Lamborghini clarifies future direction for SC63 program

Yahoo

30-01-2025

Lamborghini has outlined its future plans for the SC63 prototype program following the car's early exit from the 2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona with cooling issues.
Speaking with select media including RACER during the race at Daytona, Lamborghini's newly appointed motorsport boss Maurizio Leschiutta, Rouven Mohr, Squadra Corse's technical director, and Stephan Winkelmann, the company CEO, laid out their strategy and ambitions for the car in Year 2 and beyond.
After operating single-car entries in the FIA WEC's Hypercar class and IMSA's GTP with partner team Iron Lynx in 2024, the SC63 effort has been scaled back for 2025 to just five IMSA endurance races. And this shift is at the heart of Lamborghini's blueprint for the project moving forward.
The Italian OEM evaluated stepping away from both championships entirely this year to focus on developing the car. But despite the restrictions on testing that come with running a race program, the final decision was made to keep the IMSA effort going. The importance of the U.S. marketplace and a 'commitment to IMSA and (President) John Doonan' were cited as key factors.
'When you're testing, you're always in first place,' Leschiutta observed. 'It often generates a false sense of security, thinking that you've done better. The only time you measure improvements is when you measure them against the field. We have to strike a compromise.
'We also want to support IMSA and IMSA gives us visibility in a marketplace that's important.'
The abbreviated appearance of the Lamborghini SC63 of Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara at the Rolex 24 was a harsh reminder that evident progress in testing doesn't always translate to race results. James Gilbert/Motorsport Images
With Iron Lynx out of the picture, following a split 'due to misalignment on certain topics,' Lamborghini confirmed that it will benefit from Riley's services for the full year. The American team will act as an operational partner to assist with the development work on the car and its races stateside. In 2025, the idea is to regroup and develop the car in-house before a coordinated push to get a customer program off the ground in 2026.
The working plan includes the introduction of Evo 'Joker' upgrades. These will address some of the car's shortfalls in 'vehicle dynamics, suspension and aero' as well as its weight and could be signed off during the year.
'This year, we decided to run the car under our umbrella, Squadra Corse. It's mainly related to the fact that we want full control of the development of the car,' Mohr explained. 'Last year, we saw potential so we said: 'OK, if we have control we can better manage the performance development.' It's not our ambition to be a racing team in the future.
'Our focus is to develop the car — we make it competitive and then the operations are done by a team like in GT3. This will not change, the general philosophy. It's a special situation because the car is complex and we need to jump in.'
A notable point from the discussion was that Lamborghini is not dead set on a swift return to the WEC's Hypercar class for 2026. By rule, it would be required to compete with two cars as a factory to return and, crucially, allow for customer teams to run the SC63 in the championship. This doesn't align with the fact that Lamborghini is not planning to race the car as a factory at all beyond 2025.
'I would not exclude it (WEC) but it depends strongly on the boundary conditions and how fast we are on improving the car,' Mohr continued. 'If we go in the next step to enlarge the program, it only makes sense if the car is sorted out and if the performance of the car is on the level that our GT3 cars. Then we can give the car to customers.
'LMDh will never be clear customer racing like GT3 — the car is too complicated and also too expensive. But nevertheless, the car has to have a solid base. We will charge the programs for the future depending on how fast we are progressing on performance development with the car.'
No WEC program means no Le Mans. Winkelmann was asked how much of a blow that is to the brand.
'Le Mans is a very famous race, it's very emotional and gives a lot of visibility,' he responded. 'For us, it was important to be there and be part of Le Mans. We were all very excited, we had a good race. We finished 10th and it was not expected, beating teams that had done it more times than us.
'But we are always between the emotional part of racing and what we are as a company, which has to be run successfully. We cannot only be guided by emotion. But I'd love to be back at Le Mans as soon as possible.'
Pausing WEC program means no more Lamborghini Hypercars at Le Mans, at least for now. JEP/Motorsport Images
So does this all mean that Lamborghini is searching for a new Iron Lynx to run the SC63 program in the future? Not exactly. It wishes for the SC63 to be operated more independently from the factory by customer teams from 2026 on.
'If the car is ready from the development, our ambition is not to run the cars as a factory team,' Mohr said. 'Also in GT3 we are not doing this, as we don't want to race our own customers. The operation should be in the hands of the teams.
'But if we close the performance gap and can give it to customer teams, we are open to new teams operating with our support. I wouldn't say [Lamborghini is searching for] a replacement for the Iron Lynx situation.'
Mohr skirted around the prospect of a hard stop to the entire project at the end of 2025 if the car doesn't meet performance benchmarks in IMSA GTP or if no customer team(s) are found. While it's clear that a contingency plan may be needed, he did stress that he remains confident in the potential for customer interest.
'I cannot say for sure, but I am confident. Last season we had some requests,' Mohr said when asked for some thoughts on the customer marketplace for top-class prototypes. 'The market is much smaller, not like GT3. The question is how big the market is and if it's in the long term you can reach a limit or level that's close to GT3 not in running costs, but with sponsors and media value and find a package with a balance.
'If we look at other manufacturers, the time will show this. I strongly believe that if there is a growth of manufacturers continuing then most manufacturers are looking for something like this. I'm optimistic to find a team or teams.'
What if a customer team came forward with ambitions to race an SC63 in the WEC? Would Lamborghini be prepared to allocate more resources to a private outfit and treat them as a 'service provider' in a more traditional sense?
'It depends on the package,' Mohr said. 'If the car would be competitive and can be operated on a performance level that is sufficient for a team and we only have to support like in a standard case, then we are open — it's clear.'
Another potential solution is a continuation of the Riley partnership beyond 2025 to keep the SC63 in competition.
'Never say never,' Mohr admitted. 'Let's see if during the year Riley is interested in operating the cars in IMSA next year. Why not? We are excluding nothing but it's too early.'
With the SC63's Rolex 24 debut ending abruptly after just 34 laps, four races for the car and 34 hours of racing remain this year for the car before the big decisions need to be finalized. How will we look back on the program when all is said and done? The coming months look set to define the narrative…
Story originally appeared on Racer