Sanna: Lamborghini Popularity an “Important Achievement”

The number of Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evos in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup this year shows that customer teams “are trusting in” the manufacturer, according to its head of motorsport Giorgio Sanna.

With 11 cars in the Endurance Cup field, the Italian manufacturer is the best-represented brand in the championship, compared to eight cars for Audi and Ferrari and seven for Mercedes-AMG.

“I’m so proud to have 16 cars here [at Monza, including Blancpain GT Sports Club entries],” Sanna told Sportscar365 at last month’s Blancpain GT season opener.

“We are the manufacturer with most cars on the grid overall. This is an important achievement, it means that the customer teams are trusting in us.

“We are ready to support everybody in the best way possible on the technical side with a huge effort from the factory side. We have a lot of engineers supporting the teams in different categories.

“We expect a challenging season, as usual, because the GT championship here in Europe is really demanding. We have raised the bar, starting the championship with new entries in Europe in the Pro category, like FFF.

“We are increasing the effort to be more competitive and looking to achieve new fantastic results.”

Lamborghini’s position as the best-represented brand on the grid comes a little over four years into the Squadra Corse program, which debuted in 2015 with two factory-backed cars in both the Blancpain Endurance and Sprint Series.

The Huracan GT3 won on its debut at Monza in 2015, while Grasser Racing Team went on to claim the combined and Endurance Cup drivers’ title in 2017, as well as the combined Blancpain GT teams’ championship.

“Since the beginning, when we created Squadra Corse, there was the vision to become a global player, to become one of the most important players in GT customer racing,” said Sanna.

“I wake up every day only thinking about working hard and improving ourselves. I have a big team behind me, I have to say thank you to all the people working in Sant’Agata Bolognese every day.

“The result that we have this weekend, talking about the number of cars, is the result of work well done – not just from yesterday but from the beginning, five years ago.

“My target was to have all these cars, and even more if it would be possible.”

After four years with the first-gen Huracan GT3, Lamborghini introduced the Huracan GT3 Evo earlier this year, which won on its debut in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

Around 40 Huracan GT3 Evos are currently in existence around the world, with a roughly 50/50 split between brand new cars and older models with the upgrade kit, according to Sanna.

“At the moment, we have delivered 20 cars from December until today,” he explained. “We are very happy with this result. We have another, more or less, 20 upgraded.

“We are still delivering and receiving orders for upgrade kits from other teams, as we also have other new teams and drivers asking for the Huracan GT3 Evo. We are just at the beginning of the season so that’s very good.”