Habsburg: Early Triple Stint Strategy “Paid Off in Long Term”

Ferdinand Habsburg said that a decision to commit to an early triple stint on tires while at the head of the 6 Hours of Monza LMP2 field ‘paid off in the long run’ after it initially caused Realteam by WRT to drop away from the class lead.

Habsburg, along with Norman Nato and Rui Andrade, took the class victory in the No. 41 Oreca 07 Gibson, coming out ahead of JOTA’s championship-leading No. 38 crew.

The Austrian took the checkered flag after he came charging up in the closing hour, carrying out a recovery drive after he had dropped away at around the halfway point.

Habsburg, who at that time had fought up to the front of the class after passing United Autosports driver Filipe Albuquerque for the lead early in the third hour, explained that a call to commit to an early triple stint cost the team several positions.

It was while at the head of the field that the safety car then came out for Henrique Chaves’ major crash at Variante della Roggia, which bunched the pack up.

“I was on my third stint and my tires are really hard to get back up to temperature when they are old,” Habsburg told Sportscar365.

“They were all on new and fresh tires. So I tried to defend for four or five laps but then I made a mistake in Ascari where I nearly spun and crashed.

“I saved it but I dropped to sixth. I just stayed there and handed the car over to Norman. Even on new tires he fell back a bit, brought us back to fifth and then I got in the car.

“I had two and half stints to go and I passed everyone and got in the lead.

“From that perspective, it was actually pretty simple, but I screwed up on my first attempt on the triple stint tire, but apart from that it was all good.”

Habsburg said that the call for an early triple stint that initially appeared a setback proved key later on, as it allowed him to charge back up the class order. 

When JOTA’s No. 28 car was eliminated following contact with Porsche’s Kevin Estre, Habsburg was able to fight his way past Vector Sport’s Nico Mueller before he vaulted ahead of Will Stevens in the last round of stops.

“We dropped to sixth at the start of the race because of the triple stint, but it paid off in the end,” Habsburg noted.

“Because everyone had to triple stint at the end and we had fresh [tires]. I think that was the strategy that paid off for us in the long term.”

Stevens, for his part, told Sportscar365 that the five-second difference between the stops for JOTA and WRT that allowed Habsburg to vault to the lead was because of a fuelling error for the No. 38 car.

“We fueled too long, so they overfilled me,” Stevens said.

“I think it would have been very tight with the WRT, we would not have come out with big lead for sure, but it would have been extremely tight for sure.”

The Brit explained that JOTA opted for an aggressive strategy to fight up from the back of the grid, where it had been demoted to after an unsafe release in qualifying.

“Actually from like two and a half hours to three hours to go, we were on a really good strategy because if we had a full green race, we would have had one less pitstop from then on than everybody else,” he said.

“So we actually wanted a full green race from like two and a half hours to go. So when the full course yellow came, we knew it was going to be tight with the WRT car on the last fuel stop.”

Stevens completed the final stint aboard the car, but indicated that that had not been originally intended as plans instead changed in an attempt to retain track position in the final hour.

“We are always planning to put tires on at the last stop and for Antonio to finish.

“This track is all track position so after a stint and a half we made a decision that we’re not going to change and we’re trying to extend to a triple, which wasn’t on the plan.

“So through the first stint we were pushing hard thinking we were going double and then we switched to a triple, so it was tough at the end but we managed to look after it enough and come away with second.”

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report