Calado staying realistic after unexpected Silverstone victory

James Calado has called on the AF Corse Ferrari team to remain realistic about its targets for the remainder of the season despite scoring a surprise victory in Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at Silverstone in the GTE-Pro class.

Calado and teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi rose from ninth in class in qualifying to take an unlikely class victory in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at Silverstone, beating pre-race favourites Ford and Porsche.

The victory came after Calado and Pier Guidi had struggled for pace through the opening two rounds of the season at Spa and Le Mans amid concerns over the Balance of Performance settings in the class.

While Calado was pleased to finally pick up his first victory on home soil in the WEC, the Briton stressed he was staying realistic heading into the remainder of the season.

“It’s great to win a home race finally in the four, five years of being here, really pleased to get the win,” Calado said.

“We knew on pace alone that we were going to struggle. We just don’t quite have the speed to compete with the Porsche and the Ford. Even the Aston now is up there.

“Strategically, we had a long three hours in the truck last night discussing what we could do to do something different, saving fuel and hoping for a Full Course Yellow was our only hope, and that happened.

“Some people would say we were lucky, but it was done on purpose. It wasn’t so straightforward. We had some issues in the pit stop as well, Alessandro lost 10 seconds due to a fuel issue, so we lost time there.

“The team especially did an amazing strategic job. The car was at its full potential and we were pushing like crazy to keep the Porsches behind. To get the win is a bonus.

“We’ve got to be realistic moving on, but also positive.”