Daniel Juncadella says it “doesn’t look great” to see the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R at the bottom of the top speed charts after the 24 Hours of Le Mans test day, noting that TF Sport is “trying to find answers” to address its lack of straight line speed.
The three Corvettes entered in this year’s edition of the French endurance classic, including the additional AWA-entered No. 13 car, brought up the rear in the speed traps across the two sessions of Sunday’s traditional test day.
The No. 33 car, which Juncadella shares with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar, was clocked at 284.7 km/h (176.9 mph), which was the lowest of all cars recorded in the LMGT3 class.
The No. 81 sister car reached 285.4 km/h (177.3 mph), with the guesting AWA Corvette the fastest of the three at 286.2 km/h (177.8 mph).
However, all three cars lacked behind the rest of the category, with the class-leading No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 recorded at 297.2 km/h (184.7 mph).
Speaking to Sportscar365, Juncadella was puzzled about the Corvette’s lack of speed in a straight line compared to its rivals, noting that TF Sport is “trying to find answers” for the deficit.
“It seems like we are slow at the end of the straight,” Juncadella said.
“We are also a bit behind in terms of lap time, maybe not as much as it looks on paper because we focused on race pace.
“But it’s also the raceability. We are the bottom on top speeds. If you look at the average of all the laps, all three Corvettes were at the bottom, which is not great for a track like this.
“It doesn’t look great when you are the bottom in that sense.
We are also limited on what we can do, because we are already running the minimum rear wing angle.
“It’s difficult. We are trying to find answers for why we are so slow. I don’t want to blame the Balance of Performance, because there are professionals doing their job. I don’t understand the reason why we are so far off.
“As drivers, there is not much we can do, so I try just to focus on myself and maximize what we have.
“I have two great teammates and a great team behind me. If this is what we have for the race, then so be it. We will have to find a way to maximize that.”
Eastwood, who spearheads the lineup for the sister No. 81 Corvette, said TF has to “trust the system” when it comes to the balancing of cars in the LMGT3 cars, also pointing out that the various cars produce their lap time in different ways.
“Ford is not so good in the corners so they have to be faster in the straight, same with the Lexus,” he said.
“So at some point it has to balance out because we can’t go the same speed or better, much better around the corners and the same top end, it doesn’t, we’ll end up just being significantly quicker.
“They have so much data now, more than we have on everyone else, obviously.
“You just need to hope that all of their analysis, they’ve got it right. Whether they have, or not, will remain to be seen.”
Eastwood went on to note that, should the situation remain unchanged, it will place an even greater focus on a strong race execution to maximize Corvette’s chances of a strong result.
“We haven’t had great results this year, but the execution of the race, and from my side, the performance of both Tom [van Rompuy] and Rui [Andrade] since last year has increased significantly,” he said.
“So actually as a three, bear in mind they still have to do 12 hours of the race, and regardless of this, and the Bronze lap times can swing by five seconds a lap for six hours.
“That’s where we have to be confident that clearly TF are excellent at this race.
They’ve shown that and as a package, as a three, we’re really strong.
“So that will always play in our favor, even the ultimate lap time maybe isn’t there.
“Ultimately, control the controllable. Make sure we stay out of trouble. But actually staying out of trouble will wipe out half the field, but seeing the top five or six, it is absolutely flat out.
“Maximizing pit entries, pit exits, outlaps. It is so competitive in the front of this field now that you have to be on your A-game in every element.”
