Didier André and the KTR team had their most competitive outing of the season in Valencia this weekend. Driver André parked his car in sixth and fourth position on the grid for the two races, his best qualifying positions of the year. Unfortunately a missed start in the first race and a less competitive race pace in the second, longer event netted only 11th and seventh place at the finish.
“That fourth time in qualifying for the second race was a surprise for everybody in the paddock, including ourselves and our driver,” team principal Kurt Mollekens said. “It has to be said we have always been competitive in Valencia, so in a way we knew it would only be a matter of time before we would be able to cash in on our past experience here. Nevertheless, a pleasant surprise it was.”
Unfortunately Didier André completely missed his start of the first race and dropped from sixth on the grid down to 11th after one lap. His lost two more places towards the middle part of the race, but clawed his way back to 11th by the finish. “We know that in these shorter races your position after lap 1 is usually the position you finish in,” Mollekens said.
“In the second race Didier made a perfect start and was third after the first lap, but we soon saw that we weren’t on the pace of the cars just ahead and just behind us. We pitted as late as possible, but the guys in front just drove away from us, while the others reeled us in as the race progressed. It wasn’t a matter of strategy or a good or a bad pit stop, we just weren’t on the same lap times as the others, and in any case not as competitive as we had been in qualifying. A real shame, but we’ll have to live with it,” Mollekens said.
And worse news was yet to come for the team when André announced he had lost his sponsor for the final two rounds, which initially had been scheduled at the Chinese Zhuhai track. “Didier had a local sponsor for that race, but when that event was replaced by another one in Jerez his sponsor pulled out. He didn’t tell us and tried to find a replacement but didn’t succeed. There’s still three weeks to go before that race, but one has to be realistic about it. It’s rare that a team or a driver find any additional budgets this late in the season, so there is a chance Didier will not be at Jerez, and maybe the team won’t either unless a replacement driver can be found,” Mollekens explained.
Yesterday all the teams stayed on for an extra day of testing in Valencia, the idea being that this would be an ideal chance for all the teams to test some new drivers for the 2005 season. “I’m getting a bit worried about next year,” Mollekens said. “This extra day of testing is basically pretty cheap, because we’re all here anyway. So I find it unpleasantly surprising that teams like ourselves and some frontrunners are not testing anybody. It’s my feeling that there are still too many single seater formulae on the calendar, with the World Series, GP2 and the Euroseries F3000 all fishing in the same pond for the same drivers and budgets. Renault is doing an excellent job in preparing next year’s World Series, and the package they are offering for the race weekends is truly excellent and certain to be a crowd pleaser, but I have this feeling that 2005 will be a more difficult season for most teams than anybody expected,” he concluded.
Results Race 15 – Valencia
1. Narain Karthikeyan (RC) 18 laps in 25m26s267; 2. Jean-Christophe Ravier (Epsilon) + 0s454; 3. Tiago Monteiro (Carlin) +16s412; 4. Olivier Pla (Carlin) +29s341; 5. Santiago Porteiro (Porfesa) +33s618;… 11. Didier André (KTR) + 42s245 ;…
Results Race 16 – Valencia
1. Tiago Monteiro (Carlin) 26 laps in 37m38s522; 2. Narain Karthikeyan (RC) +5s576; 3. Felix Porteiro (Epsilon) +6s697; 4. Jean-Christophe Ravier (Epsilon) +7s255; 5. Heikki Kovalainen (Pons) +13s737;… 7. Didier André (KTR) +26s233;…
Drivers’ Championship Standings (after 16 races)
1. Kovalainen 176 points; 2. Monteiro 135; 3. Bernoldi 113; 4. Ravier 108; 5. Gommendy 96;…13. André 21;…
Teams’ Championship Standings (after 16 races)
1. Pons Racing 222 points; 2. Carlin Motorsport 181; 3. Epsilon Euskadi 172; 4. GD Racing 118; 5. Saulnier Racing 114;… 8. KTR 46;…
