20.10.2004 “This is a brand new race and I felt it would be kinda fun to do, a bunch of Aussies having a bash in the desert" David Brabham looks forward to driving the Coopers Ferrari 550 Maranello in Bahrain next month

Undaunted by the size of the challenge ahead of him, David Brabham is looking forward to leading the Coopers Racing Ferrari 500 Maranello assault on next month's inaugural Bahrain GT Festival.

Rated by many as one of the world's great sportscar racers, Brabham will be reunited with the cockpit of a 550 when the small Australian team takes on the big boys of GT racing in a unique event around Bahrain's new International Circuit.

He will be teamed with Australian-based Dane Allan Simonsen, who has prior experience of the Ferrari from the Nations' Cup series 'down under', and sees no reason why the squad cannot cause an upset of two over the three qualifying heats and hour-long two-driver final that mark the Bahrain event.

“This is a brand new race and I felt it would be kinda fun to do - a bunch of Aussies having a bash in the desert,” Brabham said at Bathurst, where he was racing in the V8 Supercar series, "The other funny thing is that, having enjoyed a great deal of ALMS success with Jan Magnussen, I will be racing with another Dane."

Brabham pointed to the team's choice of car - an ex-Olive Garden Rafanelli ALMS 550 Maranello - as another reason to be confident.

“Ferrari 550s have been good to me," he smiled, "I was second in the ALMS last year in a Prodrive-developed 550, and won three races even though I didn't join the series until after Le Mans. It's a good car - once you get used to that type of car, they are really good to drive. They feel much more like a racecar than a road car.

“It's got a fair bit of power, and the longer the straight the better, as it doesn't have a lot of low-down torque. Once you get going, it certainly has some horses. In Bahrain, the car will be running to Le Mans rules, so it will be around 300kgs lighter than what it ran in Nations Cup in Australia.

“It's quite a stiff car, and has a lot of downforce, so the aerodynamics are quite sensitive, particularly at the front. They don't move around much compared to a V8 Supercar, which has very little downforce.

"They are tricky to get the aero set-up just right, but the chassis is relatively easy to dial in. It has similar power to a V8 Supercar, but weighs a lot less, so it has a better power-to-weight ratio."

Despite the omens, Brabham admits that he is not expecting to go the Gulf and upset the established FIA GT hierarchy - although he admits that it will be fun giving it a go.

“It'll be a big ask to take on some of the world's biggest sportscar teams, but I think we'll give it a real good shake,” he grinned.

Rising star Simonsen raced the 550 in the Nation's Cup earlier this year, winning on debut at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, and the chance to race with Brabham was an unexpected bonus for the 26-year old.

“The 550 has a massive amount of downforce, so it handles very much like a single-seater - it's a fantastic car to drive," he admitted, "The cornering speeds and G forces are really high, so it's a very physical car to drive. In fact, it's hard to compare it to anything other than a single-seater."

With Brabham otherwise engaged, Simonsen gave the car its final shakedown before it was shipped to Bahrain.

“The run at Phillip Island went really well," he reported, "The car was quick straight away, and we lapped in the 1min 30secs range, which is about three seconds faster than the V8 Supercar record. It's the best Ferrari in Australia, and I'm privileged to be driving it alongside David, who has so much experience in these types of cars."

Like his co-driver, Simonsen has no pre-conceived ideas about racing to success in Bahrain. “The car is very fast, but we're under no illusions about how tough our job will be," he admitted, "We'll be racing against the best GT teams in world, which have huge budgets and race twenty times a year. But we'll go there and do the best job we can. I think we'll be up there.

“The track itself looks amazing - it was designed by the people who built the new Shanghai track and it's big, wide and fast. I've been practicing on my Playstation, but it's going to be a massive race.”