The DSC Editor was invited to Silverstone last weekend as the guest of Lamborghini Squadra Corsa with an opportunity to test drive the Lamborghini Huracan, the opportunity for hot laps with a Lamborghini factory driver later the same day and, most significantly to DSC readers, the opportunity to sit down with ex Lamborghini Chief R&D Test Driver and now Head of Lamborghini Motorsport Giorgio Sanna.
More of the Huracan later but first Giorgio Sanna.
The top man in Lamborghini’s Motorsport efforts has racing heritage of his own, he was crowned Italian GT Champion in 2011.
There has been a major step forward in terms of Lamborghini’s focus on motorsport?
“Yes, it’s very true that the effort today that is behind the motorsport efforts from Lamborghini’s side is at a different level from what has happened within the company before
“We created Lamborghini Squadra Corsa in 2013, our first ever motorsport department in the company’s history with a clear intention to be much more committed to motorsport than had ever happened before within the company, with a clear commitment from the board and a long-term motorsport strategy.
“From the start too there was already the intention to create a new racing model range on the Huracan platform. At the time I was still the company’s Chief test driver and even from the very early days of development for the Huracan there was a clear intention to create a car that would provide a good platform for a racing version.
“So where we are today is the first result of our long-term plan with the first ever GT3 built in the Lamborghini factory by the factory (previous iterations were done in conjunction with long-time Lamborghini partner Reiter Engineering).
“To achieve that we chose what we believe were the very best partners, including Dallara as a technical partner on the creation of both the new Super Trofeo Huracan and the GT3 car too.
“On the GT3 we also have a very good partnership with Audi Customer Racing because we share some components on the GT3 with them, including the drivetrain, engine, gearbox.
“All of this was a very sensible move in my opinion because as a factory we had little experience of GT3 so in the case of Audi Customer racing we have tapped into their know how for endurance racing. Looking at their results last week at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring I think we have chosen the right partner!
“With Dallara we have worked on the chassis, the suspension and the aerodynamics and cooling. Our first outing with the car at Monza (where one of the Grasser Racing Team run factory development cars won before a post race exclusion – still under appeal) shows that we are moving in the right direction”.
Moving briefly to Super Trofeo – There’s been a major expansion of that effort too with series in Europe, Asia and now North America too (plus a World Final at Sebring!) How many cars have been produced to service that market?
“Worldwide it’s more than 70 cars, we have sold double what we initially expected.
“That said it was honestly not a major surprise to me because the philosophy behind the Huracan Super Trofeo is very clear:
“We wanted a car which was easy to drive, easy to handle for the teams and spectacular performance against the running costs for the car compared to other one-make series.
“The car is completely new. We use the chassis, engine and suspension from the road version, our philosophy from the very start was to create a sort of GT3 down-grade because whilst everyone expects a Lamborghini to have spectacular performance we wanted this car to also provide an opportunity for some drivers to get experience in Super Trofeo that would be helpful if, and when, they choose to move to a GT3 car later.
“That’s because, certainly in my opinion, when you pass from a one-make series to GT3, particularly for the Gentleman drivers, it’s a completely different world. More downforce, suspension control and set-up is much more complicated and a lot of gentleman drivers, after one or two seasons, give up, not for financial reasons, but because the transition is too much.
“Super Trofeo though not only give them the opportunity for a stepping stone up, it also holds appeal for some Gentleman drivers stepping back after competing in GT3 to have some fun in a one-make series with cars that are fun to drive and have very high performance. Yesterday for instance the Super Trofeo pole position was one second slower than the pole time in GT3!
“The priority though for this car is not the ultimate performance it is the handling, the safety aspects too. So far the feedback from both the Gentlemen and Pro drivers has been excellent.
So with the GT3 programme this year focussed on the partnership with Grasser and development of the car, where does the programme go from here?
“The target is clear. From next season we aim to race ONLY with customer teams. There will NOT be a factory Lamborghini team.
“Grasser already is a customer team. We chose to work with Grasser this season as a ‘reference team’, or, if you like, as a development partner. I do want to underline though that the Blancpain Endurance Series this year is a learning programme for us of GT3 to get experience for the customer cars next year.
“We have chosen drivers that have come from Super Trofeo and a team too (Grasser) that also came from Super Trofeo. Grasser of course had a very good level of GT3 know how through good results in the Sprint Series too so that was a major plus.
“We’re running a single car at the ADAC GT Masters rounds at Red Bull Ring in June with Grasser and we might look at some other one-off races to support customer interests and some tyre development too.
“Next year though there will be a lot of customer teams that will all have support from the factory with technical assistance, spares and a presence at the track, exactly what we now do with Super Trofeo.
