Albuquerque: Cold Tires “A Nightmare” at Long Beach

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Filipe Albuquerque predicts that the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach could come down to which driver manages tire temperature build-up the best, with cold tires “a nightmare” around the street course.

The Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport driver, who claimed pole for this afternoon’s 100-minute race, said a combination of track conditions and new-for-2023 tires have made for a treacherous situation in the early laps on a stint.

Long Beach marks the street circuit debut for LMDh machinery, which are heavier and run with less downforce compared to the previous-generation DPi cars, while Michelin is utilizing a slightly harder tire compound compared to last year that’s aimed for double-stinting.

Despite running the same Michelin ‘soft-high temperature’ compound that was utilized in the season-opening races at Daytona and Sebring, Albuquerque said Long Beach has so far presented the biggest challenge yet due to the unique conditions.

“Here, specific in Long Beach, cold tires are just a nightmare,” he said. “It’s so hard to bring them up to temperature.

“I’m so glad that that I’m not going to get in second and go with cold tires into the race.

“It’s hard. It’s very hard. It’s way harder than Daytona and Sebring. And here, if you do a mistake and go sideways, you hit the wall and you’re done.”

When asked if the potential of competitors staggering pit stops during a green flag run could play into the outcome of the race due to tire temperature buildup, Albuquerque said: “It’s a great question.”

He added: “We’ve been talking about it as well. I obviously don’t want to give away so much.

“I said to Ricky [Taylor], ‘Good luck’ because I’m not confident at all. It’s just super slippery and you could see the other guys as well.

“In the beginning of FP1, when everyone started on new tires, I was talking with Katherine Legge today, and she said, ‘Oh you guys go so slow. I thought you were just warming up.’

“‘Nope. I was just struggling.’ She said, ‘The track was pretty grippy in the beginning.’ I was like, ‘It was not!’

“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody has a spin or something because at the end of the day you need to push. But it’s so hard.

“In between walls there’s zero room for mistake. Let’s hope there isn’t a yellow so people can put some energy to that.

“It will still be hard but again, that’s racing.”

With GTP teams permitted to use two sets of tires between qualifying and the race, Albuquerque said he doesn’t expect anybody to opt to double stint in the race.

This is despite the initial advantage of having tires that would already be up to temperature.

“No. I don’t think that’s possible,” he said. “I think [tire] degradation can be high. We’ve seen in Sebring the second stint how much a LMDh was losing to the other guys.

“I think in a stint you were easily losing like 30 or 40 seconds.”

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