Iron Lynx Operating “On Another Level” With Four-Car Effort

Iron Lynx team principal Andrea Piccini said the team has ‘stepped up to another level’ as it operates four cars in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac, including the U.S. debut for the Lamborghini SC63.

In addition to the Ligier-chassised GTP car, which will be driven by Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoli in Saturday’s 72nd running of the Florida endurance classic, the team has entered a total of three Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s.

This marks one of Iron Lynx’s largest entries in any races to date and presents the team with significant logistical and operational challenges.

The last time the team fielded that many cars in a major endurance race was during the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans, when it competed in the GTE-Am class with four Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.

“It’s a bit different honestly because there were four GTs, so it was a let’s say a single structure operating the four cars,” Piccini told Sportscar365.

“Here, the structure is completely separate. Being Iron Lynx, but we have a separate team operating on the LMDh and on the GT3 side.

“Actually we tried to structure the entire team completely separate.

“Each championship has got more or less these people because the operation is getting so big that we need to treat each championship like a single unit. So four cars, but two separate [teams].”

Elaborating on that, Piccini explained that Iron Lynx is working with a certain amount of staff rotation within its dedicated working groups.

For example, the crew operating the SC63 in Sebring is not the same group of people that ran the car for its FIA World Endurance Championship debut in Qatar earlier this month.

“Of course you have a lot of work on track but there’s a lot of work off track,” Piccini said.

“So many times when you are racing on one side, people have to work on the other side probably to rebuild the car or to prepare the car.

“So there’s common people, the team manager, the team coordinator are the same people but the operative people on the car like the car chief are separate in the two championships.

“Then in this moment, being the beginning of the operation, we tend to bring some extra guys because we need to work sometimes more than expected, longer in the night.

“So it’s better to have some extra people here but the target is to have separate structures.”

Across the four cars, Piccini estimated that the Italian squad has a core group of 80 personnel working at Sebring this weekend, a number that grows “close to 100” when non-essential staff are included.

“In GT, you have you have the eight mechanics, you have three between engineers and strategists and two tire guys,” he said.

“So actually it’s 13 per car, plus you have the technical director, team manager, team principal, some of the helpers, the carbon guys.

“So it’s quite easy to get to about 50 people only for the GTs, plus the support of the marketing.

“On the LMDh of course you have all the support of Lamborghini as well, so we are also dealing and managing with the manufacturers. So I think we are close to 100 easily.

“It is another level to step to for us. We’ve always been working on the GT side and stepping into the LMDh for sure even technically is another level.

“I don’t want to say it’s kind of a Formula 1 car but the level of engineering, the level of technology you have on this car for sure pushed us to a much higher level.

“Which, on the other hand, for sure helps also the development of the GT program because all the people are getting better, raising their level.

“You get new people into the project, so the knowledge shared between the team for sure improved a lot.”

Iron Lynx’s U.S. operation, which currently consists of a Michelin Endurance Cup program for its GT3 cars as well as the SC63 GTP squad, is based out of Detroit in a headquarters that the team moved into last August.

“It’s together with Lamborghini Squadra Corse,” said Piccini.

“So we share the offices and we have two separate warehouses, one for us and one for Lamborghini, but at least we are very close and management of the relationship Is a lot easier.”

Amidst Lamborghini’s growing involvement in the WeatherTech Championship, Piccini indicated that the team is already thinking long term when it comes to staffing requirements.

“The thing is, we are bouncing back and forth from different continents so the operation is pretty big,” he said.

“The idea for the future here in IMSA is to structure more and more with American people that live here, so they are fully dedicated.

“Especially in the vision potentially of taking part in the ten races, then at that point you really need to have someone here local staying full time in the U.S.”