Tincknell: Joest to Multimatic Transition “Very Seamless”

The handover of the Mazda DPi program from Joest Racing to Multimatic Motorsports has been “very seamless” according to Harry Tincknell.

Mazda confirmed earlier this month that Multimatic would assume control of its two-car factory IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi program from Joest, which had been running the Japanese manufacturer’s IMSA operation since mid-2017.

Although Multimatic has always been involved in a technical capacity, including developing the Mazda RT24-P, the Canadian-based organization will now take full charge of the operation.

Multimatic staff entirely ran the No. 55 Mazda DPi in last year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, with the squad also present at most of the team’s 24-hour tests.

Tincknell asserted that changes within the team are minimal aside from a relocation of the workshop, with the engineering personnel remaining the same.

“I know it’s a change of workshop, a change of some staff, but the engineering side hasn’t changed at all,” he told Sportscar365.

“We still use the Multimatic simulator. We still have Leena Gade and Vince Libertucci as the race engineers and all the data support engineers are all Multimatic.

“Obviously the AER staff will be there on the engine side and we move forward.

“It’s not going to be a huge change in terms of people you see at the track but I think it’s a new shop and a few new people behind the scenes.

“It’s been very seamless. Multimatic has been very involved as a constructor right from the very start and had a huge presence in the engineering all the way through until the last 18 months or so where they’ve been fully engineering all the cars.

“Obviously there are some great guys from Joest and some of them are probably going to stay on as well.

“I think we’re ready to go on whenever we can go racing again and I think we’re in the best position we’ve ever been in to win races and win the championship.”

Joest Handing Program Over in “Strong Position”

Having experienced a breakthrough year for the Mazda DPi program last year in which the team scored a hat-trick of victories, Tincknell believes Joest is handing over a winning formula to Multimatic.

“From the Joest side of things everyone is very thankful for everything they’ve done for us and it was clearly getting pretty strong by the middle part of [2018] onwards,” he said.

“There’s a lot of good guys in that team so it will be interesting to see how that all shakes out.

“That first race win at Watkins [Glen] was a special moment for everyone and I won’t forget the handshake and the smile on Mr. Joest’s face in victory lane afterward. That will go down for a long time in my memories.

“They’re handing the program over in a strong position and we’re in a position to be even stronger and get even more wins going forward 2020 and beyond.”

Multimatic Brings “Top Level Sports Car” Experience

Multimatic has a wealth of experience in the sports car racing scene after running the factory Ford GT effort in the FIA World Endurance Championship for four years, in which Tincknell also drove.

Many of the staff have worked on both projects, something that Tincknell says will only help the Mazda DPi team’s cause when the IMSA season resumes amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know the guys and girls inside out,” he said. “They all obviously come from top-level programs with the Ford GT program but a lot of them have also been very hands-on with the Mazda program for a long time.

“They’ve done all the 24-hour testing and some of the staff come across to help out at big races like Daytona and Petit Le Mans. 

“It’s a high-level program in terms of pit stops and stuff like that.

“We know how successful the Ford GT program was and it’s only going to make the Mazda Motorsports program stronger, so it’s very exciting times. I feel like we’ve never been in a stronger position than we are now.”