Quote:
Originally Posted by canam
That was the Hybrid year...where it had a stonkingly large restrictor--and everyone else was emasculated. Henri played the game....and still didn't win. It wasn't the aero. Bad example. After quali, JJ Lehto said "are these cars (Pescas) in the same race?"
French entry at the time.
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Leaving aside the French predilection to favour a French team every 10 years with a 5 in it, my understanding is that the 2005 hybrid Pescarolo hadn't yet seen a wind tunnel in terms of formal development - which perhaps says something about the regs that year - although the Pescorolos were a lot lot faster than the other Dome and Courage hybrids.
When it did, however, it was extraordinary. Given the DNA of the chassis and engine what it was able to do in 2009 once there was some aero time is really noteworthy - for all that the first hour at Silverstone that year can be put down to Bouillon and total commitment, the car didn't hurt much either. Perhaps more telling on this note is Premat's comment this year that the Oak-Pescarolo was better balanced than any Audi he'd ever driven.
Dragging this back on topic however... The Courage C60 that the Pescarolo evolved from was reasonably competitive from day one. With the AMR-ONE all we have are the disappointing results and the comments from those involved, which indicate that there might have been something more than what we got from the car.
I'll go back to what I've said elsewhere - had it run longer in June and thus been allowed to continue it might have surprised many of us - and I'm sad it didn't on a whole number of levels, not least in that it means we almost certainly won't have an Aston Martin LMP1 at Le Mans in 2012.