The 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona featured a new class of hybrid racecars called GTP that automakers hope will promote their road-car electrification plans.
Racing is the soul of the auto industry. It’s the purest expression of the engineering that makes cars possible, and the thing they were engineered to do in the first place — be driven. While it can be full of arcane rules that make government regulations and customer clinics seem like child’s play, racing is where cars are built to be cars, and where drivers are just drivers. And like the rest of the industry, the racing world is now grappling with the need for electrification.
After input from the automakers, IMSA and the ACO came up with a common hybrid system and a shortlist of chassis from dedicated racing manufacturers. Automakers can then customize these with their own internal-combustion engines and bodywork. After the original GTP era ended, organizers worked through a number of different formats, with various levels of manufacturer interest. When the time came to replace the outgoing generation of cars, known as DPi , hybrids were a must.“It’s a natural progression,” Michael Shank, owner of Meyer Shank Racing, one of the teams that made the switch from DPi to GTP, which would go on to win Daytona with its number 60 Acura ARX-06, said in a pre-race press conference.
“The OEMs sort of had a ‘save us from ourselves’ mentality,” Doonan said, explaining that manufacturers wanted the restrictive rules that force everyone to use the same hybrid system in order to avoid the temptation of spending lots of money to gain an advantage.A look at recent history bears this out. Formula One mandated hybrid powertrains for the 2014 season, which firmly shifted the competitive advantage to a handful of wealthy teams with the cash to fully develop these complex powertrains.
“Seeing a bunch of homologated cars go around in circles isn’t the most exciting thing to people outside of racing,” Mikalauskas said. “The idea of a cookie cutter car that says ‘Cadillac’ wouldn’t have had the same impact.” “There’s so much done by the computer,” Tom Blomqvist, one of the drivers of the winning number 60 Acura, said. “If that’s not quite right, then it obviously has a big impact on the drivability.” It didn’t seem to have too much of an impact, as Blomqvist achieved the quickest lap time in qualifying, ensuring the number 60 car started first on the grid.
What’s next? That familiarity for drivers produced some good racing between the Acuras and Cadillacs, which battled for the lead through the Florida night. The BMWs and Porsches were further off the pace and experienced some reliability issues, but that’s typical in a 24-hour race. Overall, it was a solid first showing for the GTP cars, but what comes next?
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