Joel Sturm is the erstwhile leader of the motor race. Some people in the crowd are still in t shirts but grab your hoodies and windbreakers because it is cold and rainy. This new grandstand at Eau Rouge is absolutely incredible and you can see almost everything. 1/3rd of the circuit, honestly. So, the wave by process is being commenced. Several cars have been waved by already, the #19 Silver division GRT Grasser Lamborghini and the #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of John Hartshorne and company. The #158, the other Bronze category Garage 59 McLaren has been waved by the safety car and so, Maxi Gotz, Dani Juncadella, and Frankie Bird. They can pick up the pace and get ready for the restart. But, there are drivers ready to get in who are suited and booted with only a 63-67 minute stint length allowed. It used to be 65 minutes I believe, but not anymore.
The rain is sheeting down even more. Oh boy. Safety Car in at the end of this lap and we will go back to green to try going at pace in the wet. What will Marc Duez tell Alain Adam on the radio? The Race Director may be forced to keep the safety car out, but Alain Adam now believes we should be going back to green. Through Brussels and Malmedy, which is the old name for the Piff Paff. Safety Car lights still on. So, that will be at Courbe Paul Frere, formerly Stavelot. I really wish track management at Spa had not swapped the corner names so quickly because I am trying to remember the old corner names from first watching Formula 1 here 30 years ago. Some teams have done 13-14 pit stops.
Comtoyou Aston Martin have been bringing their cars through the lane to reset the drive time. That makes total sense as you eat up your drive time under the safety car. Luca Stolz in the Mercedes says it is impossible to race, telling that to the team but also to Race Control. This back and forth between the safety car and the Race Director and getting in touch with the marshals at their posts. So, it is Marc and Alain communicating but it is also the drivers asking their crew chief who is behind or in front of them. This restart is going to be a little funky, and not in a good way that makes you want to dance. The water is streaming down the hill.
Watch the rivulets of water as the safety car is going, sploosh, sploosh, sploosh. Are there any rivers? Are there puddles of standing water? I think we have seen a lightning strike in the sky earlier. Oh dear. Maybe it is the DJ? Maybe not. There is a yellow weather warning for lightning. So we will keep circulating and that is determined by weather, not by time. This is our eighth safety car, or ninth caution period. 11 Full Course Yellows. Eight safety car interventions. We had heavy rain at Le Mans and four and a half hours behind the safety car and we had loads of fog at the Nurburgring where there was fog for nine or ten hours on the Grand Prix circuit and the Nordschleife was completely covered, well, the high points of the course. It was clear on the Grand Prix track.
Robin Schultz is playing the concert with the light show. The riders on the Ferris Wheel who paid their tickets might have to come down if there is lightning. There is thunder in the town of Spa as we hear that Maxime Martin is on wet tires. Lisa Crampton, working for BMW Motorsport for the final time before beginning work with Motorsport Australia in her native nation, the Aussie winter. Hello, to Jordan Pepper from the #163 Lamborghini team driven by Franck Perera. It is very tricky out there. They have been fighting back from their faulty fueling rig early doors.
The new tarmac has been holding onto the water. This is the third wet 24 hour race we have seen consecutively in Europe in the last four weeks. Nurburgring, Le Mans, and now, Spa. Ferrari #51 in the pit lane for tires and the car is all steamed up. This is from being behind the safety car. No extra demisters or defoggers with the race cars. What is worse is the really bright red rain light. It is a nightmare with how bright the red light is in your face. The longer we see the rivers, well, every lap the landscape is changing, and the rain will make it harder to restart. Spa is very dark this year. That is why we have seen crashes. The Ardennes Forest in it's clammy, rainy, misty forest mood.
Blokes are getting caught out with track conditions with the great Balance of Performance for GT3 and so on. Safety Cars are breeding Safety Cars. Pit stop time for the #77 Al Manar Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. That is Arjun Maini, Jusuf Owega, and Michele Beretta. 16 and a half hours to go, drivers and teams mostly sticking to double stints. Some of the drivers have eaten dinner and done their physio and then, they will get dried off and get some sleep. It is hot and sweaty in the GT3 cars. It will be just a nap for the drivers, not a full-fledged slumber. Lady Luck is who you need. Le Mans decides who will win. Same with Nurburgring, Spa, Daytona, you name it.
