Ferrari have a healthy 47 points lead in the GT manufacturers world championship and Ferrari will be looking to score maximum points to secure both titles.

We caught up with James Calado in the paddock as the teams prepare for the 6 Hours of Shanghai on Sunday 5 November.  

Q: How would you sum up your season so far?

“This year has been quite good so far, we’re leading the world championship and we’ve had three wins, so I’m really happy how everything’s going. Obviously there are two races left but other than Le Mans it has been really good.  Le Mans was really disappointing, it is one we all want to win but unfortunately luck wasn’t on our side. However we are still leading by five points and we will continue to push.”

Q: This year the GTE class is now a full FIA World Championship in its own right rather than a World Cup.  Is this distinction an important one?

“When I found out that LMGTE Pro was becoming a proper world championship it gave me a lot more motivation. It really means something to become a world champion and we are pushing like crazy to try and get this championship.  It will also attract a lot more manufacturers in the future and it is really good to see the GT side of the WEC is growing.”

Q: You’ve had a good run of results and are now leading the driver’s championship by 5 points with two races remaining.  Are you going to approach this weekend in Shanghai any differently than the previous seven races?

“We’re five points ahead in the drivers’ championship and have a healthy 47 point lead in the manufacturers.  This is really positive but we have to approach this weekend in the same manner, nt get too confident and push and work as a team harder than ever.  We need to maximise the amount of points this weekend as we tend to struggle in China with our car, but we are quite confident that we can score a good result. We just got to go max attack.”

Q: What is your favourite part of the track here in Shanghai?

“My favourite part of the track has to be turn one and the first sector.  It is extremely quick on the entry and quite tight as the corner goes along.  It’s an amazing track with a great atmosphere around the paddock and general a good race for us.”

The no7 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrid will start the 6 Hours of Shanghai from Pole Position after Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi set an average lap time of 1m42.832, 0.440 seconds ahead of the no1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Nick Tandy and Andre Lotterer.

Championship leaders Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber could only manage fourth fastest after Bamber suffered a spin across the grass on his first fast lap. 

The Kiwi pairing posted an average 1m43.497 lap, 0.665 seconds behind the lead Toyota on pole and 0.052 behind the third placed no8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson.

The no95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Marco Sorensen and Nicky Thiim took the pole in China, the first pole of the season for the no95 car. 

The average lap time of 1m59.697 was 0.219 seconds faster than the rest of the GTE field with the no92 Porsche 911 RSR of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen second fastest with a lap of 1m59.916. 

Championship leaders Ferrari were third quickest with the no51 F488 of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi with a 2m00.247 lap, with the Ford GT of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell in 4^th just 0.052 behind the Ferrari.

The no31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 07-Gibson of Bruno Senna and Julien Canal scooped top qualifying honours in LMP2 for the first time in 2017 with an average lap time of 1m49.217, a new qualifying lap record for the LMP2 class in Shanghai. 

The no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Nico Muller and Leo Roussel will line up in second place for tomorrow’s race, just 0.255 seconds behind the lead car.

Championship leaders in the no38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca were fourth quickest with a 1m49.743, just 0.049 seconds behind the third fastest car the no13 Vaillante Rebellion.

The no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana will start from the front of the LMGTE Am grid for the sixth time in 2017 after claiming pole in Shanghai. 

The Portuguese/ Canadian duo posted an average lap of 2m02.357, 0.408s ahead of the no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Christian Ried and Matteo Cairoli.

The 6 Hours of Shanghai is due to start at 11h00 (local) / 04h00 CET on Sunday 5 November

The current world championship leader is back behind the wheel of the Porsche 919 hybrid in China alongside his teammates Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber as they prepare for 6 Hours of Shanghai, Round 8 of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Q: It has been a busy few weeks for you. How have you coped with the schedule of WEC races in Japan and China with the F1 races in Texas and Mexico in between?

“It has been a very busy four weeks. It started at Petit Le Mans, then to Japan, Austin with Formula One, Mexico and now China with the WEC.  Actually I’m dealing with it pretty well.  There is a lot of sleeping on the plane and I have had to work hard to keep on top of the fitness, making sure I didn’t get sick. I guess we are used to it as racing drivers travelling around the world.”

