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Sanna: Lamborghini’s Results a ‘Repeat of Incredible 2018’

Giorgio Sanna: Lamborghini’s 2019 success builds on already strong 2018…

Photo: Jamey Price/Lamborghini

Giorgio Sanna says Lamborghini’s successful 2019 season is a repeat of an “incredible” 2018 campaign but with unprecedented results in GT World Challenge Europe.

The Italian manufacturer became the first brand to claim all three titles in the SRO Motorsports Group’s top-tier European GT3 series, with success in the Sprint, Endurance and combined standings.

Those results were mostly down to Andrea Caldarelli and his Orange 1 FFF Racing Team, while Grasser Racing Team also contributed. 

Austrian-based Grasser, however, had most of its success early in the year by defending its Rolex 24 at Daytona class win and going on to claim GT Daytona honors in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, before a strong ADAC GT Masters campaign.

Elsewhere, Emil Frey Racing took Lamborghini to the International GT Open title, and the brand also picked up the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTD manufacturer’s championship.

“I’m very happy, of course, because it was difficult to repeat an incredible season like 2018, but we did it,” explained Lamborghini Squadra Corse boss Sanna.

“To win again in Daytona, and Sebring, is something amazing. I don’t have words to explain how much it is important for us to achieve this kind of result.

“Honestly, the results in Europe are incredible. To win the GT World Challenge Europe, the three [titles] in the same season, is something that is also a record from a manufacturer perspective.

“We know very well that to keep this kind of level is even more difficult than achieving this kind of result.

“We continue to work, as usual, every day, very hard together with our customer teams and investing in our young drivers and Super Trofeo which is generating gentlemen and Silver drivers very fast.”

These results came in Squadra Corse’s fifth year of competition since debuting the Huracan GT3 in 2015, but most notably after rolling out its first Evo kit in January.

The Huracan GT3 Evo won on straight away on its debut at Daytona, benefitting from a number of upgrades over the previous version.

Sanna says there is still some unfinished business in a number of championships that Lamborghini has not yet won, including ADAC GT Masters and British GT, as well as at the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

The brand is set to also make its full-season Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli debut in 2020, with FFF leading the charge in the globe-trotting championship.

“We are working to support our reference teams at the maximum level, in the most strategic championships,” Sanna said, when asked what his main focus is for next year.

“We are working to have one car at least competing in the GT World Challenge America, where today we are not present.

“We are looking to build up the best lineup possible in terms of drivers and teams, for all the championships where we look with interest.

“There are a few championships that we miss until today, like British GT, like GT Masters, the 24 Hours of Spa, so there are a lot of targets that we still have to achieve, and we have to work to do it.”

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.

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