Heinrich ‘Better Understands’ IMSA Racing in Second Season

Photo: Porsche

Laurin Heinrich said he ‘better understands’ racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a championship-winning season already under his belt.

The 23-year-old German is in the midst of fighting for his second consecutive GTD Pro title with AO Racing at the wheel of the team’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Heinrich and new-for-2025 full-season driver Klaus Bachler currently sit second in the title race, only 39 points behind championship leaders Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports with four races remaining.

While having won the 2024 GTD Pro title following a dramatic season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, Heinrich said he’s been able to learn for his second full-time campaign in the WeatherTech Championship.

“Obviously I was full of expectations doing my first season in IMSA and in general in North America,” he said. “But for sure, you can’t go into IMSA and expect you’ll win it the first time, and fight for it again.

“It’s a tough championship and everything needs to work perfectly. But that’s exactly why I wanted to come to IMSA. You’re fighting the best drivers in GT; the best teams and many manufacturers engaged on some of the best tracks in the world.

“As a driver, IMSA is very appealing. In my situation as a young driver, did one year GT3 racing in Europe and here’s it’s a perfect platform to show my skills and what I’m capable of.

“There’s also GTP teams here, in the same race, watching the same race. It’s a good platform for a driver like me. Doing sprint and endurance in the same season is a good opportunity for me to fine tune my driving and my skills.”

Heinrich says he believes he’s a better all-around driver now having a year-and-a-half of GTD Pro experience in his pocket.

“I think because of my experience now, I understand IMSA racing better,” he said. “I know when I need to take risks versus not.

“Last year I remembered when I went into the car for my first IMSA race at Daytona, I went in, I think, Saturday afternoon. I went out and started pushing, I was going for it. But after coming back to Daytona, now what I did didn’t make any sense.

“Daytona you just need to be there until the last two or three hours and everything before that is about staying safe.

“For those who’ve seen it, this year there was a big crash in the night in Turn 1, and I just stopped my car on the left, pulled to the left, stopped because I couldn’t see. Cars were flying left to right all over the place.

“That was where I proved to myself that I wouldn’t have taken that measure the same time last year. So, I was proud and happy to improve myself.”

Heinrich’s other change for this year comes with having a full time co-driver, with a rotation of Porsche factory or contracted drivers having been in the No. 77 Porsche for the second half of last year following Seb Priaulx’s departure.

“This year having Klaus on board, this is for me, the cherry on the cake for me is one of the best if not the best teammate I’ve ever had,” said Heinrich. “He has a ton of experience.

“He’s a great guy, obviously, we speak the same language as well, so there’s no language barrier so that’s also good.

“We have a really strong bond, and, in the end, we have no secrets. We exchange each other about driving about anything, basically. And I think that’s also why we work so well, and in the end, we can just profit off each other.

“Not only do I drive IMSA with Klaus, but also GT World Challenge Europe, so we nearly spend every weekend together.

“That is amazing. We can correlate from weekend to weekend the same experience.

“‘Remember in Sebring we did this, and it could help at Paul Ricard?’ Or vice versa. It’s a big advantage and it’ll only go bigger and bigger the more races we go together.”

Source: Sports Car 365