Q: What are the main differences between LMP1 and F1?  Are the cars very different aside from the obvious differences such as closed / open cockpit and aerodynamics?

“I think in a lot of ways LMP1 prepared me well because there is a similar sized team at the race track, both very professional in terms of the structure and how I deal with the engineers, it is all very familiar.  Also the pressure with competing for Porsche at Le Mans, that’s a high pressure scenario. From that side I was well prepared. 

“On the otherside the car is completely different and the tyres are completely different.  Both are equally complex but in different ways.  It was a steep learning curve but I am happy how I progressed.  I’m smiling and I enjoyed every moment. 

“In a lot of ways LMP1 prepared me for that.  To enter Formula One without doing any testing in the last year is a tough ask but I don’t think I could’ve had better preparation than being in LMP1.”

Q: Did it help your preparations for the two F1 races you have taken part in Mexico and Texas were on tracks that we have recently visited with the WEC?

“Sure it was nice to start my first two Grand Prix at tracks I was familiar with and ones I have just been to. To be honest learning a modern Formula One car with the huge downforce they have right now is a bigger challenge than learning a new race track. 

“As drivers we have so many tracks in our bank of knowledge, learning a track is quite a quick process, especially with simulators and on board videos. But having that feeling of having a Formula One car underneath you takes some work.  Learning the car was a bigger task than learning the track but I was definitely happy to go to places I had just been to.”

Q: You have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the World Endurance Drivers Championship with Porsche.  Do you feel that endurance has benefitted your racing career in a different way from those drivers who have only raced in single seaters?

“No question! In terms of working on such a big project, the pressure I mentioned before that goes along with racing at Le Mans for Porsche.  On top of that working with incredibly talented teammates. 

“I think in single seaters it can often be you are not sharing anything with your teammates.  Where here we work together and you end up learning a lot more from them than you would in other categories.  It’s not like I entered endurance racing looking to go back to Formula One, but I think in terms of professionalism and how the operation works at the race track there are a lot of similarities. Working with the likes of Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard is beneficial for any driver.”

Q: With the possibility of the world championships being decided this weekend in Shanghai.  Is there any change in the way you approach the race here in China?

“We would love to win this weekend but as we have seen it is going to be tough.  Toyota have brought a really strong car and they took pole position today.  We thought we might have been able to challenge them but we are going to start from P4. From what we saw in the long runs, they probably have a slight edge on us which means we have to put together a really clean race to beat them.  Which is cool, we want to do that. 

“I don’t think it makes sense to just cruise and bring it home to try and take the championship.  We would love to sign off this 919 story with the highest level we can.”

At the end of the second Free Practice session of the opening day of the 6 Hours of Shanghai weekend in China the no7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid was holding the top spot on the timesheets with the no8 car 0.390 second behind.

Mike Conway set a 1m44.741 lap, beating the best time he set in FP1 by 2.4 seconds.  Anthony Davidson was the fastest of the three drivers in the no8 Toyota.

 The no2 Porsche set the best time of the session of the two 919 hybrids with Brendon Hartley posting a 1m45.269 lap, 0.5 seconds behind the lead Toyota.

After setting the 7^th best time in FP1, the no51 AF Corse Ferrari bounced back to set the best GTE time of the day with James Calado setting a 2m01.913 lap, 0.6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field with the no91 Porsche 919 of Richard Lietz posting a 2m02.539 in second.  The two Ford GTs were third and fourth with the no66 car ahead of the no67.

The no13 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca was once again the lead car in LMP2 with Nelson Piquet Jnr setting a 1m50.556, almost two seconds better than the time set in FP1. 

The championship leading no38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca was second fastest, with Thomas Laurent setting a 1m50.884 lap, just ahead of the no31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 07 lapping the Shanghai International Circuit in 1m50.946.

The no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche was the quickest of the LMGTE Am runners with Matteo Cairoli posting a 2m03.353 lap at the end of the 90-minute session. 

The no98 Aston Martin was second with Pedro Lamy posting a 2m03.684 lap just ahead of the no61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari.