Lamborghini Iron Lynx were quietly pleased after a largely trouble-run in the FIA World Endurance Championship Official Prologue ahead of the opening round of the 2024 championship – the Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 km.
The #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63, piloted by Mirko Bortolotti, Eduardo Mortara and Daniil Kvyat, put in a total of 183 laps across three sessions, the team opting not to run in the opening test session on the delayed Prologue timetable. Kvyat set the quickest time for the Cesena, Italy-based squad with a 1:42.556 in the 4th session.
Iron Lynx were happy with the first runs for the new Lamborghini SC63 over the two days, their objectives being to perform reliability checks and start preparations. The only issue Iron Lynx encountered was a steering wheel change on the Monday evening.
“We ticked the boxes we wanted to tick for the Prologue, which is a new track for us so it weas important to put some laps down,” said Mirko Bortolotti. “The car seems quite reliable and didn’t have any major issue, which is a good start I would say. Obviously we would like to have a bit more performance and fight at the front.
“We’re not there yet but this is the first race and there’s a kind of process going on. We need to put our heads down and keep working. That’s our main target and we will continue in free practice.”
For ex-F1 pilot Dani Kvyat, expectations are realistic for the first competitive outing of the SC63 but he is looking forward to the development challenges ahead.
“We completed a good amount of laps and even though we’re not where we want to be, there is a lot of work to do – interesting work,” said Kvyatt. “We keep improving. The expectations for the race are not super high in terms of results but we want to do as many laps as possible and learn the car as much as we can.
“It will be a great opportunity to make important steps forward.”
Eduardo Mortara was pleased at how reliable the Lamborghini SC63 was over the two days and is optimistic at the start of its debut season.
“So far it was really cool to have a first go in the FIA WEC and great to be starting the journey together and testing the car on track with the others to evaluate its competitiveness,” he said. “We were all quite curious and even a bit anxious. It was cool that we had a trouble-free Prologue and we did quite some laps.
“We still need to work on performance and on how the car feels but I’m actually quite optimistic judging by the fact that it’s only the beginning for us.”
The FIA WEC grid will be next out on track at 1220 local time on Thursday February 29th with the lights going out for the Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 KM at 1100 local time on Saturday March 2nd.
