Juncadella: ‘Ingredients Coming Together’ for TF, Corvette

Daniel Juncadella is looking ahead to a “massively exciting” second season with TF Sport in the FIA World Endurance Championship, stepping into a sophomore campaign with the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with a revised driver lineup.

The Spaniard has been retained as part of the lineup for the Tom Ferrier-led squad after making his championship debut last year.

However, while the sister No. 81 machine will feature an unchanged driver crew compared to last year, Juncadella has been paired up with two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Ben Keating and reigning European Le Mans Series  LMP2 champion Jonny Edgar aboard the newly renumbered No. 33 car.

Keating and Edgar replace Hiroshi Koizumi and Sebastien Baud, respectively, with the former moving into an ELMS program with TF while Baud has joined LMGT3 rivals United Autosports.

Juncadella and Chevrolet are fresh off a competitive second outing for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the Spaniard was a contender for GTD Pro victory and finished second alongside Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims.

That race also saw Canadian outfit AWA claim a landmark victory for the car by coming out on top in the GTD class.

“I think this is a very exciting season ahead because last year we started off with some reliability setbacks,” Juncadella told Sportscar365.

“The car was born with a lot of potential in terms of performance but we had to nurse some typical stuff that you get on a new car that sometimes you don’t expect.

“Also Hiroshi as my teammate last year, unexperienced in WEC, first time really racing [in a] high level championship. Also same for Sebastien Baud as the silver. I think this year is clearly a massive step forward in all senses.

“I think the car has been very reliable since Daytona. We could see all cars, apart from one of the Corvettes, [had] no issues at all. Even during the whole build-up into the race, our car, at least number the No. 3 Corvette, was great.”

Juncadella argued TF Sport is “for sure” in a better position at Qatar compared to last year’s season opener, where the No. 81 car failed to finish due to damage to the electrical harness, while the Spaniard, Koizumi and Baud finished tenth in class, five laps down.

“We actually we came into Qatar with very limited knowledge,” he said.

“A lot of Pratt Miller guys helping us and supporting us that weekend but still limited knowledge from performance and like straight away nursing little reliability setbacks, so you can’t really focus that much on performance.

“Whereas now we’re just constantly looking for setup gains and finding stuff so that is a much better [place].”

Juncadella also expressed excitement over working with Keating, who took one of his Le Mans class wins with TF Sport and also claimed the final GTE-Am world title driving for Corvette Racing two years ago.

He drew a comparison to Koizumi, who he says made a “massive step forward” across the course of his first world championship season, but was working through a “language barrier” because of a lack of proficiency in English.

The Japanese driver paired up with a translator during the season and broke through into Hyperpole for the first time at his Fuji home round before ending the season with a third place in the Bahrain season finale.

“Towards the end of the year, I really enjoyed being with him,” Juncadella said.

“But still, the language barrier made a difference. And now with Ben, I think you can see like he’s very relaxed and a lot more relaxed in that sense because he just knows himself.

“He takes it step by step. We’re here at a new track [for him]. He just [does] his first run and he just takes it step by step.

“He’s very conscious about what’s happening around him and that’s pretty cool.”

Additionally, with Edgar as a Silver, who Juncadella predicts to be “a surprise for many this year,” the Spaniard expects the No. 33 to be a serious contender in the LMGT3 class across the season.

“It’s clear, I think our car is going to be up there every race fighting for a big win, big results,” he said.

“That’s my take. I think it’s one of the strongest lineups.

“For sure, for me, it’s massively exciting because if I would have had this lineup last year with a car that was maybe not ready to fight at the front, it would have been frustrating, I guess.

“We saw in the sister car that they had Tom Van Rompuy, who was very strong straight away. Pole position, first race weekend, [but] not finishing the race.

“I guess all the ingredients are coming together this year, and that’s cool.”