Team Project 1 has had a nightmare week at Spa Francorchamps, in the lead-up to the first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The team was so unlucky to lose car #46 in a crash on Monday during the Prologue, with the chassis getting so damaged, that it couldn’t be a race car again.
Yesterday’s qualifying saw Egidio Perfetti crash at full speed at the top of Raidillon, hitting the tire barrier with both the front- and rear end of the car.
Following examination of the car, when the team got it back to the garage, they found that this chassis was broken too, so they have to pull out of the 6 hours race today.
Photo: JJ Media
This is the worst possible scenario for the 2018/19 Champions, not just to lose one car but both, before the first point of the season was even in the bank. The team has been super fast all week long with their Porsche 911 RSR-19 #56, except just a single practice session, so that hurts even more for them.
The problem is that Porsche doesn’t have any spare chassis in stock, and Team Project 1 only has those two chassis’ that they brought to Spa Francorchamps. So no opening race for Egidio Perfetti, Matteo Cairoli, and Riccardo Pera, just as their teammates Axcil Jefferies, Anders Burchardt, and Dennis Olsen.
Even though Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #77 was crashed in a very similar way in the qualifying, there aren’t as big problems for them. They have a total of four RSR-19 chassis’ in Europe plus two in the USA, so they will surely be ready for the race this afternoon. The team has yet to announce, if the #77 from yesterday can be repaired, or if they have to go to a backup car.
That leaves us with 33 cars for the start of the race this afternoon at 13.30 CET.
