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Ahead of the 2015 Canadian V-Prix in Montreal, the DS Automobiles Liverpool Test Team headed to Toronto with Kip Maxwell as the star attraction of an event celebrating the best of virtual motorsport and the motor industry. A host of classic race and road cars were on show, with the area around Exhibition Place also turned into a racetrack for the day allowing for a short time trial event. The Lapierre Competition DS9 Hybrid prototype led the times for the majority of the day, fending off challenges from entries from stock car racing, virtual American open wheel racing and even the iconic Peugeot 208 Pikes Peak, before Kip Maxwell took the 2015 Liverpool-Downton to the track, managing an impressive 1:02.233 to take the win in the exhibition event. Maxwell was enthusiastic about attending the event: 'It's always great to get to some of the places that aren't in the front line of Formula Virtual. The race in Montreal is amazing, but the whole of Canada is big on motorsport. This event organised by the local government is testament to that. I'm glad we had the chance to have some fun here, it's a great little circuit. It was also good to compare the FV car with some other types, such as the DS9 Prototype - it's fair to say it was a close run thing!'
Below are a selection of post race comments from a variety of teams and drivers regarding their British V-Prix.
Ocelot Team Principle ''Rai Miyamoto'' has put to bed many rumors regarding the team and issues going on, He had the following to say regarding Karl Beckenbaur and his seat at the team next season. ''I can 100 percent confirm to you all, even with his move to Warrior for the rest of the season, we are not looking at canceling nor getting rid of Karl for the 2016 season, after all he will have valuable information on not only what Warrior are up to but even his old team, this is crucial and beneficial to us.''
Following these comments Rai Miyamoto went on to confirm the team's reserve driver who would indeed be current FV rookie Judson Sikes. ''We have been quite impressed with Judson and it is unfortunate that we can't run 3 cars as he would be in with a seat, however I can confirm that we are looking to see if any of the other teams would be interested in taking Judson for the 2016 season and are working around the clock to try and get him a drive.'' However Rai Miyamto also stated that Hugh Dwyer would indeed be returning for the Canadian GP, ''It only makes sense for us to allow Hugh to drive at the Canadian GP, as he is being given the same chance as Scott, I can also confirm regarding the Canadian GP, that the team and I personally see this as our second home, I have been a huge fan of the circuit and the country itself and wish to one day have the team win a race around here.'' ''Oh and one final note, we are 100% still working on improving and developing this years car, we are still battling with the other teams and refuse to still give up on this season, that I can confirm, I just thought it was time to put rumors to bed that we had stopped and given up on this season when it is not in fact true.'' In an interview following the British V-Prix, the talk of the Silverstone circuit was tyre safety, after the official FV commentary team suggested they were down to tyre concerns, something the winning Franklin team strongly denied.
When asked about his opinion, Arthur Lapierre said: 'Well, I can only comment about Michelin. Our arrangement with them, as I know it is for Franklin and Rossi at least, is that we get bespoke tyres for our team. This means they're pushing to the limit of course to give us exactly what we want, but this also means they get all the data from the teams they run, ready to apply to their tyres. As Franklin says, there was no tyre issue, at least not for Michelin. From our point of view? Well, the race was 60 laps. This was based on the old GP layout, but the new circuit is longer, so the race was 16% longer than the usual V-Prix. We knew this was coming, but we decided that for the sake of being able to do a 1 stop for this race, the bigger fuel tank wasn't worth it. We had always arranged for the extra stop we'd need here, and I think it'll be the same story for the others, though I'm hearing rumours that some tried to run a lean mixture and try to make it to the end, which we thought just wasn't worth it.' Interestingly, Lapierre also made an observation about the commentary team: 'I'm only speaking for Michelin and their runners here, as I notice both Bradley and Harry use Firestone tyres, so perhaps they did have to pit due to tyre concerns!'
Below are a selection of post race comments from a variety of teams and drivers regarding their French V-Prix.
Paul Ricard, 3/1/2016 Today it was confirmed that Liverpool will use an altered livery and branding for the rest of the year ahead of the full arrival of DS Automobiles in 2016. While the rest of the Liverpool team joined the rest of the FV circus on their way to Silverstone for the British V-Prix, Arthur Lapierre and Robert Mathershaw remained at their Paul Ricard base to show off the new-look RJM-003/LFC. 'With the arrival of DS in the team from the British V-Prix onwards, we've taken the opportunity to make a few alterations to the livery, while welcoming new partners Total and Eurodatacar to the team. The rest of this season will be used as development of the 2016 Downton-DS engine, which will be of great benefit to both ourselves next year as the factory DS Automobiles team, the factory Downton team, customers Ocelot and our second customer team, who will be revealed in due course. As such, we have changed the image of the team slightly to begin the transition from Liverpool to DS as the DS Automobiles Liverpool Test Team. We hope you like it!' said Lapierre to the assembled fans. 'We're keen to get ourselves as prepared as possible for the 2016 season, and with things turning out the way they have, we've taken the chance to use the rest of this season to test ideas and components for next year, while allowing DS time to fine tune a multitude of things, right down to manufacturing processes and development schedules.' After the short press conference to the few media personnel who had stayed behind after the French V-Prix, the team took the newly liveried test car onto the Paul Ricard circuit under the darkness of the French night to be photographed. |
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