Ben Barker and the Gulf Racing team hardly put a wheel wrong in the opening round of the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship but were still cruelly denied a podium finish in their home race at Silverstone.
The Porsche squad, with Andrew Watson joining Barker and owner-driver Mike Wainwright in the line-up, was in the hunt for silverware throughout, and had second place in their sights with two laps to run before a late pit-stop dropped them to fourth in a highly-competitive GTE-Am class.
Barker and his co-drivers spent the majority of the practice sessions getting a handle on the various tyre compounds available to them, and tuning the #86 Porsche 911 RSR to get the best from its rubber, but, despite edging closer to an ideal set-up, the car remained sufficiently unsettled to prevent the team from qualifying as well as it had hoped on Saturday afternoon.
“We were getting there on set-up but wasn’t quite in the sweet spot for qualifying,” Barker admitted, “That meant that the pace wasn’t quite what we had hoped for, but Mike did a good job with his laps – posting his best ever time for this circuit – and we knew there was definitely more to come from both the car and myself in the race.”
Despite only netting ninth position in the eleven-car GTE-Am field, Wainwright’s pace and further work on the set-up ensured that there was still a good energy level within the camp ahead of Sunday’s four-hour marathon. The team owner took the first stint behind the wheel and, with a full-course caution interrupting his run, wound up completing his allotted 90 minutes in a single shift. With the previously dry conditions turning to drizzle – with worse forecast to follow – Watson was sent out on intermediate tyres at the driver change, which proved to be the perfect choice when the heavens eventually opened.
Having had half a lap to make up when he rejoined, the Northern Irishman began carving into the deficit and, with a safety car bunching the field, the Gulf team quickly found itself running third in class. Watson’s strong debut continued as he switched to slicks once the rain had passed, pushing the #86 into second place before handing Barker the reins.
The Cambridge native’s plan to continue moving closer to top spot was initially hampered by lapped GTE-Am cars which, with equally experienced drivers behind the wheel, proved obstinate opposition amid a lack of blue flags. However, Barker was able to retain second place for much of his run and defended manfully before eventually being passed by the best of the Ferrari runners at Stowe. What appeared to be a likely third-place then became second again as one of the Proton entries ran into reliability problems, promoting the Gulf car as Barker demonstrated enough pace to prevent any further threat from behind.
The team’s biggest issue was internal, however. Barker had been managing his fuel amid reassurances from the pitwall that he had enough to make the chequered flag but, with two laps remaining, an alarm went off in the cockpit, forcing the Briton to pit for a ‘splash and dash’ top-up. With the stop costing around 30 seconds, it was enough to demote the #86 to fourth place and, with no time to fight back, the team’s dream of silverware was extinguished.
“This was still a great weekend for the Gulf Racing team, but it would have been amazing to have stood on the podium after all the good work that we put in,” Barker reflected, “It’s gutting to see a podium disappear that late in the race, especially in front of our home crowd. We had a similar thing happen at Sebring last season, so it hurts a bit, but there are still a lot of positives we should reflect on.
“Mike and Andrew both turned in quick and consistent runs, and the team made the right call on tyres, which really helped to move us up the order when the rain came. We weren’t the fastest out there, especially as the new Aston Martin and evolved Ferrari seem to have gained under the Balance of Performance, but the Gulf car was as reliable as always and that bodes well for the coming rounds.”
The 2019-20 WEC season continues at Fuji in Japan – where the Gulf team claimed a top-five finish last year – over the weekend of 6 October.
