Baguette: Impul Nissan “Much Better” Than Last Year

Bertrand Baguette believes that the Team Impul Nissan squad heads into the new SUPER GT season in much better shape than last year on the evidence of off-season testing.

Baguette and his teammate in the No. 12 Nissan Z, Kazuki Hiramine, endured a difficult title defence last year as they scored only a single podium finish at Suzuka on their way to fifth overall, behind both of the NISMO-run cars in the GT500 standings.

A mysterious lack of one-lap pace was at the root of their 2023 woes, but in both of the manufacturers’ tests that Impul has participated in so far this year, the team has proven much closer to the pace, ending up with the second-fastest time in the first outing of the winter at Sepang International Circuit in January.

In last month’s Suzuka test, in which all 15 GT500 teams took part, the No. 12 car was eighth across the two days of running but was fourth on the opening day and finished inside the top six in all four test sessions.

“It was quite a good test for us,” Baguette told Sportscar365. “The feeling was much better than last year, which was a very difficult year for us – I don’t know how we finished in the top five of the championship with the year we had.

“We were competitive all the time, the feeling in the car was better and we solved the issues we had last year. I think around the same time last year we were P12 or P13, more than one second away from the fastest, but this time we were around the top five.

“It’s not P1 yet, which is our target, but it’s a much better start than last year.”

This year, Impul is one of the three Nissan GT500 squads running Bridgestone tires, with both of the NISMO cars making the switch to the Japanese rubber this off-season following the departure of Michelin from the top class.

Baguette believes this will be a major advantage for Impul in comparison to last year, when it was the only Nissan team using Bridgestones.

“It’s a bit easier to develop the tire, because when you have limited time to test things, one car can try constructions, another car can try compounds,” the Belgian explained.

“Before, if there was something we couldn’t [test], we had no information about it. Now we can get a lot more information, split the plans and make sure everything is tested.”

Toyota swept the top two positions in the Suzuka test, as Nirei Fukuzumi set the top time for Rookie Racing ahead of Kenta Yamashita in the TOM’S GR Supra.

Asked where he feels Nissan stands in relation to Toyota and Honda, which has introduced a new GT500 car in the form of the Civic Type R-GT, Baguette said he feels Toyota is the manufacturer to beat owing to its performance across a range of tracks.

“Right now, the few updates we have on the car are working well, but the others have been working hard,” he said. “Honda has a totally new car, so it’s hard to judge them, but Toyota looks very strong.

“Suzuka is more of a downforce track than Sepang, it was quite cold so the downforce is more important to go fast, like we saw last year when Honda was flying [during winter testing]. It’s not like if you are in the back in this test, you are in trouble.

“But when it was hot in Sepang, TOM’S were fast, and in this test, they were almost always in front by at least around two or three tenths.

“Toyota brought some improvements on the aero side, but they’ve always been strong on the mechanical side – at twisty tracks like Okayama where you need mechanical grip, they’ve always won in the dry. They will be strong.

“Maybe they are still a bit ahead of us, but the gap isn’t that big. There are still four days of testing to go and we can still come back.”