From the modest beginnings of an 11-car Gallardo Super Trofeo grid at Adria in 2009, Lamborghini’s Squadra Corse racing division has grown to encompass 98 Huracan Super Trofeo cars racing across the European, North American and Asian series, plus 40 Huracan GT3s being run by 20 teams in 13 GT series across the globe. In charge of keeping all the plates spinning is former race and test driver Giorgio Sanna, present at Silverstone last weekend as he is at almost every Blancpain round.
We already know that previous talk of a move to IMSA’s new DPi class or the GTE ranks is unlikely for the Italian brand, with the focus firmly on support for customer teams in both the Super Trofeo and GT3 championships plus its young driver development programme, but there were nonetheless several topics to cover when we caught up over lunch on Saturday…
Have you settled on a replacement for the Boston round of Super Trofeo in the US, following the cancellation of headlining IndyCar race?
“We’re discussing this with IMSA. There are three options, all IMSA weekends and we’ll decide by the end of the week, it definitely won’t be going to Canada though. Losing Boston is a big shame of course, but this can happen with city races.”
When the Super Trofeo began, it was almost entirely entered by gentleman drivers. Now we have almost a 50/50 split with young drivers in the Lamborghini junior programme. Do you want Super Trofeo do go in the direction of the Porsche Supercup and become primarily a proving ground for young talent?
“No, I think the mix we have now is better. We’re not looking at a one-make series dedicated to young professional drivers. I think today the success of the Super Trofeo shows to us and others that we have a very good combination of categories. There’s space for everybody, with the Pro category for young drivers, Pro-Am for gentlemen drivers with more experience or those who want to share with their driving coach, Am for regular gentleman drivers and also the Lamborghini Cup for beginners with less experience. They come from our Corsa Pilota driver training programme and get a personal coach to follow them through weekend. We’re getting good feedback from every class.”
VW Group brands Audi and Porsche have had to cut their third cars at Spa and Le Mans in the WEC; has there been any impact on Lamborghini racing activity from the emissions scandal?
“Absolutely not. First of all, we focus only on customer racing and handle the business by ourselves. We’re independent like this, so it’s no problem. Motorsport is a self-financing asset for Lamborghini, the company makes no additional investment, so our contribution doesn’t change, positively or negatively.”
The Nurburgring 24 Hours is coming up shortly, with one Konrad Lamborghini entered. We haven’t seen Lamborghini race there regularly since Hans Stuck and his sons in the Reiter Gallardo in 2011. Presumably you’d be more than happy to work with more customer teams looking to take on the N24 in future?
“The Nurburgring 24 isn’t a normal single race you just enter, as you know you need to prepare with VLN races and the qualifying event, a team has to build up a dedicated programme for it. Whenever there’s a chance to do it with a good team with the right plan, we will be involved for sure.”
There’s been some positive noise (for once) about the Balance of Performance in Blancpain GT this year. Is Lamborghini happy with the situation?
“Some of our customer teams are complaining about the BoP, not in terms of pure lap time, but during the races we have a lot of difficulty, especially with the gentleman drivers. It’s down to the reduction in power from the smaller restrictor. The professionals can use the aerodynamic and handling capacity of the car to the maximum level, whereas the gentlemen can’t.
“They’d like to have a bigger restrictor and a heavier car. It would have a lower potential top speed in the corners (but they’re not going to be able to reach the maximum possible corner speeds anyway), and more power in a straight line, making the car simpler to drive. This is something that we’re discussing with SRO, not only in terms of performance, but also for driveability for gentleman drivers. We have to take care of them more than the pros.”
The Lamborghini Urus SUV is on the way in 2018, any chance of a Dakar programme?
“I’m always pushing for us to do as much motorsport as possible. Never say never!”
