It was quite a startling moment to see Matteo Cairoli in his new Iron Lynx race suit at Daytona as part of the now GTD Pro #60 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 effort and not just because of the somewhat startling shade of yellow!
And it seems that for Matteo too the switch from Porsche took some adjustment!
“I still need to get used to seeing myself with very different overalls because obviously, as you know, the past 10 years, I was wearing another coat with other colours. For sure I will be forever grateful for what they gave me and what we achieved together.
“Without them I wouldn’t be here today so the very first thing to say is to thank them.”
It’s a new era for you now though with Lamborghini Squadra Corse, a factory driver in both hypercar and GT?
“It’s something that we started to speak about one and a half years ago, when I was still a Porsche driver.
“They approached me and proposed to me to join their team and asked if I was interested in driving in LMDH, and of course, that has been my dream for some years now. For me, it’s a privilege because, being an Italian and and racing for an Italian brand, it’s something very cool.
“The goal for me this year is obviously to adapt to the team in the best way possible. I’m not too scared about driving style, and and driving performance, I know I am on quite a good level already.
“LMDH is, of course, much more complicated, all the procedures behind the wheel compared to a GT car, and with the hybrid, I have no experience at all before testing. So I still have to adapt to the new car.
“But I think we still have plenty of time to learn.”
How much testing have you had, and how much testing are you set to get?
“Not so much so far – My first one was at Jerez, my debut in the car in October and I tested at CoTA a the end of December 2023 for my very second time, but at that test we had six drivers and one car, so I didn’t get much driving time. But the time I’ve been in the car, I always felt good.
“I was pretty nervous the first time I got into the car because I didn’t know what to expect. But I would say after three, four laps, I was already feeling, if not at home, but very comfortable.”
Is there anything else on your Lamborghini schedule for 2024?
“Well, the programme for GT hasn’t been launched yet. So I can’t talk about it just yet but I can tell you that I will do also a championship in GT3 this year.
Are you feeling valued within this new family?
“Absolutely, yes. We talk the same language (quite literally!) and then of course, we have the same vision. I really like all the people around Iron Lynx and Lamborghini.”
There are always pressures in a new programme. Where’s the pressure coming from in ’24?
“The biggest pressure goes obviously on the LMDH project. We know that the car is quick, and it looks like that it is reliable, but we don’t know until we officially start to do things properly exactly where the car is compared to the others.
“We’ve been testing few times in 2023, and every time they were on track, they were on the pace compared to the main competitors. So, I think this is this is a good signal for everybody. We have trust in the project and we have trust in ourselves. Now we need to go racing and find out where we are.
