Laura Wontrop Klauser (Cadillac Racing) 3/3 : « I think it will be pretty wild when you see us start racing »
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.
HAVE YOUR FIGURED OUT HOW YOU’LL USE THE HYBRID EXTRA ENERGY?
Similar to the brakes, it’s evolving daily. We’re working on the simulation side and understanding and figuring out across the class what’s the plan. Some of that is still in motion. It’s probably the most exciting part – all of the opportunities. We can drive the car in electric mode. We can launch it, so you can see the true hybrid coming out. Where we evolve and how that works from the fuel economy standpoint versus other usefulness of having an electric motor on the car is what is going to make the class interesting. How each OE approaches that and how we change our strategy as we learn more.
HOW CLOSELY ARE YOU FOLLOWING THE PROGRESS OF THE OTHER MANUFACTURERS?
We are working together. Not so much that we’re helping tune each other’s cars, but there is a lot of alignment for handling all the things that this post-pandemic world has thrown at us from parts supply shipping and other things. We are keeping dibs on each other in terms of ‘how are you doing? Can you make it to the test? Can we share resources? Can we talk to the supplier to send us whatever it is and see if they can bundle it?’ I have a good feel just from that open communication on how everyone is doing. In terms of scrutinizing each and every one of their vehicles, I say that’s where my tunnel vision might be a little bit more on getting our car right. The way the regulations are set up, as long as each of us gets our cars right and fit into the rules that we’re supposed to be in, we’re inherently going to be very close from a performance perspective. It’s a bigger picture concern with what is going on with the competitors and mainly how we can help each other. I think it will be pretty wild when you see us start racing. It should be a great show.
HOW IS DEVELOPMENT OF THE V-LMDH DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CAR DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE OF THE ADDITION OF THE HYBRID POWERTRAIN?
From an aero perspective, I wouldn’t say it was too different for the hybrid. We did a lot of work in wind tunnels getting ready. The window that they’ve given us for the aero map that we have to fit in is quite small compared to things we’ve done in the past. And I think important because that’s what is going to help get the cars close to each other despite the fact that each one looks so different from each other. That’s good in terms of getting them set up for good racing. Starting with the scale wind tunnel – and a lot of that came from creating the body shape – we would check our ideas and still putting the car where it needs to be. When we had our first real full-scale race car, we started doing work in the big wind tunnels. The hybrid is weight to the car, so we need to keep on eye on that as we look at performance. But with that map being so small, our No. 1 target is getting there and the rest falls into place.
HOW PROGRAMMABLE IS THE HYBRID? IS THERE A COMMON MAP TO STICK TO?
There is the equity model that all of us have to run to that defines a lot of parameters on how we can use it and basically where and when. I think there is a little freedom in how we’re integrating everything and when we want to use the power coming off the hybrid versus engine power, or both or mix that. That’s where a lot of the learning is happening and working through things well past January because there is a lot to look at. There is some opportunity to have some identity from each OE’s perspective, but they’ve done a lot of work to make sure that they keep it parity as much as they can so that we don’t end up in a situation where one car is completely off in the weeds either positively or negatively and the rest are not. It’s evolving and we’re excited to find out all the things we can do.
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