For the Pro cars, they don't get the wave by. 2 Seas Mercedes in the lane, the #60 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Frankie Bird finishes his stint and I think Isa Al Khalifa will get in. Are we going to put the safety car out. A meatball flag for the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi because the high intensity red rain light is not on. It needs to be, but it will blind other drivers just the same. A Mercedes also has it's left rear taillight out, but we don't know which one. The Silver graded Winward Mercedes is in the pit lane and I need to figure it out. It is the #57 Tanart Sathienthirakul, Daan Arrow, (who is in the car), and Colin Caresani.
Drivers might be cramping up in their feet trying to lift their feet off the pedals and you are holding your feet up in the air. Crew chief to the driver, "what's wrong?" "I need to go to the bathroom. My feet hurt. I am freezing cold!" Mikael Grenier says that we are still dealing with enough rain that it is not time to go racing again. It is boring to drive behind the safety car as the tires and engines get cold, but the drivers must stay alert. It is far better than a red flag. Al Faisal Al Zubair is in the car #777, the Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 sharing with Mikael Grenier we just heard from as well as Dominik Baumann and Philipp Ellis.
The Race Director's job is making sure everyone is safe. Track conditions are out of people's control. No worries about track limits in the wet because everyone is trundling around behind the safety car. Try not to speed in the pit lane. You need to have the hose connected for 44 seconds. Ford Mustang #64 will have 25 seconds added to their next pit stop for short fueling. That's Christopher Mies, Dennis Olsen, and Frederic Vervisch of course. The rain is lessening, and the wind is blowing back up the pit lane. The windscreen wipers are vigorously moving. But the rain is less than it was.
One of the Rutronik Racing Porsche's is in the lane for tires and fuel and back out again, the #96. Franck Perera has not pitted the #163 Lamborghini and David Pittard has not come in aboard the #34 Aston Martin yet. So, we are talking about Walkenhorst Motorsports for the Aston and the Lambo for Grasser Racing Team, GRT. Comtoyou Aston Martin's just pitting now. We might need another wave by except for the Pro drivers, but we are looking at the overall field. The Race Director needs to be very cautious in the wet. The Aston's were both being fueled. Teams are advocating for a red flag to be shown with heavy, heavy rain around the circuit.
Red flags will be avoided unless it is for medical emergencies. We had a four hour plus safety car at Le Mans two weeks ago for a lot of rain. We don't want the centenary edition of this race to be red flagged. Starting the cars takes more time if we've been stopped for a good while. That is the big trouble, you see. Ralf Aron who we heard from is now the overall leader in the #130 GruppeM Mercedes. Aron sharing with Frederik Vesti and Daniel Juncadella. To be a modern sports car racer you must be enormously adaptable to be going between the Hypercars or the GTP cars, or the LMP2's into a GT3 car. GT3 cars are a global situation now of course between SRO, Nurburgring 24 Hours, IMSA, FIA WEC and so on.
When drivers are not in their cars, they are doing work on the simulator, just like a pilot. Their levels are sky high. The #163 Lamborghini of Frank Perera is back out of the pit lane and now, David Pittard leads Simon Gachet. Walkenhorst Aston Martin and Haas RT Audi, Sandrine Haas, based in Aruba, and is a motorsport photographer turned team owner, and a proud Belgian as well. One of their two cars is out. They have a single bullet left in the gun. WRT are the home team here at Spa, both with BMW in GT3 and in Hypercar with BMW. We are closing in on the end of hour eight, so we are almost 1/3rd of the way through this race.
Thomas Drouet says the conditions are just too wet and are struggling to follow the safety car at slow speeds. Maybe the track will dry out. But it is typical Spa for sure. Drouet says the team had to compromise with their setup and could not do a full dry setup on the car. It is all about compromise to be truthful. It is hard to stay engaged and he will get into the car and keep on trucking. The strategies and the weather constantly changing.
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