2020 8 Hours of Bahrain: the Cetilar Racing final report

A regular season, the first for the Cetilar Racing team in the FIA WEC world championship, which ended on Saturday night with the 2020 8 Hours of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf. Despite the clear technical difficulties of the Dallara n.47 LMP2 compared to the competition, the only “all made in Italy” team starting out in the Sportscar category managed to complete all eight competitions in the calendar, reaching seventh place in the Team table.

2020 8 Hours of Bahrain

In the 2020 8 Hours of Bahrain, fought on the Sakhir circuit, Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Andrea Belicchi once again saw the chequered flag, even though due to a series of problems in the last 60 minutes they came in last.

Finishing the race was in any case a more than positive result, considering that for this car, from the Italian factory run by AF Corse, it was the toughest track of them all. All this despite two unforeseen events towards the end:

• first, an extra pit stop, around half an hour from the end, to fix an exploded brake disc;
• then, the alternator broke 15′ from the end of the time.

In both cases, the team of mechanics led by Mario De Laurentiis intervened immediately, minimising the time lost.

The comments of the Cetilar Racing Team

“We knew that this circuit was the one least suited to our Dallara on the whole world circus. We fought the race focusing wholly on constancy and rhythm”, commented Lacorte, behind the wheel on the last stint to the chequered flag in 2020, “In the early stages the track was quite dirty, the wind had brought sand this morning. A physically tough race, in extreme heat, mostly on a particularly worn track”.

“Technically, we did the best we could, at the pace we expected, without any mistakes. Definitely a positive end of season for us”, Sernagiotto added.

“It was a really tough race. We had to manage the tyres well. We knew that for us this was the hardest track in the world championship. We put in some incredible effort, gritting our teeth from start to finish, and giving our all as usual. The broken brake disc and then the problem with the alternator lost time, but luckily didn’t stop us from finishing,” commented Belicchi, “Well done to Roberto [Lacorte], who once again did a brilliant job. I’m sure that in future, with a team like this, we can achieve some great results”.

The Cetilar Racing team and the World Championship

From its début at the WEC Silverstone 2019, the Cetilar Racing team’s adventure in the World Championship has been packed with both difficult and extraordinary moments. Among these, certainly the sixth place obtained in the UK and the fifth in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps last August, its best result so far. But also the fourth participation running in the 24 Hours of Le Mans – watch the video – which ended with tenth place in the class and 14th place in the general table, out of a total of 59 cars on the starting line.

Despite some difficult moments, the Cetilar Racing team continued to meet its commitments by taking part in the final round in Bahrain, on a track that is far from “friendly”. And for 2021, lots of news will be released soon.

Among these, the participation in the coming edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona, to be held in late January, also marking the last appearance of the Dallara LMP2 by Cetilar Racing. “The Dallara will fly from here directly to Daytona in the USA,” Lacorte explained, “We will be racing in a championship with completely different regulations, more suited to the characteristics of our car”.