![]() ![]() That a star comes in and adapts seamlessly to WTR Andretti is an essential factor in who the team selects. The list includes Ind圜ar stars Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Helio Castroneves four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso. Over the years, WTR Andretti has earned a deserved reputation for signing notable drivers who don’t compete in IMSA on a full-time basis to one-offs or part-time deals to fill these open slots. ![]() “Crew guys don’t have the option of going away and going to sleep, so for the crew guys, it’s the same approach: ‘Let’s get some data, let’s understand what you’re doing and let’s fuel you correctly,'” Ferguson said.ĭue to the length of the race, teams must expand their driver rosters beyond the normal two or three that share a car in other IMSA races. Every few hours, new food options arrive in the pit stall with options including pasta, quesadillas, chicken noodle soup, pizza, breakfast sandwiches, vegetables, fresh fruit and crackers. Over the entirety of the race, WTR Andretti goes to great lengths to ensure its drivers, engineers, crew and assorted personnel are well-fed. “They’re going to burn on their stint probably somewhere between 1,800 to 3,000 calories, and they’re going to see probably a two-degree-Celsius increase in core body temperature and lose somewhere between probably four and six pounds of sweat.” David Ferguson, an associate professor at Michigan State University who studies the health and human performance of race car drivers in addition to working closely with WTR Andretti. “Very typically the average heart rate is going to be about 160 beats per minute the entire race,” said Dr. It’s an endurance race, with drivers pushed to their limits as much as the cars. A driver typically runs between 90 minutes to two-plus hours before giving way to a teammate, then will cycle back into the car once their spot in the rotation is up. And because of this, a GTP team almost always wins the overall race, determined by completing the most laps over 24 hours.ĭue to the extreme distance, teams are required to rotate multiple drivers (usually four) throughout the race. GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) is the top class with the fastest cars and, generally speaking, is more technologically advanced. ![]() The first race of the season in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) SportsCar Championship, the race is contested among four classes all racing at the same time, featuring cars with varying performance levels. The Rolex 24 is quite different than either NASCAR’s Daytona 500 or Ind圜ar’s Indianapolis 500, the two most popular races in the United States. “Don’t f- it up,” he says to laughter from the room. Then, WTR Andretti driver Jenson Button - the 2009 F1 world champion - sums up the meeting. There’s no real pressure the only real pressure we’re going to make is for ourselves.” And enjoy it, not many people get to do this. It’s an exercise in risk management, most of these. “If you look here, everyone has gelled together. “This is the best team in the business,” he says. ![]() Right before the meeting breaks up, Honda Racing Corporation USA president David Salters offers up a pep talk. And WTR Andretti - whose two-car team touted a star-studded driver lineup featuring a Formula One world champion, an Indianapolis 500 winner, one of America’s top young Ind圜ar talents and multiple sports car aces - has allowed The Athletic inside for a first-hand look at the ups and downs as it goes for a record-tying sixth win the grueling event. It’s the prestigious Rolex 24, an around-the-clock endurance race held at Daytona International Speedway each year. “If it’s the end of the race, and we’re on the lead lap, I can win this.” “What we need to do for 24 hours long is stay on the lead lap,” Pillar said Friday. Porsche and Cadillac have shown more pace thus far, and the sense among many within the team is that they will need to find other avenues to beat them. Going into the race, WTR Andretti feels that, if it is to win, it will be because it committed the fewest mistakes, not because it has the outright fastest car. But the eight drivers sitting around the table all appear to understand the data related to tire wear, wind speed and direction, and ambient temperature that will all affect the cars’ performance. Over the next 65 minutes, Pillar will lay out in great detail WTR Andretti’s plan of attack, using charts and graphs that to an outsider are entirely confusing. ![]()
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