Pfaff Motorsports’ General Manager Steve Bortolotti has laid out the team’s testing plan as it builds towards giving the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3 its world debut at next year’s 12 Hours of Sebring.
The Canadian outfit, the inaugural GTD PRO Teams’ champion back in 2022, was confirmed to again be contesting the class in 2026. The team looks set to race its current Huracán GT3 EVO2 at January’s 24 Hours of Daytona, before debuting the Temerario GT3 at Sebring in March.
“We’ll be doing the November sanctioned test with the car [the Temerario] at Daytona,” Bortolotti told DSC. “After that, we’ll be conducting the Sebring endurance test for the car, and then, right now, the plan is to debut it at Sebring in GTD PRO.
“The goal is to really learn to understand the car and really help them develop the car from a reliability standpoint. So, you know, an endurance test is all about understanding and developing the reliability side of the car. And we’ll do our best to help them, along with the performance. Shake it to bits and we’ll see what happens!”
It is a remarkable turnaround in fortune for the Canadian squad, which entered Petit Le Mans last season facing the bleak prospect that it could be the team’s final race. 12 months later, with the arrival of support from Lamborghini Squadra Corse, the future looks much brighter.
“It’s exciting, for sure,” Bortolotti said. “I’m proud. It’s been no shortage of hard work. But I’m honoured to work with a great manufacturer like Lamborghini, and a brand that I have a lot of affinity for, because that’s just as a fan of the automotive world and cars, and I had that Lamborghini Countach poster and a Diablo poster on my wall growing up.
“So, yeah, it’s just been really cool. But I try not to dwell on the past. 12 months ago, it was a very difficult place that we were in as a team and myself personally, but looking ahead to the future, it’s been, ultimately, a blessing in disguise, I guess you could say, because we found a great home with Lamborghini.”
2025 didn’t offer the results that Pfaff Motorsports has come to expect, with a single podium finish at Detroit the highlight. Bortolotti makes no secret that Pfaff is targeting a return to the top of the standings in 2026:
“We’re not where we want to be in the standings. I know that that’s no secret. I want to get back to contending for podiums on a regular basis and getting our fair share of wins when the cards fall our way.
“We’ve had some chances this year. As a team, we haven’t got the job done, and as a group, we know we’ve had some issues with drive-through penalties, and we’ve had some issues with some mechanical things, but this is a learning year. It’s a stepping stone, and we have to build upon this for next season.
“I’d like to think that the harder we work, the luckier we get, right? So we’ve just got to keep our head down and keep working hard and building on the successes of this year, but being also very real with ourselves as to what the shortcomings were in 2025 and making sure we address them for ’26. So as long as we address those and keep turning over those stones to make sure everything’s perfect, we’ll be there in no time.”
In terms of next season’s driver line-up, Pfaff aims to have it finalised by November’s Daytona test. The team will make at least one change, however, with James Hinchcliffe stepping back from his three-race programme to only contesting the 24 Hours of Daytona next season.
“It’s ultimately up to Lamborghini,” Bortolotti explained. “So Hinch will do Daytona with us next year, so he won’t be doing Sebring or Atlanta.
“He’ll just do Daytona as a one-off, and then the rest of the lineup is ultimately up to Lamborghini. We’re having conversations about that now. We should be able to finalise before the sanctioned test as to who our driver lineup is going to be.
The Canadian, though, was full of praise for his current crew of ‘The Mayor of Hinchtown’ and factory drivers Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli:
“They’re professionals in every right and they’re three very different personalities, and I think they actually get along quite well, so I couldn’t be happier with the three of them.”
Images © Lamborghini, Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
