Frederick Schandorff, who has so far set the fastest GT time for the Daytona Roar Before the 24, said that he and his team, Inception Racing, “expected” Ferrari and Porsche to be at the bottom of the timing sheets, as both manufacturers have bought new cars to Daytona.
Schandorff’s lap time, a 1:46.842, at the wheel of the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3, has topped the time sheets so far at Daytona for both the GTD and GTD Pro classes.
However, the Ferrari 296 GT3 and Porsche 911 GT3 R have so far been amongst the slowest cars overall in any of the four practice sessions, which may set alarm bells off for fans of those teams or the two manufacturers.
Both cars are brand new for this year, and Daytona will mark their debut races globally. There are four Ferraris in the 61-car field, with one in GTD Pro and three in GTD. For Porsche, the German manufacturer has seven cars in the race, again with one in GTD Pro and a further six in GTD.
Schandorff, though, isn’t phased by the lack of pace in his rivals cars.
“I think everyone in the GT field expected them to be there, because they’re coming with a new car, so they don’t want to show too much performance,” said the Dane when he was asked in a press conference about Ferrari and Porsche’s lack of pace.
“Of course, everyone in the IMSA organisation knows our speed from last year, so we don’t need to hide anything. I think we are slower than last year, even. But Ferrari and Porsche, I think they’re playing a good game, and hopefully they’ll improve — but I didn’t really expect them to be top at this point,” he added.
With further balance of performance adjustments possible between now and the race next weekend, it’s likely, therefore, that no one — especially those with new cars — want to show their hand too early.
It remains to be seen when both manufacturers will show their hand, but it’ll have to be soon: qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona starts Sunday 22nd January at 1:25pm local time.
