Albuquerque: WTR Andretti Will Be Stronger as Expanded Team

Photo: WTR Andretti

Filipe Albuquerque and Jordan Taylor have been impressed by the off-season growth of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, which has transformed from a single GTP entry into a three-car IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship operation for the 2024 season.

The Indianapolis-based team has added a second Acura ARX-06 to its stables, to be driven by Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, alongside a new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 for reigning Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America champions Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal.

It has resulted in a significantly increased staff from previous seasons that saw the No. 10 Acura of Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, which return for a fourth season together.

“It almost feels like I’ve joined a new team,” Albuquerque told Sportscar365.

“Even [on Tuesday], I went for the track walk and because we were so small [before] it was just me and Ricky and sometimes the engineer would rely on us.

“When I did the track walk, there were like ten people. I was like, ‘This is not WTR Andretti?’ It’s just so different from the past three years.

“I just found it funny and I said it to Ricky, ‘Yeah this is different.’

“The amount of people that I don’t know in the team, a lot of new names and people…

“It takes a lot of organization so we are getting to grips over it and how we can communicate between all the people that are working.

“Our timing stand is now impressive. It’s now on a different level.

“We are learning how it goes. But one thing that is so positive is how we’ve all gelled, all eight drivers, how we’re talking already.

“[There’s] no egos, we just want to put both cars at the top. So far it’s working fantastic.”

For Jordan Taylor, who returns to his family’s team for the first time in four years, the change has almost been unrecognizable.

“Coming back from when I was here in 2019, it’s a different team for sure,” he told Sportscar365. “The expansion is massive… the personnel, trucks, equipments, cars, everything.

“It’s impressive to see how well it’s running this early on.

“From how busy of an off season it has been since Petit, it hasn’t been that long to get all these cars up and running.

“I think it’s a great start to our 2024 campaign.”

Albuquerque believes the doubled-up effort in GTP will reap benefits, particularly when it comes to race strategy, despite some changes within the No. 10 car crew.

“You have to share the expertise that were working on our 10 car from the past,” he said. “Chris [Bennett] has gone to the 40 car, being the chief mechanic.

“Otherwise it would have been a complete new car, so you have to share that knowledge.

“[Strategy-wise] it’s going to definitely be different. I think the call from Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti is going to be to position one of our cars in the front, because you can never always get all of the strategies right.

“But when you are calling, when we have Brian Pillar (technical director) overseeing both operations. He’ll cover both strategies that will be possible to be covered.

“It will be something different than the past years where we would do the call that we can do for our car but not calling for Shank because it was a completely different team.

“In that aspect, I believe we will be stronger in the way of covering for the ultimate result of Acura to be winning in either case.

“In that way, I think it will be a little bit stronger for us, in sharing more information between us.”

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