The Weissach-based company entered seven of its new 992-type 911 GT3 Rs in the first race of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, in both the GTD PRO and GTD classes, but currently lacked the pace in last weekend’s Roar testing.
The best of the 911s was the #16 Wright Motorsports, which qualified in 21st place among the GTD cars, almost three seconds behind the Mercedes-AMG GT3 which is on Pole, while the #80 AO Racing car driven by Tincknell, Gunnar Jeanette, Seb Priaulx and PJ Hyett finished in 30th place.
Hopes of a Balance of Performance change that could have brought Porsche back into contention were dashed on Tuesday evening when IMSA released an unchanged table for all and Tincknell said he was pessimistic ahead of the race.
“All there is to say is that the gap is real – the AO driver told Motorsport.com – We won’t suddenly see an improvement in the race”.
“The target for qualifying was to be low on fuel, all the Platinum drivers in the car and show what we have; we were outclassed by Bronze drivers in other cars. The speed difference is crazy; we are on a completely different planet and basically off game for the race”.
“I’m not sure about the straight-line speed deficit the Porsche faces compared to the faster GTD cars, but we’ll be around 15-20km/h.”
“Even if we were leading after a neutralization and there was a lap to go, we would not finish in the top ten. It seems that the others have the DRS open and ours is closed.”
“We didn’t do the BoP test, but we did one in December doing similar times to the others. But with 50kg less than what we have now (1340kg) and with 38mm restrictors, while now we’re at 33mm. It’s not rocket science.”
While admitting that realistically Porsche cannot compete for GTD success without the help of a last-minute BoP adjustment before the race, Tincknell said the Multimatic-backed AO team could still aim to finish best. among the 911 GT3 Rs.
“AO has invested a lot and done a good job, building a great line-up. I’m really impressed, it doesn’t feel like a new team. We will do the best job we can and I think they will be successful during the season.”
“But when the BoP came out, there was a calm atmosphere in the team. We’ve all been in situations where it’s a bit confusing for the bluffer, but I’ve never been more convinced that I’m away from the other”.
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