Albuquerque Has “Nothing to Lose” in Remaining Races

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Filipe Albuquerque says he and Ricky Taylor have “nothing to lose” in the final three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP races of the season, with the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti duo set to go all-out for race wins and to help its sister Acura ARX-06 of a potential title bid.

The No. 10 Acura duo currently sit sixth in the GTP standings, a hefty 380 points behind championship leaders Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron following a late-race retirement at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

“In my opinion, we are completely out of the championship because by now, there’s only three races left,” said Albuquerque.  “We have nothing to lose.

“Unfortunately, Watkins Glen, that failure we had in the wheel put us completely out of the championship.

“We were already in a tough position. Now we are just going for single wins, put all the risks we have and make it happen.

“With saying that, we need the luck to start turning around.

“Road America, in the past, we won there. We were competitive last year, so I just hope we can be competitive.

“We just need to hit our marks, try to do the pole position and then give the car in P1.

“At this point, second place doesn’t mean anything for us. It’s definitely a win or nothing.”

Albuquerque predicts this weekend’s final two-hour and 40-minute race of the GTP season will begin to set the pecking order in terms of championship contenders.

“Like in the past three seasons, at this stage we start managing the drivers that are not fighting for the championship and who are fighting for the championship,” he said.

“Now we are in a completely different position, which is about the ones that are fighting for the championship to take care of us that we have nothing to lose.

“Nothing is [lost] but if me and Ricky go for single wins.”

With their title chances essentially over, Albuquerque said they will also turn their attention to supporting WTRAndretti teammates Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor, who are currently fourth in the standings and with a more realistic chance of closing in on Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two entries and the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

“We’re going to try and help them as much as we can,” said Albuquerque. “If that will cost us a win, will back off for them to win.

“It’s those things that we talked about in the past on ‘what if’ this situation happens or not. But I think no team call will be needed because I’m a team player, I know the situation.

“At the end of the day, we are working for a manufacturer, which is Acura, and we are where we are for different reasons.

“They are a bit ahead on the road, so if they can go for the win, we’re going to support them as much as we can and take a more bold strategy and car setup to see if it works.

“Because we are the ones with nothing to lose.”

“Lot of Question Marks” Entering Road America After BoP Change

Albuquerque said IMSA’s Balance of Performance adjustments for Road America has left the Acura GTP squad with “a lot of question marks” in terms of where their relative performance will be this weekend.

The Acura received a 5 kg minimum weight increase since the last round at Watkins Glen, although both the Cadillac and Porsche 963 have been hit with 13 and 10 kg additions, respectively.

“I think it will be fine because it’s a lot of grip,” Albuquerque said of the track, which was repaved last year.

“I think our car answers well to a lot of grip. Although I’ve been looking at how historically we drove last year when we were going to tracks, but now we have [new] BoP in place.

“We’ve seen already the BoP coming for Road America and it’s very different than last year.

“So I cannot compare to how our pace was in 2023 because the BoP is going to be completely different. I think it’s going to be around 30 kgs difference to the BMW.

“IMSA is doing the best they can to be fair and square, so I can expect a race that is competitive and hard to do. We will see.

“There’s a lot of question marks. We tested there and were happy with the car balance. We were at the simulator trying to make the car go faster. But again, the other guys are doing that [too].

“It’s never easy.”

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