Diuguid: “Easier Approach” With Three-Driver GTP Lineups

Photo: Juergen Tap/Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid believes that a three-driver lineup for the Rolex 24 at Daytona is the “easier approach” to take, as the defending race winners revert to a driving trio for each of its factory Porsche 963s.

The Nos. 6 and 7 Porsches, along with the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, by virtue of the fallen-ill Alex Lynn, are the only entries in the 12-car GTP class this year that plan to utilize three-driver squads.

It compares similarly to last year, when only the Action Express Racing Cadillac had three drivers, out of the ten total entries in the class.

Diuguid, however, revealed that it opted for four drivers last year 0n a preemptive move, prior to IMSA walking back a four-driver mandate that was set to begin with this year’s race.

“We had the opportunity to re-evaluate it again,” he said. “With the driver pool that we have, we felt the three approach [was the best].

“Obviously Kevin [Estre] and Laurens [Vanthoor] had experience here in 2024 where they drove in the 6 car lineup so it was kind of an easy decision for us to bring them back, especially off their successes in the WEC as well, to have really strong driver crews that are really experienced at Daytona.”

Diuguid, however, admitted that teams are more “locked into” driver rotations when utilizing three-driver squads, which can have its pros and cons.

“I think there’s some lessons learned there,” he said. “Probably the biggest differences with three drivers is that you’re a little bit more locked into the rotation and plan you have prior to the race and you’re probably less flexible and less dynamic.

“Maybe you’re making a decision one or two guys around the last six hours of the race, but pretty much everything else is planned out before you start.

“Where with with a four-driver you can react if somebody’s not feeling well or somebody’s better in the rain or things like that.

“In our case, I think our driver rotation will be pretty fixed before we start the race unless something massively changes. That’s probably the biggest change.

“It’s kind of an easier approach for us from that regard but it’s also easy in a sense that all three guys in each car are performing on quite a similar level, so there’s really no negatives to that approach.

“But that’s probably the biggest difference.

“A lot of it is around resting time. If Felipe [Nasr] or Kevin jump out of the car and we say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to see you for another four or five hours, it’s kind of difficult to go and beat on the bus door and wake them up and say, ‘Hey, get your stuff together’ and shock them a little bit.

“That’s not to say it can’t happen but typically it just locks you into a more fixed rotation.”

Nasr: Three vs. Four Driver Lineups “Not a Game Changer”

For Nasr, who drove nine hours of the race last year, in a four-driver lineup, en route to Porsche Penske’s historic victory, the Brazilian doesn’t feel that there’s a major difference behind three vs. four drivers.

“I probably get to sleep less I think!” he joked. “But it’s not a game changer.

“For sure the good points of having three drivers is that you tend to get the preparation better over the course of the Roar and the race weekend.

“Every time you get in the car you have more time to go through setup changes or different tires. You get more time.

“When you have four drivers, we see that you basically don’t get the chance to run through all the transitions between night time, day time. It’s got to be one or the other.

“So your options are more limited with four drivers. Every driver gets less time of practice and less time of driver changes.

“But in the race you have more time spread between the drivers to say, ‘OK, I want to do this part of this race, I want to go for the transitions, I want to do the night stint.’ I think it becomes a little bit more flexible in a way.

“I don’t see either way being better or worse. It’s just those little differences that carry across the weekend.”