Rockenfeller ‘Not Surprised’ by Strong Garage 56 Pace

Mike Rockenfeller was “not super surprised” by the pace displayed from the NASCAR Garage 56 car in early running ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, saying he “knew what to expect” after months of development work.

Rockenfeller steered the No. 24 NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a best lap of 3:47.976 in qualifying on Wednesday.

The German’s time compared strongly to the quickest lap in GTE-Am set by Alessio Rovera, with Rockenfeller nearly four seconds quicker than the Italian’s No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

The two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner spoke positively about the car, noting it was “super cool” and “fun to drive” around the Circuit de la Sarthe.

“It’s big, it’s mean, it’s powerful, it’s noisy,” Rockenfeller said. “It’s very nice in terms of the window. It’s not like it’s super edgy to drive.

“Yes, there are some spots where we maybe struggle more than a GT car. They were always afraid we were too slow in the Porsche [Curves].

“We are actually not. We’re pretty fast. Honestly, the car is just super cool. It’s fun to drive.”

Rockenfeller explained the speed shown by the car thus far was along the lines of expectations devised during the development process.

He admitted that the data provided by simulator work was “a bit too optimistic” when it came to lap times.

“I’m not super surprised to be honest, because I’ve worked closely with it all the time,” Rockenfeller explained.

“Working with the engineers, working on the sim, driving it. So I knew kind of what to expect. Maybe we were not sure, because the sim is the sim, right?

“We don’t know the exact track model and how the grip is. So you always have a little bit of uncertainty but overall, you don’t know the last two seconds on a track like that if you haven’t been with the car on the track.

“For the GTE teams it’s way easier. They’ve been here year after year, so they know everything. For us there were a lot of areas where we were not exactly sure.

“But of course we were always correlating the American tracks in testing to American tracks on the simulator. Sebring, Austin, whatever.

“So we got the model very close. I can say in the sim I was like doing 3:49. So we knew then if we take the fuel out, which we never did, that we could get there. I’m very happy.

“I was always kind of pessimistic in a way, pushing the team as hard as I could to improve.

“I never said it’s good and we can relax, because our goal was to be in the area where we are and to be close to the GTs in terms of lap time.

“I think we achieved that, because for sure in qualifying the gap is bigger than in the race.

“We really trimmed it out for one lap for qualifying, which I think we did more of a step than the others do, usually.”

Rockenfeller “Pretty Confident” about Reliability

Rockenfeller feels upbeat about the car’s reliability, noting that the car has so far proven strong throughout testing.

“In Le Mans you expect the unexpected kind of,” he said. “I’m sure there will be problems we have to overcome, but that’s normal in a race like that.

“I’m not very concerned. You never know, but there was nothing popping up in all of testing where we should be concerned.”

He said the car generally had positive handling characteristics across the circuit, although some areas provide difficulties.

“The areas where we struggle maybe a little bit more is, for example, the last chicane,” Rockenfeller said. “It’s a fast change of direction and you really want to throw it from one side to the other.

“There you feel the weight the little bit. That’s the tricky part I would say.

“Maybe a little bit the very late braking into a corner with steering. It’s maybe a bit easy to lock the front.

“That’s a little bit, I would say, where you have to be a bit careful, but any car is on the edge and there are a few areas where you struggle more than others.

“But I would say that is it. The rest are just fine and it suits pretty well. We are pretty good on the straights, we’re pretty good under braking.

“Straight line braking I feel quite confident. We can’t be that bad if we’re four seconds quicker than a GTE car.”