Lamborghini’s technical director Rouven Mohr says the Italian sportscar brand has changed its “philosophy” for customer GT racing ahead of the forthcoming Temerario GT3’s expected debut next year.
The Italian brand is fresh from a hugely successful 2024 with the Huracan GT3 EVO II. Highlights included a British GT title win with Barwell Motorsport and for the first time, clinching a DTM championship, with SSR Performance. The current car clearly has a lot still to give, thus Lamborghini Squadra Corse has chosen to adopt a ‘quality over quantity’ approach to the rollout of its next flagship customer GT car.
“In the future, we want to concentrate more on performance-oriented teams where the ambition fits ours,” Lamborghini SC’s technical director Rouven Mohr told reporters at Daytona last month.
“Less, in this case, is more. In the past, we were a bit wider spread. In the future, because the level of GT3 is very competitive, we want to concentrate our support with the maximum level of support to fewer teams than in the past.”
What will this mean in practice? We will see a phased introduction for the new car into key championships – with programmes in Europe, Asia and North America targeted.
However, concrete decisions are still yet to be made on which teams will receive cars first and where they will race. A final judgement, according to Mohr, will come after Q3 this year while the Temerario is undergoing testing.
“It all depends on how fast the progress of the car is, what the strengths are,” he continued. “The first step is on our shoulders then for sure later we will bring teams on board and then it depends a little bit which championships we are targeting.
“You can be sure that in the middle of the year, we will see test activities. This is something we take very seriously because, on one hand, we are not in a hurry to replace the current car, but on the other, requests for new GT3 cars on our side, are immense. And since the Huracan is running out of production, for sure, we are not bringing additional race cars more or less, on the grid.”
An obvious choice for 2026 would be to debut the car in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona at the start of the year. At this point though, Mohr feels it’s too early to say whether or not that would be smart, let alone possible.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the idea, but it would be a dream,” he explained. “Sometimes dreams come true, sometimes not. If you ask me if we would like to, ‘yes’, but it has to make sense.
“We are not going to Daytona if we have too many problems we know about. To start at Daytona with a new car is a tough challenge. Some manufacturers decide to skip Daytona and enter a bit later.”
It’s also too early to speculate whether or not we will see Lamborghini back in the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class any time soon. Following its exit from the ACO and FIA’s globetrotting championship at the end of the 2024 season, Mohr downplayed suggestions that the Temerario GT3 will line up on the grid at the first opportunity.
“Unfortunately, it depends on LMDh. There is a link,” he said. “It’s not for granted that you can run the GT3 without LMDh. We are focused on the programmes we have today. And for sure next year with the Temerario GT3 it will only be on selected race series because it’s the learning curve of the car.
“We will go step by step. At the moment, if you ask me, LMGT3, I would say ‘no’ even if you can say never say never. I think it’s too early to do it. If we are in WEC it’s a different story but to be honest, let’s see. First, we consider an improvement of the LMDh, then if we are competitive and we find interest from a team to re-enter WEC, then let’s see. LMGT3 is the third question.”
Something that does appear more certain though, is a continuation of Barwell Motorsport’s multi-car British GT programme.
The Surrey-based team told DSC that it is eyeing a “new deal” with the brand following its dominant 2024 title run. And it appears that the factory will indeed continue its support for the team in SRO’s UK championship when the new challenger arrives.
“Yes, definitely,” Mohr responded when asked by DSC if Lamborghini is committed to supporting the British GT Championship and Barwell with the new car.
“It’s clear in Europe there is Germany, Italy and the UK. These are very important markets for us.
“On our motorsport activities, we select the series based on the relevance of the brand. You can be sure that we are still continuing, full throttle, to support British GT. It’s a very cool race series and Barwell has been doing a fantastic job for years.”
Before the Temerario arrives there’s the not-so-small matter of the 2025 season to get through.
Mohr confirmed that Lamborghini will have a presence in GT World Challenge Europe’s Pro class this year and that the Huracan GT3 EVO II will compete in both the Spa 24 Hours and Nürburgring 24 Hours in June, with at least one example and team in each race.
“We have already decided which team will run the programme at the Nürburgring, and which team – or teams – are running the Spa race. At the moment, we are discussing having more than one car, it’s 50-50 I would say.”
He also stressed that Lamborghini “has no ambition to cut” its DTM programme after winning the 2024 title.
“We as a manufacturer, because we are winning, our plan is not to jump out, because the future of the race series depends on a certain amount of cars on the grid.
“You can be sure that Lamborghini is not a brand that is going, winning, then jumping out. We have a kind of commitment, and let’s say, responsibility and we are aware of it.”
Image credits: Lamborghini & DTM
