The Lamborghini Temerario era is almost upon us, and as a customer racing platform, the Italian marque’s new challenger has big shoes to fill.
The Huracan GT3, which debuted back in 2015, is responsible for most of Lamborghini’s standout success on track. Over the course of its stint as the flagship model, it powered teams to titles in important series such as Blancpain GT, ELMS, GT Open, DTM, British GT, and Super GT, plus major endurance wins at Daytona, Sebring and Spa.
Rouven Mohr, Lamborghini’s outgoing technical director and interim motorsport boss, is confident, though, that Squadra Corse is well prepared for its next chapter, which will get underway in Sebring and precede its planned customer rollout.
“This is the first car developed standalone by Lamborghini. We had no basis from a sister car; we developed it from a white sheet,” Mohr says of the Temerario GT3’s inception. “But it’s given us motivation, because we started with the car as a baby. It’s grown through testing, and I cross my fingers because all the tests started on the right foot.
“The drivers have been happy, and we have had no major issues. For instance, in the LMDh, from the first test, it was clear that the rear suspension needed improvement. With this car, no big issues, we’ve sorted out all the of the small things.
“Of course, we could end up having an issue at the first corner in the car’s first race, because racing is different to testing! But so far it’s all smooth, and we’re on track.”
In testing, the Temerario GT3 has exceeded internal mileage targets, reaching 15,000 kilometres of running at key circuits across Europe and the USA.
Lamborghini hasn’t developed the car out of sight from its customers, either; they have been kept in the loop throughout the process. By design, it is inviting key teams to participate in some of its recent tests too, ahead of the first batch of deliveries in the lead-up to the start of the European season.
“In the past, we involved one team in the early phase of testing,” Mohr explains. “We didn’t want to do that because we wanted to increase our knowledge and develop everything in-house with several drivers, including gentleman drivers. We invited teams to get in touch with the car. Now we’ll do shared sessions for fine-tuning, we’ll hand over the cars, and the season will start.”
Meeting demand is the biggest challenge. With parallel road-car and GT3 race-car production to balance, plus the Super Trofeo development and build phases to come soon, keeping the customers on the order book happy will be a tall order.
For this year, we’ll start with seven or eight cars, and this is mainly driven by our capacity to support
“The first cars are in the assembly process, and the first car that will be finished will be Pfaff’s for Sebring,” Mohr explains. “The European cars will be later, and in February, we have organised test sessions with all the teams using our test car, because until the last moment, we want to have performance development under our control.”
“For this year, we’ll start with seven or eight cars, and this is mainly driven by our capacity to support, as we want to give the proper support for the teams.
“We limited it to our strategic performance partners for the beginning, then at the end of the season, I think we could have 25-30 cars. Something between 20-30, and next year is still to be discussed.”
Which customers will receive Temerarios in year one? With demand high and build slots limited, the selection process, unsurprisingly, has created a fair number of headaches.
“It’s not easy for us to say to someone: ‘unfortunately, you cannot get one this year, or you’ll get one later this year,” Mohr admits. “But we had a clear strategy, and we have selected our strategic partner teams in a way that they came first, then, step by step, we will satisfy the other requests. This year, for sure not; most likely, also not next year.
“Will we be able to satisfy all the requests? The list of requests is huge, from teams and private owners who want a car. We made a prioritisation based on performance figures, and how long the partnership is and what revenue we can generate, not because we like team A or B.”
“Grasser is getting cars, Rutronik is a new team that will get the car, ABT for DTM.” And VSR has also been confirmed as an early adopter for a GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup campaign.
A key early objective was to get the car racing in IMSA. Not only does the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season start early, but Lamborghini considers North America as its most important market for road car sales.
The headache is that the campaign kicks off with the two longest and toughest races of the season, at Daytona and Sebring. The former is longer, a 24-hour battle; the latter is 12 hours and arguably tougher on cars, due to the airfield circuit’s unforgiving surface and the potential for red-hot trackside temperatures.
Even though the Temerario’s test programme has been lauded as a success, in hindsight, Mohr doesn’t regret delaying Pfaff’s first race with the new car until Sebring.
“We could have had a car on the grid, but that wasn’t the target,” he says. “We didn’t want to debut with a 24-hour race. It’s not based on delays; we decided to start this with Sebring and then in Europe, things get underway in April, so we are on the right track.
“We have been dealing with the car since the second quarter of last year. It’s continuous teamwork, and we are super realistic. We wanted to use every opportunity to gain information and learn more about the car (before homologation).
For us, Daytona and Sebring are important for our customers and us. It wasn’t an option to postpone the US debut longer
“The US market is our biggest single market, and we have a long-term relationship with IMSA. For us, Daytona and Sebring are important for our customers and us. It wasn’t an option to postpone the US debut longer. I know that if we could have the ideal race track, we could choose another race track, though, as Sebring is one of the biggest challenges for a car.”
Once the car’s race debut is in the rearview mirror, the Temerario GT3’s rollout will accelerate. Beyond IMSA, Lamborghini will quickly have cars competing in GT World Challenge Europe and DTM. Then, in the months that follow, we’ll see cars reach customer teams in Asia and other key markets, such as the UK, too.
In the background, Lamborghini is looking for customers to represent it on the global stage with the Temerario in 2027 and beyond.
Will it feature in the full Intercontinental GT Challenge next year, adding to the current pool of six full-time manufacturers signed up for the SRO-run championship?
“We are open, we would like to be there,” Mohr says. “It has to fit between a proper team, and the programme next year is far from being finalised.”
How about ACO LMGT3 racing and a return to the FIA WEC? If spaces on the grid opened up in the years to come, does Lamborghini intend to try for entries?
“It would be a target for us,” Mohr explains. “The WEC itself is super interesting for us and a super championship, and to be able to drive at Le Mans is interesting, as one of the most iconic races. But the issue with us not competing anymore in LMDh is coupled to LMGT3.
“It’s only a special invitation basis,” he adds. “If we see a realistic opportunity, we will push.”
For now, though, the primary focus is nailing the first steps in the shift from the Huracán to the Temerario. Getting it right will require full buy-in for Squadra Corse’s staff, and a lot of early starts and late finishes.
“It’s a challenge for a small organisation like ours,” Mohr concludes. “It’s clear that it’s in our interest to switch as fast as possible. Technical support and spare parts for Huracan customers have to stay, but the pure performance support from Lamborghini, we only have a few people, and we cannot run in parallel forever.”
Images courtesy of IMSA & Andrew Hall
