Pfaff Temerario GT3 Making ‘Progress’ Despite No Cross-Over

Photo: Pfaff Motorsports

Andrea Caldarelli believes Pfaff Motorsports and Lamborghini are continuing to make progress with the new Temerario GT3, despite their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship car currently being one-of-a-kind due to a large disparity in technical specifications to the Temerario GT3s competing in Europe.

While Caldarelli and co-driver Sandy Mitchell claimed a rather surprising runner-up finish in GTD Pro on the streets of Detroit, the V8 twin-turbo-powered car’s next-best class finish so far this season has been a fifth at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Yet the Lamborghini factory driver insists that the best is still yet to come with the new-for-2026 package.

“We’ve definitely done big progress, I think,” said Caldarelli.

“Detroit, even though it was a chaotic race, I do feel that we belonged there and we were fighting, realistically, for the podium. I think it was very encouraging.

“However, I think the thing we missed is the experience of going to different tracks and with different grip level and different configuration of tracks.

“It’s maybe something that we didn’t experience during the development test.

“For example, like Watkins Glen, we were not where we were expecting. We are still trying to analyze what the issues or the reason why we were not as competitive as Laguna Seca, for example, or Detroit.

“Obviously, Detroit is a very different layout, as it’s a street circuit. So, we cannot really compare.

“But we definitely struggled more than Laguna Seca and we did not expect [to be] struggling that much.

“In terms of car behavior and kind of feeling from Sebring, we definitely understood much, much more and we are definitely more prepared for different situations.

“I think CTMP will be more similar to Watkins. So, we did some big challenges from Watkins. It would be interesting to see where we are.”

Caldarelli admitted they’ve not been able to take much cross-over data from the other Temerario GT3s racing, both in DTM and GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, due to the significant differenced in car specifications.

Added is the fact that both ADAC and SRO Motorsports Group have allowed the Temerario GT3 to run an out-of-homologation rear wing angle, in an effort to improve car’s straight line speed.

IMSA has yet to permit such a change, with a visit back to the Windshear wind tunnel in North Carolina understood to be one of the pre-requisites for any potential out-of-homologation change.

“To be fair, not really, we cannot cross over much,” said Caldarelli. “The car spec is very different. The tires are different.

“There are no championships in Europe that they run torque sensors as well.

“So, BoP wise, we are all in a different place.

“We did the development tests last year; we did half with torque sensors and half without. Obviously, we don’t have so many mileage in both specs. So we’re still learning.”

When asked about their chances at this weekend’s round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Pfaff’s home race at a track that Pfaff Automotive Partners CEO Chris Pfaff now holds an ownership stake in, Caldarelli said the lack of race data will not pay them any dividends.

“We know that it’s going to be the first time for the Temerario there,” he said.

“We have no data from last year, so we need to see where we’re gonna be with the others, but we will try everything we can for all the fans.”

Speaking in more broad terms, the Italian added: “The ultimate goal is definitely to win races. We were expecting that this wasn’t going to be like the easiest season of them all.

“We knew during the development, we did not run in the IMSA spec until the last test. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

“We don’t have so much testing during the season as well.

“It’s kind of discovering weekend by weekend, and obviously as well in free practice, you cannot just, come up with like some crazy ideas in in case things are not working.

“It does take time. And there are some tracks that suit the car with the setup that we have more quickly than other tracks, as we saw in Watkins Glen.

“I think it’s literally like a discovery thing, race by race, weekend by weekend.”

Source: Sports Car 365