Costa, DragonSpeed “Fighting” for GTD Pro Championship

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Albert Costa believes DragonSpeed can “fight” for the GTD Pro championship following the team’s breakthrough first class victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The Elton Julian-led team came out on top in a energy race with its Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by the Spaniard and Giacomo Altoe, marking the first win of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season for the Prancing Horse.

It also solidified Costa’s position in the GTD Pro title race, with the former Le Mans LMP2 class winner now trailing leaders Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims, of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, by just 53 points with four races to go.

“At the end we are all fighting for the win,” Costa reflected on the team’s breakout CTMP weekend. “The target is to fight for the championship, which is not easy because the level is very high in IMSA to be honest.

“During the weekend we were expecting nothing. We qualified last I think, and we were the slowest car.

“At the end, when we were in the podium, we were shocked because it was a big surprise for us to win the race.

“In all my experience, racing in cars, I push always to win, I always feel quick to win a race… and this was the first time in more than 20 years that I didn’t push. I was managing the fuel.

“I was always checking how to save fuel, and it was very strange. We were a bit shocked, and I think we started to realize two days, three days later, like, okay, we won!”

Costa switched Ferrari squads during the off-season, moving from Conquest Racing to DragonSpeed, which is receiving technical support from Risi Competizione this year.

“It was a big decision for me to join the team because at the end, [DragonSpeed] was new in the GT3 class,” he explained. “It’s a new team. I want to win at the end; joining Risi was a big help.

“But Elton as a boss, he surprised me a lot. He has the same mentality as me. He always is looking for the best of the car, never pushing the drivers because he had full trust on the drivers and this is something that is a big thing inside the team.

“The atmosphere in the team is amazing and yeah, I’m very happy, very proud. We are fighting, we are P3, still out of the championship, so we are ready, and I hope we can win again.”

When asked if he felt they’d be in with a chance of the GTD Pro title in their first year of competition, Costa admitted it wasn’t necessarily on his radar at the start of the season.

“Actually, when the season started, we went straight away to Daytona without testing without the team joining DragonSpeed and Risi people at the same weekend and we finish in a very nice sixth position,” he said.

“The second race, everything gets more rotated, and we did the pole position, and we fight for the win until the last hour or two hours. But there seems some potential.

“I started to believe on the project a little bit more. Then Laguna Seca we got another pole position, we [fought] for the podium, and we finished second.

“But yes, I’m very surprised but at the end is what we want and we what we are looking for. So, it’s [surprising], but not.”

Costa’s co-driver Altoe enters this weekend’s round at Road America as the defending race winner in GTD Pro, having teamed up with Daniel Serra for top class honors with Conquest last year.

That could bode well for the Ferrari package this weekend according to Costa.

“[The] last race we won despite being the slowest car on the track because the strategy worked in our favor,” he said. “But we were lucky.

“And the confidence, I think the BoP looks okay. So, if the BoP looks okay, then it’s okay.

“I think that the plan is to fight for the podium, and we will see because again; we are coming without testing.

“I saw on Instagram that many drivers were testing, and I was at home, so this is making our life a little bit harder.

“But I trust the team. I trust in our possibilities. So, let’s see, you can ask the same on Friday and I will tell you where we are.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John