Patronise F1

Given that there's no Formula One to get excited about until next weekend, Patty will be providing you with some alternative motorsport entertainment prior to the start of the F1 season, with this weekend's Sebring 12 hours.

With the withdrawal symptoms for the new F1 season beginning to cause severe heart palpitations across most of the motorsport world's fandom, Patronise F1 will attempt to cure its own jitters by randomly covering the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first big sportscar race of the season and a nice early acid test ahead of the planned return of our Le Mans 24 Hours coverage in June.

The Sebring race represents the first round of the new American Le Mans Series, as well as the opening event in the new-for-2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the latest half-hearted effort at a unified sportscar world championship that sees blue riband events across three continents, a number of different series and nine long months confusingly combined into a single championship.

But given that Patty has little inclination to follow that throughout the year, then as far as we're concerned the 12 Hours of Sebring represents another chance for a hectic endurance battle between the two big rivals of the modern sportscar era, Audi and Peugeot. The German marque won Le Mans last year with their troubled but upgraded R15+ car, and will use it again in Sebring before their 2011-spec R18 comes online in time for Le Mans itself. Meanwhile Peugeot dominated this race in 2010, albeit without any real works opposition, and will be looking to score an early win over their rivals with their newly-upgraded 2011-spec 908 coupes.

Behind the manufacturer leviathans, there will be all the usual fun of the support classes, with the ALMS regulars gunning for class glory, especially in the GT class, which features a staggering grid of 33 cars covering 9 different manufacturers, including works-backed efforts from Porsche, BMW, Chevrolet and Ferrari.

So all in all, the race should be a lot of fun, and will hopefully distract you from the continued dearth of Formula One to gawp at as we start to count down the days and hours to the Australian GP.

The Track

Sebring International Raceway
Location: Highlands County, Florida
Length: 5.950 km
Turns: 17
Lap Record: 1:43.274 (Sebastien Bourdais, Peugeot LMP1, 2009)

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2010 Winners
LMP1 - Team Peugeot Total #7 (Marc Gené, Alex Wurz, Anthony Davidson - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP) - 367 Laps
LMP2 - Team Cytosport #6 (Greg Pickett, Klaus Graf, Sascha Maassen - Porsche RS Spyder Evo) - 353 Laps
LMPC - Level 5 Motorsports #55 (Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut, Mark Wilkins - Oreca FLM09) - 327 Laps
GT2 - Risi Competizione #62 (Jaime Melo, Gianmaria Bruni, Pierre Kaffer - Ferrari F430 GTE) - 331 Laps
GTC - Alex Job Racing #81 (Butch Leitzinger, Juan González, Leh Keen - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) - 308 Laps

Entry List - Prototype Classes - 23 Entries

Right then, bear with us, because this gets a little complicated. In the prototype division we have three distinct sub-classes. At the front, there are the frontrunning LMP1 cars, and here we are all set for a whacking great battle between Audi and Peugeot.

Audi have an upgraded version of their R15 here (the mathematically-titled R15+ no less) and can match Peugeot man-for-man on the driver front, especially in their #2 car with their premier Kristensen/Capello/McNish line-up. Peugeot's 908, though, tends to have the edge on Audi performance-wise these days. The French team will have a new pair of 2011-spec 908s and they will start the weekend as favourites, especially with reigning Sebring champions and Who's Who of F1 failures Wurz/Gene/Davidson in the #7 machine.

Should the 'big four' works cars fall foul of the stresses of the 12 hour race, then the outsiders for glory will likely be the privateer Lola Aston Martin of the amusingly-sponsored Muscle Milk Cytosport team, the private year-old Peugeot 908 from Team Oreca, with a driving line-up that features famous ex-F1 midfielder Olivier Panis, and the reigning ALMS champions Highcroft Racing, with their Honda-powered open-top entry and trio of experienced sportscar faces.

Outside of the big top class cars, there is the poorly-supported LMP2 class, in which the Signatech Nissan will probably prove to be strongest of some weak challengers, and the fairly useless LMPC class, formed of a motley selection of Oreca-designed cars from the failed Formula Le Mans series, now largely used to bump up entry numbers in the ALMS.

Entry List - GT Classes - 33 Entries

The GT field is similarly split into a baffling array of different classes, though the main GT class promises to be the main one to watch throughout the 12 hours of racing. With strong works entries from BMW and Chevrolet joining the usual ranks of highly-competitive Ferrari and Porsche privateers and random Jaguar, Panoz, Ford and Lamborghini entries, it is a bustling madness of a class.

Last year saw the Flying Lizard Porsche team triumph in the championship over the Risi Ferrari and the BMWs, but the whole muddle is too close to call given the length of this particular race. It should be lots of fun to follow, not to mention annoyingly close for all the prototypes trying to thread their way through the carnage.

For sportscar-watching rookies, there are plenty of famous names to look out for, with ex-F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella driving the #51 Ferrari, multiple-WTCC champion Andy Priaulx at the wheel of the #56 BMW and a nostalgic ex-Champ Car trio of Junqueira/da Matta/Servia sharing driving duties in the #099 Jaguar. And if that isn't enough, watch out for some awe-inspiring cameo stints from none other than Jean-Denis Deletraz.

Further back, there is a new-for-2011 GTE AM class for largely amateur teams and drivers, which looks a bit rubbish, and the GTC invitational class, featuring spec Porsche 911s and brilliantly-named drivers such as Bill Sweedler, Chris Cumming and Spencer Pumpelly.

On Patronise F1

Yes, to try and make you all feel better about the continued lack of Formula One following Bahrain's cancellation, Patty will be priming its favourite typing finger for a live text report on the whole of the Sebring 12 hours, if you're into that sort of thing.

The action and entertainment will commence from 13.45 GMT on Saturday, continuing well into the small hours of Sunday morning, so do please keep us company if you can.