The monitor was moist for almost all of the three days of testing at Portimao for the one long-distance take a look at scheduled by Lamborghini and its Iron Lynx manufacturing facility squad forward of the double-points spherical of the World Endurance Championship on 15-16 June, group principal Andrea Piccini has revealed.
However the capacity of the new-for-2024 Lambo SC63 to go the space with out vital points on its first appearances within the WEC and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America has allayed any fears over reliability, he insisted.
“There was a variety of rain and it was not excellent,” Piccini mentioned of the take a look at on the Portuguese Algarve circuit on 26-28 March.
“However we don’t assume it will likely be an issue: we’ve completed a 10-hour WEC race at Qatar and a 12-hour IMSA race at Sebring, so the reliability appears good,” he mentioned.
“I don’t assume reliability is the issue; extra necessary for us is to work on the efficiency of the automotive – that’s our focus proper now.”
The SC63’s race finishes on debut at Qatar after which at Sebring in thirteenth and seventh positions respectively have been adopted up by one other clear run on the way in which to twelfth in final weekend’s Imola WEC race.
#63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Edoardo Mortara, Daniil Kvyat
Photograph by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photograph
Piccini defined that the WEC schedule doesn’t enable time for one more endurance run earlier than Le Mans, when Iron Lynx’s solo WEC entry will likely be joined by the SC63 competing in three of the IMSA enduros this yr.
“After Portimao we needed to prepare for Imola after which we’re into Spa [round three of the 2024 WEC on 11 May] and after that it’ll all be about making ready the vehicles for Le Mans,” he mentioned.
Piccini didn’t put a determine on the mileage the Lambo achieved at Portimao’s Algarve circuit, however he confused that the take a look at was nonetheless of worth.
“Very often you need to race within the rain at Le Mans,” he mentioned. “We did get some dry laps, most likely a couple of third of the working.”
5 of Lamborghini’s roster of LMDh drivers have been current at Portimao, with Romain Grosjean absent courtesy of his IndyCar commitments with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Piccini confirmed that Iron Lynx and Lamborghini have deserted the plan outlined on the launch of the SC63 final yr to discipline its IMSA automotive alongside its common WEC entry in Austin originally of September.
#63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Edoardo Mortara, Daniil Kvyat
Photograph by: Paolo Belletti
He identified that there would unlikely be room for an extra entry at a circuit with one of many smaller pit storage allocations on the WEC schedule, including that it will even be tough for the group to run a second automotive.
“Doing Le Mans with two vehicles is already tough in our first yr, so it isn’t in plan now,” he mentioned.