs means that WEC’s opening round will have just three cars in the top-tier class: the two new Toyota Gazoo Rcaing LMHs and the grandfather Alpine LMP1 Oreca that will be ran by Signatech.
