24 Hours of Daytona – Why Acura is behind

Has the Acura ARX-06 lost its luster? A year after taking the pole position and twice in the race, the Japanese manufacturer was satisfied with 5th and 6th places during the Roar and failed to go higher than fourth place during the driving sessions in Florida, finding itself behind Cadillac, Porsche and BMW in the lead in the flying lap exercise. How can we explain this drop after a year of operation and when two models are now under the same banner, that of Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti?

« Obviously, we weigh 42 kg, explains Louis Delétraz, driver of number 40. This is Performance Equity, we fully respect it and the choices that have been made. We’ll see at the race. It is difficult to read the exact information during testing because no one uses the same tires at the same time, no one has the same amount of oil. The real answers will be given during the race, I hope we can get back to the long relay. »

Lacking speed, Acuras will try to live up to it time for money and hoping for a winning result for the fourth year in a row. “The strategy will be to ride as far as possible without taking any risks and hope to have enough speed at the end of the race to attack or defend, reveals the Swiss. The goal is to win. »

To hope to beat the Rolex, however, we’ll have to beat two Cadillacs that have looked untouchable since the start of the Roar. “They finished first in almost every session and scored twice in qualifying. They look strongnotes Filipe Albuquerque, longtime owner of number 10. They were there last year too and we fought well even though they won the championship. However, it is never to win Daytona. I hope they have a little hard time and it won’t be an easy win for them. »

The Portuguese driver has already won the overall classification of the two hours of Florida twice (2018, 2021) and knows the recipe for climbing to the top stage here. “You have to survive the first 22 hourshe explains. Then we will see where we are. Especially in relation to tire grip. Better grip can help with our weight, so it will be interesting to see how the car copes with this development. We are calm and feel like we are doing the right thing with what we have. »

Meet at 7:40 pm (French time) for the start of the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours.

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