Krohn Racing did a short test last Friday, February 3rd at Road Atlanta, which consisted of 71 laps, most driven by Team Owner/Driver Tracy W. Krohn. Both Krohn and Nic Jönsson have been testing at Sebring this week. Co-driver Michele Rugolo will join the duo for the historic 12-hour race, scheduled for March 17, as well as the entire WEC season. They will compete in the GTE-Am class and try to defend their 2011 Sebring class victory.
The Sebring race green flags the eight-race WEC, which will travel to four continents, with races in Belgium, England, Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and China and the keystone event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.
The No. 57 Krohn Team was pleased with the progress made at the two-day Sebring test. Both Krohn and Jönsson felt much advancement was made with the learning curve of the new Ferrari F458. Engineers from Ferrari tuner, Michelotto, and tire technicians from Dunlop helped advance the development at the test.
TRACY W. KROHN, Team Owner/Driver No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am:
"The car is getting better. One thing is getting used to it. Another thing is getting the set-up right. We've worked on several set-up items, both aero and mechanical. Anytime we make a change we learn something. Most of it has been good so far. I'm real pleased with the car."
"This open test session format is so much better. You just run, make changes and keep running, instead of an hour and a half and things like that. It's just better to be running four hours at a time and making running changes like this. I'm real pleased with the format."
NIC JONSSON, Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am:
"You can definitely tell the 458 is a new generation race car. Obviously one of the most significant changes in the car is the paddle shift instead of stick shift. I think the ergonomics inside the car, the way you fit in the car and how it is laid out with all the switches is well thought through. It's a much better package. I think it's going to be an awesome car when we get everything sorted out and more familiar with it."
"It's always fun to run a full season in a championship like the WEC, which is now given the World Championship status. To be able to do that with a team like Krohn Racing, which has a lot of international experience between all the guys, and to do it with my friend, Team Owner and co-driver, Tracy Krohn, who I've been with for many years, will be a lot of fun. Hopefully we can go out there and do one better than last year and try to win the championship."
"Success at Sebring comes down to preparation. Krohn Racing has shown in the past that the guys are very meticulous with things and they prepare a good race car. Now with this new Ferrari we are going to try to work on reliability. Some of that comes from the testing and development Ferrari has done the last year and a half over in Europe. We get the benefit from it. Hopefully the reliability will be there. For us it's just trying to get the car quick enough, but also from a handling standpoint, get it to run consistently from full fuel to low fuel and new tires to worn tires. So that's what we're really working on this week – to get the car really well balanced and have a very good, solid car when race week comes."
JEFF HAZELL, Krohn Racing Motorsports Manager:
"The past six weeks we have been very busy preparing the Ferrari for this test and testing and racing in January in Daytona for the 24 Hours. We have a lot of work to do before we come back for the race at Sebring. Achieving a satisfactory performance in this test will allow us to concentrate on all the other elements that we must have in place to be competitive in a 12-hour race."
