Pier Guidi Wants IMSA To Address Ferrari Pace Deficit

Pier Guidi thinks that IMSA needs to address the Ferrari pace deficit issue, after his Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTLM were hindered with their straight-line speed during the ROAR before the 24, which made it almost impossible for him to pass even the supposedly slower GT Daytona cars.

Pier Guidi will be joined in the team by Ferrari factory drivers James Calado and 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour winner Toni Vilander for the Rolex 24 at Daytona at the end of the month, but put in the miles around the Daytona circuit in order to best develop the car for the twice-around-the-clock race, but feels something needs to be done to address the straight-line pace deficit to their competitors.

“We are in good shape,” said Pier Guidi. “We missed a bit of top speed compared to the other manufacturers, but let’s see if they (IMSA) change something (with balance of performance) because we also struggled a lot to overtake the GTD cars. We are pretty slow in terms of speed, not lap time, so we will see.

“I think this is the only tweaking point that I see at the moment. For the rest, the team did perfectly, and I was happy to work with them again. I already knew a lot about the team from working together at Petit Le Mans last year so that was good.”

Pier Guidi was Risi Competizione’s sole driver in their #62 Ferrari during the ROAR before the 24, and the Italian driver feels he did as much preparation work as he could in the three test days at the Daytona International Speedway.

“I think we had a good weekend,” said Pier Guidi. “I was alone, but I think we did all the things we planned and the car looks good. I think we are prepared for the race.

“We did many tests with different set ups and we collected a lot of data that we can analyse over the next couple of weeks and we’ll work with the best start possible for the race.”