The two day IMSA GTP and GTD test at Daytona International Speedway last week gave a taster of just some of the massive plusses coming to the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship in 2023 with all nine brand new GTP cars across the Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche squads on track and lapping quickly.
First things first, the cars look fantastic, and they look different, and sound different, from each other too!
Pace across the two days was good, and whilst there were some telling signs that not everybody was pushing as hard as they could, even that is a good test of the monitoring aspects of the incoming Balance of Performance system.
Beyond that, there were very clear signs indeed of the challenges that face the teams in the early months of the new class.
Every single car had problems of some description though thankfully the earlier much-troubled hybrid systems were not the primary cause of woes, though there were at least a couple of failures, the #02 Ganassi-run Cadillac seeing an MGU failure on an “old” unit, and a systems failure for the #60 MSR Acura also leading to an unserviceable MGU for that car on Wednesday.
Most failures were of the supply chain, niggly, electrical/ electronic, systems not talking to other systems, and updates not talking to earlier systems varieties, and the good news was that all of the teams were learning fast about just how to deal with each new problem.
And that is the point at hand. Whilst many words will be written about the perilous precipice that the new class stands upon as its race debut rapidly approaches, the more measured point at hand is that this is where motorsport truly shows its mettle in the challenging environment that lies ahead for the automotive world.
The timeframes involved here were aways going to be challenging, but the impact on the global supply chain of the COVID pandemic added very significant challenges indeed to the tasks in hand. And that’s even before we look at the fact that not only are the cars all-new, they involve technologies that the teams have never dealt with before in competition.
Whilst casual watchers talk of ‘spec systems’ and ‘Balance of Performance’, the manufacturers and teams talk about the cutting-edge tech and state-of-the-art systems that they are now getting to grips with – and anyone who has been an early adopter of new tech knows this much – the updates come thick and fast!
It was, lest we forget, exactly the same for LMP1 Hybrid, and indeed for the current LMP2 and associated DPi formulae – An early season win for any GTP, particularly in an IMSA season that, as always, features the biggest and toughest two races of the season up front, will be a triumph not only in sporting terms, but a triumph against technical, technological and logistical challenges that most of us can only imagine in our tech-related nightmares.
When that shiny new part, or system upgrade, that should make something better, faster and more reliable actually stops the whole thing dead, it takes skill, patience and cool heads to get around the issues fast – And the very best in the sport have almost all ‘been there and done that’ many times before.
Think of a GTP team at present as the motorsport equivalent of a Geek Squad or of an Apple Store’s ‘Genius Bar’ an you’re not too wide of the mark!
Their ability to do just that is going to be crucial to seeing the GTP cars out there competing head-to-head race long, keeping out of the garage, or if they can’t, staying there for as short a time as possible!
If the GTP – and the WEC’s Hypercar classes, are going to break through in a very different environment from their predecessor classes they will have to perform in the marketing space (and they look very capable of doing that), and in the battle to show that the sport can have real relevance in problem solving, the timescales that apply to competition push development along much, much faster than any alternative route to proving tech.
Sportscar racing has always been a real example of a whole team sport. And whilst by all means we should note the trials and tribulations to come, the early months of this new class are going to push some of its unsung heroes to the fore – and that needs to be celebrated when, and not if, it happens!
