MotorSport: At the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific 2016 Race at Sepang - Race 2 on Sunday....

I was fortunate to be invited to attend the second race of the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific 2016 at the Sepang International Circuit earlier today (Sunday). This was a two race calendar event which is part of the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific series. It was held in conjunction with the Malaysia Championship Series Round 2 held over the weekend. 

Steve Wyatt (No.77) - winner for Race 1& 2 at Sepang this year

The one make, one model Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific Series is divided into three categories. The Trofeo Pirelli (for seasoned drivers), Trofeo Pirelli AM (amateur) and Coppa Shell (for the beginners or first timers),. Race 2 winners were Steve Wyatt (Australia) in the Trofeo Pirelli, Han Hulin (China) Trofeo Pirelli AM and Liang Wang for the Coppa Shell. Best lap for Steve Wyatt was 2min11.854sec, Han Hulin did it in 2min14.333sec and Liang Wang in 2min14.531. Quite a gap in some ways. Incidentally, Steve Wyatt also won Race 1 which was held on Saturday.

Racing was quite interesting since the playing field was pretty level in terms of cars. All run the Ferrari 458 Challenge EVO, under the Corse Clienti or Customer Race programme. All have the 4.5liter V8 which makes 750hp and around 540Nm torque. All also have driver aids and a nice fat GT wing at the rear. And the noise. Imagine listening to over 20 Ferrari 458 Challenge EVOs singing all at once. Their flat-plane crankshaft V8s shrieking loudly with their dual clutch gearboxes running through gears with a solid thump on every upshift. It was heavenly.

During the press conference I managed to ask some questions (together with fellow journo Salihin Rahim of Careta.com) as regards the newly resurfaced Sepang Circuit, the differences in setup between Sepang and Shanghai (which were both designed by Hermann Tilke) and what would their thoughts be with the fact that next year's Ferrari Challenge car would be the 488 instead of the 458. This year, the 488 GTB is the Safety Car here at Sepang.

What we learnt from Steve Wyatt was that Sepang's resurfaced track actually made the tyres more predictable as even though the weather was hot the tyres were consistent throughout the race. Before the resurface, tyre degradation was a large factor from start to finish. As for the difference between the two Hermann Tilke circuits, Mr Wyatt said that the tracks differed a great deal with Shanghai causing cars to oversteer easily whereas Sepang is a more understeery track (Mr Wyatt had been racing in Sepang for almost 7 years and enjoys the track a lot). A car straight from Shanghai would understeer a lot at Sepang and the teams would have to change setups a great deal. The other two drivers also enjoyed Sepang and all were looking forward towards the added performance of the twin-turbocharged engine that should make an estimated 100hp and 100Nm more than the 458 Challenge. It looks like next year's racing would be even faster. By a fair bit.

The previous Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific race was held at Shanghai and the upcoming one will be held in Singapore as a support race for the Formula One race in Singapore mid September. 

In case you're wondering, A brand new 458 Challenge will cost around USD$300,000 or RM1.2mil approximately before any taxes. The only options available for the 'clienti' is the color of the car and size of the passenger seat. All new 458 Challenge EVO will come delivered on wet tyres (threaded not slicks). What you would need to fork out Racing in the Ferrari Challenge North America series will cost roughly around RM150,000+ per race weekend. This includes crew support, a fee to Ferrari, transportation and living costs plus additional spares. Actually, a good bet would be close to having RM4million so that you have some extra pocket money to spare when you are hopping from Suzuka, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Sepang, Singapore and finally Fuji every year for the challenge.