ITW Laura Wontrop Klauser (Cadillac Racing) 1/3 : « Our goal is to be at Daytona with three cars »

LOT OF MILES WITH LITTLE DOWNTIME AT MICHELIN RACEWAY ROAD ATLANTA. DID THE TEAMS AND ENGINEERING GROUPS GET WHAT THEY WANTED OUT OF THE THREE-DAY TEST?

You never get everything you want because you show up with these crazy, ambitious test plans. But, I’d say, everyone was pleased with our time at the track. We’re making major progress with the car. We transitioned from getting it to run to testing a couple of tests ago and now we’re full steam ahead of working through our plan. The more miles we put on the better from a durability perspective and checking all of our parts. Really working through all the integration side with the hybrid to the engine to the rest of the car, working on the braking system. And even looking at the aerodynamic part of the car as well. Rotated the driver through, which is always good. The more seat time we can give them, the better. It was a successful test from our point.

WHAT’S NEXT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAR?

Working through homologation with IMSA, the FIA and the ACO. We’ve been busy getting through the wind tunnel and the things we do on the homologation side. But really our next big thing that we’re working toward is we’d like to do a 24-hour test before the end of the year. You learn the most when you do those. We’re excited to see how the car does, making sure we have all the representative parts on the car for that to make sure that test is successful.

WHAT’S THE TOTAL TESTING MILEAGE TARGET?

The number is probably secondary to different things that we want to get through. The 24-hour test is a big deal for us coming up. Doing different things at different tracks is also important to make sure we cover how the car is responding to different scenarios. Trying to hit those milestones are the big ones. With that, I think the mileage comes with it.

WHEN DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN TERMS OF THAT PROGRESS?

If you look at the timeline between now and January when we are racing, we better be at least 50 percent through. The things that are mission critical to get ready for January I’d say we are about a tick more that halfway through those items, and then there’s looking beyond January and the things we’ll be doing in the WEC we have a list for that as well. We’re prioritizing getting the car ready for Rolex just because that comes first and then we’ll look at the WEC schedule and the unique things that WEC tracks bring to the equation.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO HAVE THE THIRD CAR ON THE GRID AT DAYTONA?

The more you add it’s not easy. It usually means your spares bucket might be a little less than you’d hope for, but our goal is to be there (at Daytona. Ndlr) with three. I see us meeting that goal and we’ll go from there.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN TERMS OF WEC TESTING? ANYTHING IN EUROPE?

We would like to do some testing in Europe. We have to see when we can fit it in, what tracks we can get. And then shipping things back and forth at the moment is a lengthy process. So, it’s figuring out what we can fit in with the limited time we have.

IS A 24-HOUR TEST SOMETHING YOU NEED TO GET IN THE BAG BEFORE THE DAYTONA SANCTIONED TEST?

It’s something we need to get done before we get to January. Obviously, we’d love to have it as soon as we can so we can react to what we learn. In my perfect world, we would have done the 24-hour test in September. It’s something that we definitely need to get done before we race in January.

WOULD A THIRD CAR AT DAYTONA COMPROMISE YOUR WEC SCHEDULE TO TEST IN EUROPE?

When we made the decision to go forward, we were confident that it was the right move for us. I don’t believe any of that confidence has changed. I don’t see a huge impact to anything that we’re doing. Whenever we turn these cars on, we’re learning. It would be good to get to some tracks in Europe as soon as we can, but even as we drive around the tracks in the U.S. we’re enhancing the program. I’m glad we have the three cars at Daytona because it forces us to have all three cars race ready in January and go from there.

LIKELY YOU WON’T TEST IN EUROPE UNTIL AFTER SEBRING IN MARCH?

That could be the case. We have not finalized our schedule for next year. Honestly, our schedule for this year keeps changing just due to circumstances. We’ll see where it slots in and where is makes sense. It could be after Sebring; it could be before. It’s just whenever we can get it to work. This has been a wild ride to get this test plan to stick. Everyone has had to learn to be flexible.

WHEN DO YOU TURN CHIP GANASSI RACING AND ACTION EXPRESS

RACING LOOSE AND SAY YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER ANYMORE?

Both teams represent Cadillac Racing; that won’t change going forward. The DPi was more of a traditional customer program from our perspective where we had the various teams with different levels of sponsorship whether through us or different entities that they were working with versus as we move into LMDh – especially in these first couple years. With the complexity of this car and what it’s taken to get this car ready to race, we needed both teams to be in lockstep with us and with each other. We’re finding that relationship is a huge asset to the program, so we would like to carry that forward.

CAN WE SEE ALL THREE CADILLACS AT LE MANS?

You have to be invited by the ACO to come to Le Mans. If you have a full-season entry, you’re guaranteed Le Mans because that’s part of the season, so we’ll have at least one. The rest of it is waiting for that communication and working it out with the ACO. It will be what they are willing to work with us for. We would love to see as many cars as we can there. It will come down to what it says on the invitation.