CR Scuderia expect stronger year

The pair took a class victory at Bucharest in August but only finished sixth in the standings - with CR Scuderia fourth in the teams' championship - but both drivers believe the experience of the first campaign will help them to stay in the title hunt this year.

"Given any normal year, the season we had in FIA as a first year, most people would have been happy with it," Kirkaldy said at Autosport International today. "But because we did so well in all the other formulas (CR Scuderia won the British GT and Formula Renault titles in 2008) we were slightly disappointed. But 2009 is here now and we want to go out and rectify that."

Kirkaldy's teammate Rob Bell expects the team's Ferrari to be among the front-runners in 2009.

"It was a little bit disappointing for us in 2008 but we've learned a lot from that, in engineering, driving together, and getting the best out of the team so that should stand us in good stead this year," he said.

"It's a competitive car, we know that. We lack a little bit in a straight line but I'm sure Ferrari are working on that.

"We have the rivalry with Porsche, but the great thing about GT2 is that we have Aston coming back into it and other manufacturers looking at it for the future - so it's one championship where manufacturers seem to be happy to be coming back in and that makes it look more competitive."