Braun: Sebring “First Real Opportunity” to Learn Nissan DPi

The weeks leading up to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona were quite hectic for CORE autosport, which announced plans in December to switch from an Oreca 07 Gibson LMP2 car it used to finish second in the 2018 Prototype standings to the Nissan DPi for the 2019 season.

Despite the frantic pace, the team of Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, Romain Dumas and Loic Duval managed a solid, fourth-place result in the Rolex 24.

With that race now in the rearview mirror, the team has had the opportunity to get much more acquainted with the Nissan DPi, which it was doing again at Sebring International Raceway on Thursday in preparation for next month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

“For us at CORE autosport, this is our first real opportunity to do a private test and learn this car,” said Braun of the car that actually won last year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with Patrón ESM.

“Obviously, great success with the ESM guys last year in the class, but for us, we’re on the new Michelin tire for this year.

“We had a chance to get these cars a little bit before Christmas, do some work in our shop, go to the Roar test before Daytona and then do the Daytona race, but that’s been it.

“So, for us, getting a chance to come here to Sebring and do a couple of days of private testing where we can really just take our time, work through different changes and really learn this car on this tire has been huge.”