Didnt you or Peter Mann said that 51/71 are the "works" cars and not risi, scuderia corsa, kessel etc Audi did support WRT and Phoenix with full works support so yes why not full factory support two cars in Blancpain (af corse, rinaldi or others)
Yes it is correct that the 51/71 WEC Cars are the "Factory (funded) works cars" it means that the two WEC 488 GTE are financially supported by Ferrari (even when AF owns the cars) As you can see some of the F1 Sponsors are also on the PRO GTE Cars. Then the next is that both cars are driven by Ferrari employeed Drivers. Plus Ferrari is much involved into Marketing, Driver decisions, etc. But technical Support is mainly done via the Michelotto and AF Corse Staff. Ferrari decide who is part of the Driver line up and also who is driving which car. If I want to have a 488 GTE, I just need to fill out the order sheet and I get one.... identical to the WEC Car. From technical Support there is not much difference. My Race Engineer is the same as for Car 71 in the WEC. also some of the mechanics and support team is identical. the only difference is who pays the bill. I have the same access to technical Support as 51/71 in WEC. only the bill goes to a different adress.. Risi, Scuderia Corsa, Kessel, the rest of all the AF Squad including myself are funded by ourselfs, the Teams or/and additional Sponsors. but we all have identical access to technical Support as the WEC Cars do. What I dont have is access to the Michelin Confidential Tyres or doing Tests with them but if I would run (and fund) a Ferrari Pro Team in WEC I would have access to that as well. Unfortunately I race with Pirellis.... and all the AM Cars or Pro Am Cars are funded private so usually the AM Driver wants to race as well as he got the big bill. a AM is not a PRO, thats the fact... Speaking about SMP or Kaspersky, both are able to spend as much as Ferrari. (if they want to do so....) So at the end not much difference. Plus Blancpain GT is much cheaper than WEC. We have seen the Kaspersky announcement (Fisico and Cioci) and this plan was already born during the season and has nothing to do with the latest WEC rumors but maybe there is more to come. ;-) GT3 was considered as Customer Racing, now with more and more Manufacturer are involved (as you mentioned WRT/Audi) or Bentley, Nissan and Mercedes Ferrari considered to be present in the PRO category as well. Lets see... nothing finally decided or announced yet but it looks quite promising.
always welcome Tom In addition, it is - especially for a pure AM Driver like me - amazing to be part of the Family. I just spend a week in the GT Competizioni Training Camp with the PRO Drivers and it was though but so funny again. Cycling, Gym Sessions, Power Intervall Trainings etc. and compare the Performance of the Pros with mine is every year very interesting. also due to the technical and Support access I mentioned above, racing with Ferrari even in AM Class brings some emotions with it. yes I could race for less Money with Audi or even Lambo but the threatment is not the same. the emotions and Support in this way you have only with Ferrari. for some People this is part of the experience, for some not - for me it is.
AF Corse has won the GTE-Am and Ferrari has won the GTE Manufacture's championships. FIA WEC, BAHRAIN: FERRARI, AF CORSE, PERRODO-COLLARD-AGUAS TOOK THREE TITLES Ferrari wins the GT Manufactures Cup; AF Corse is champion among the LMGTE Am Team; François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas took the LMGTE Am Drivers title in their Ferrari 458 Italia #83. This is the triple successful outcome from the 6 hours of Bahrain, last race in FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 2016. Ferrari, AF Corse and the Prancing Horse drivers are still at the top. Ferrari has won the GT Manufactures titles four times out of ve FIA WEC editions. The same is for AF Corse among both LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am categories. Perrodo, Collard and Aguas staked a claim on LMGTE Am Drivers title from the penultimate race, in Shanghai. In Bahrain, the squad with Ferrari 458 #83 nished third in the race de nitely gaining the title. Following the second position in 2015 LMGTE Am Drivers classi cation, Perrodo-Collard-Aguas are now world champions. The Manufactures GT Cup for Ferrari came also at the end of race in Bahrain where Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado, with AF Corse 488 GTE #51 nished second in front of teammates Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in AF Corse 488 GTE #71 car. In the GT Drivers Cup, Rigon and Bird are second, Bruni and Calado third. AF Corse is third among the LMGTE Pro Team.