“Compared too to other manufacturers there is another key difference. We are not involved in factory programmes as most of them are so we are focused ONLY on the customer teams. For us GT3 is the pinnacle of our motorsport strategy in terms of marketing.
With so many options for GT3 racing around the world. Not just with Series and Championships but also with either standalone blue riband events or big events within this Series, are there any specific targets in mind for the customer efforts in 2016 and beyond?
“There are many potential targets. That though is a mark of the number of requests we are receiving for cars worldwide.
“American teams that want to join the Tudor Series including Daytona and Sebring, the most famous races in the United States. We have interest from several teams who are looking to do the Blancpain Series and the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring. We have already sold several cars in Asia too with team looking to race in GT300 in Super GT, or GT Asia, or the long distance races in the region such as the 12 Hours of Sepang.
“We’ll have testing underway in Asia and the USA later this year with the opportunity for customers to see and sample the cars.
So potentially we are talking quite a large number of cars? In terms of both production and customer support capacity what is a realistic ceiling for year one?
“On the customer support front we are in a very good position. We already have that structure in place to support Super Trofeo which involves large numbers of cars and teams in different parts of the world. In each of those markets, Europe, Asia and North America we have a strong customer presence: Hospitality, engineering know-how and spares trucks. We’ll use those same facilities, resources and suppliers to handle new GT3 customers too with additional technicians, some of whom will be dedicated only to GT3 customers.
“Deliveries to customers will begin late this year, likely in October, to support customers looking to race in the end of season endurance races such as the Sepang 12 Hours. We are not looking to the GT World Cup event in Macau at the moment.
“Through to the end of 2016 we are looking to build and support almost 35 (GT3) cars (DSC sources suggest 15 could be built this year – including existing cars). It’s a good number, more may be possible depending on demand but in truth I am more interested in working with reference teams with solid reputations than just putting cars out onto the track.
“This is where there is a fundamental difference between Super Trofeo and GT3 – With Super Trofeo the race weekend experience is the key, with a good, fast safe car. In GT3 the customer support for the racing is everything and that is an area where Lamborghini excels!
You’ve said more than once that GT3 is the current pinnacle programme for Lamborghini. Can I then presume that a GTE, or even a national homologation into GTLM is NOT on your radar?
“For the next year at the very least we are focused only on the Super Trofeo and GT3. Building up production and support is a big challenge and we must get that right. We are still a young and small motorsport department. My opinion is that we are doing very well this early but we make progress step by step.
You have been interviewed in the recent past and LMP1 racing has been mentioned as a potential future direction. Lamborghini were also present at the Daytona meeting in January that discussed the future of LMP2 – Is any of that in the future vision for the brand?
“It is very difficult to say. As a newly established department we re listening to and looking at ALL of the potential scenarios but there is a difference between the future plans and options for our long-term commitment to a presence in motorsport and our current and medium term strategies.
“Any discussion about any possibility for a programme beyond GT3 will have to wait until all of the future rule sets are finalised. Only then will we look to evaluate what makes sense for us.
“At the moment I want to again repeat that we are focused ONLY on the customer racing activities and would evaluate only opportunities that are related to that area.
“The coming months will see some news on what is happening with the ACO/ FIA rules and what I hope is that the three main ‘actors’ IMSA, ACO and FIA find a way for the racing categories, in general at the very least, to be aligned. The situation in recent years with GT3, GTD, GTLM, GTE and more besides does not work in anyone’s best interests.
“With or without any future Lamborghini factory programme we are here to put the Lamborghini brand at a high level in motorsport.”
When Porsche came to LMP1 there was large amount of debate about the two VAG factory teams, Porsche and Audi, being allowed to compete directly. In GT3 we have four VAG brands, Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Lamborghini competing head to head – But there is little debate about that. How does this work within the group?
“There is a good amount of information exchange of brand and racing strategy inside the group but every brand, within reason, is free to do what they believe will serve their strategies best, and clearly GT3 suits several VAG brands purposes!”
You are not a bad race driver yourself – Any plans to race one of your products?
(With a smile) “Maybe if a customer invited me! But I’d have to ask my boss!!”
Finally – Le Mans? There must be a desire to take Lamborghini there?
“Firstly – I have huge respect for the event, one of the great races of any sort in the world.
“In the future we will see – Our target is to arrive at the pinnacle of motorsport that is relevant to what we produce and what makes sense for us. GT programmes make sense for us in that regard and we will look at it if and when it makes sense to do so.
“If the question is whether I have thought about racing at Le Mans the answer is yes, I started doing that about 20 years ago before I ever worked for Lamborghini (laughs)!
