BEAUTIFUL MUSIC AT DONINGTON PARK FROM SUPERLEAGUE FORMULA
Apart from its motor sport history, Donington Park is also
a popular concert and festival venue, but today, the UK circuit
welcomed a new brand of beautiful music for the first time
– the V12 power of the new Superleague Formula championship.
The Elan Motorsport Technologies-built, Menard Competition
Technologies-powered prototype hit the track for the first
time with Frenchman Bruce Jouanny at the wheel.
Making its debut at Donington was a fitting start for Superleague
Formula – the championship will also kick off its inaugural
season at the Derbyshire venue on August 30/31 this year.
With championship-winning British Formula 3 team Hitech Racing
overseeing the testing and development, the new Superleague
Formula chassis completed its first track laps on this week
after running initial straight-line tests last week.
"We have been able to put some good miles on the car
and get everything up to temperature and up to speed,"
said Jouanny.
"At the end of the day I was able to do a longer run
where I could really start to put the tyres under load and
push the engine harder, which was great.
"The engine has a tremendous amount of torque –
we are down on top end power at the moment, but this is the
first phase of the engine development and we are working through
mapping options – that is what we are here for.
"The Elan chassis responds to changes really well, you
can really feel every adjustment and it has an enormous amount
of downforce – the track was pretty cold and slippery
but you could really lean on the lateral grip.
"The braking is also very impressive. The carbon brakes
are very strong and the V12 Menard powerplant offers a lot
of engine braking – that will be one of the things which
the drivers in this championship will take a while to get
used to."
Jouanny, championship Technical Director Steve Farrell and
Hitech Racing are charged with developing the engine/chassis
combination over the next few months before teams accept delivery
of their cars in June.
A total of six, three-day tests are planned with the next
session scheduled for the Monteblanco circuit in Spain.
Superleague Formula will feature the colours of the world's
leading football clubs adorned aboard the Elan-chassis/Menard-engine
combination.
"We are very early in our development program but this
week has gone pretty much to schedule – we are very
pleased," said Superleague Formula Technical Director,
Steve Farrell.
"There are a lot of detail items to sort through, but
the major functions of the car - engine running, gearchange,
basic handling – that is all going remarkably well considering
the point at the development cycle that we are at.
"All the technical partners and the guys at Hitech Racing
have done an incredible job – it has been a great effort
from everyone.
"Lots of late nights and lots of hard work, but it is
a good example of the teamwork that will play an important
part in the development of the car over the next few months."
Fresh from a major launch for Corinthians in Brazil, Superleague
Formula will next head to Turkey for the unveiling of the
Galatasaray SK entry tomorrow.
This pair join AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Olympiacos,
Borussia Dortmund, RSC Anderlecht, FC Basel, Sevilla and Flamengo
on the Superleague Formula grid.
Three further club announcements are scheduled in the upcoming
weeks, while negotiations are currently being finalised with
six additional teams to complete the 20 car entry.
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