O’Gara: Taylor’s Ferrari Stint Brings “Fresh Perspective”

The recruitment of 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning race engineer Justin Taylor to Chip Ganassi Racing’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team will provide it with “fresh perspective” thanks to his experience at Ferrari, according to global director of operations Mike O’Gara.

As revealed last month, Taylor left Ferrari’s FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar operation to move to Ganassi as a race engineer for the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R.

He will debut in his new role at next week’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, although he was already working with the team at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and last weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship opener in Qatar.

Taylor also led a two-day test program at Sebring International Raceway last month, which included night running.

He replaces Danielle Shepherd, who will remain part of the Ganassi organization to serve as Kyffin Simpson’s race engineer in the NTT IndyCar Series.

O’Gara, who revealed that he had made an earlier attempt to recruit Taylor, described the Denver native as a “natural” when it comes to his style of working.

“I tried to hire him before he got the opportunity to go to Ferrari and we stayed in touch,” O’Gara said.

“I think him getting that experience has been huge. It is nice to have a fresh perspective. As far as race engineering, he’s a natural.

“He’s a roll-your-sleeves-up kind of guy, crawling around underneath the car, and that’s the kind of engineer I like to work with.”

Taylor joins Ganassi after two years serving with Ferrari as a race engineer, most notably working as part of the No. 51 Ferrari 499P crew that won Le Mans with James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi.

It marked the second time Taylor won the French endurance classic overall as an engineer, adding to a previous win with Audi Sport Team Joest in 2014.

In addition to his sports car racing exploits, he also worked in IndyCar with Ed Carpenter Racing and AJ Foyt Racing, the latter of which came alongside current Cadillac GTP driver Sebastien Bourdais.

Taylor described the opportunity to work with Ganassi, where he will be reunited with Bourdais, as ‘a dream come true.’

“My background is a lot in sports car racing,” Taylor said.

“I started back in the early 2000s as a mechanic for some GT teams and I worked my way up to data guy at Audi.

“Did the whole LMP1 program there and then kind of floated around with different endurance teams, most recently at Ferrari WEC team and we had the fortune to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was an amazing gift.

“I was always watching and keeping in contact with some of the guys on the No. 01 car. One day I got the call from Mike O’Gara and my dream came true.

“I did some IndyCar and what I missed was the development – the idea that if your put your mind to it you can be better than the other guy from a team perspective. It’s not just so much about the driver.

“So I enjoy this new era of development and problems we get to solve. It makes it much more exciting from an engineering standpoint.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and share and we’re all going for the same goal. To have those guys with all their knowledge in the seat it makes it that much more comfortable in the stand.

“Everyone was learning the car last year. I think that the effort that everyone put in last season and in the offseason is going to pay off.

“The car is still new to me, but I think what we’ve brought to the season is really exciting. I look forward to working with it.”