Rome, Italy – November 4th 2019
The FIA Motorsport Games is a multi-disciplinary event hosted by the FIA and SRO Motorsport Group. It is held across six different motorsport disciplines from GT to Formula 4, Touring Cars, Karting, Drifting as well as Digital motorsport. Each team competes under their nation’s flag and each competition awards gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three finisher of each category.
The Talkanitsa family, already racing for Belarussia in 2018 (the first FIA Nation’s Cup in Bahrein) was proud to be part of the game once again in 2019. At the wheel of #51 Ferrari 488 GT3, Alexander Talkanitsa Father and Son were amongst the 21 GT Cup teams who had to struggle with the desastrous weather conditions this weekend on the Italian Vallelunga circuit.
The #51 AF Corse prepared Ferrai 488 GT3 managed to get through all the sessions without getting trapped in the numerous accidents and spin and without any major error all along the 3-day event.
| FIA MOTORSPORT GAMES – Vallelunga 2019 |
| « The Race 1 on Saturday was quite good. Of course we gambled a little like much of the other teams, but in the end we did the correct tire choice. I was driving on slicks while many other were on wets, and the track was not too wet, so I was able to overtake some cars. My father managed to keep a very good pace as well, so we finished 5th out of the 21 entries, which was good. » said Alexander Talkanitsa Junior at the end of the weekend. » The weather conditions were just beyond expectation for the second race of the GT Cup on Sunday morning. In fact, the start was given behind Safety Car and Green was only declared after 10 minutes into the race. A strong accident of Malaysian Porsche and the torrential rain finally Red Flagged the race and it only restarted about one hour later for the last 20 minutes. |
Alexander Talkanitsa Junior: « The weather was just awfull in Race 2, and it was red flagged for almost one hour. Unfortunately I had a Drive Through because I did not see the Safety Car lights, this put us far down in the general classification, so we ended P14.
We started the Main Race P7 and the weather for this last race was very tricky; it was complicated to choose the right tire before the start. It looked like we should go for wet tires but in the end my father decided to come back for slicks before the start. He was doing fine, but after a few minutes it started to rain again and the last three laps of his stint were just swimming, sliding, aquaplanning… he definitely had to come back to change to wet. When I took over, I did two or three laps until the Safety Car came out, until the end. »
Talkanitsa Father and Son at the wheel of Belarussian #51 Ferrari 488 finished that last race 13th overall, which in the end is a good result, as the key words of the event were : MAKE NO MISTAKE and STAY ON TRACK.
« It really was a gamble for every one and if you did not choose the right tire at the beginning… there was no way you could do well. The FIA Motorsport Games is a great meeting, even if we did not have much luck with the weather this time. They did a wonderful job in preparing everything, the opening ceremony was fantastic. The three race meeting is also a great idea. » Alex added.