Albuquerque: Acura Facing “Different Reality” to Last Year

Acura is facing a “different reality” in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with the ARX-06 running with more weight compared to last year’s race says Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Filipe Albuquerque.

After dominating the 2023 Rolex 24, the opening race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP era, both Acuras struggled for pace in qualifying, with the two WTR Andretti cars locking out the third row of the grid.

Albuquerque qualified the No. 10 car he shares with Ricky Taylor, Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson sixth, 0.691 seconds off the pace of the pole-winning Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R, while Louis Deletraz led the Acura charge in the No. 40 car in fifth.

“Qualifying was ok for us; Louis said that he did a hell of a lap and I think I did a good lap as well, so I think there wasn’t much left in it,” Albuquerque told Sportscar365.

“Pole position was completely out of reach. It’s hard to tell what the others are doing in practice, but either way we never managed to be even close to the top times in any session, and then qualifying was no different. It is what it is.”

The Acura ARX-06 is running at a minimum weight of 1072 kg in this year’s Rolex 24, compared to 1030 kg in 2023, when all four then-new LMDh machines ran with an identical Balance of Performance.

The Cadillac remains at 1030 kg this year, although the Dallara-chassied car faces a power deficit of 10kW (around 13 horsepower) and a shortfall of maximum stint energy of 12 MJ.

No adjustments were made to the BoP in the GTP class following qualifying, in contrast to the GT classes, which saw significant changes.

“I don’t want to talk too much about this topic (BoP),” continued Albuquerque. “The officials know more than us, they have data from all cars, so I have to trust their work on that.

“From last year, we have a lot more weight, especially compared to Petit Le Mans. There Acura and Cadillac seemed very even, now it’s a bit different. 

“Acura brought the car most ready and most efficiently in the window, and through the season things were balanced out, although the Acura and Cadillac were probably the strongest consistently.

“We knew that would only be happening in the first season. Now we are in the stage of balancing out the different manufacturers and giving everyone a chance to win, which is a different reality. Now it’s no longer about the work you did before.

“We still have a good car, but we are 40 kg heavier now compared to Cadillac.”

Asked if there was any hope that Acura would perform more strongly in race conditions compared to qualifying, Albuquerque replied: “When you have more weight, it will have more impact on the tire degradation, especially when it’s hot. That’s normal. 

“In qualifying, when you have low fuel and the most grip for one lap, you can survive, but then it goes downhill from there. It’s just physics, everyone knows it. 

“Theoretically it will be harder in the race. But we will work hard and do our best.”