Iron Lynx “Pushing in Same Direction” With Mercedes-AMG

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI

Iron Lynx worked through a “very tight” turnaround to be prepared for its new partnership with Mercedes-AMG in the FIA World Endurance Championship according to team principal Andrea Piccini, who is “happy” with the relationship with the Stuttgart marque.

The Italian squad switched brands over the winter, ending its previous partnership with Lamborghini and moving to field a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos in the LMGT3 class instead.

This ensured Iron Lynx will remain on the WEC grid for a fifth consecutive season, while also granting Mercedes-AMG its sought-after access to the world championship after it was left out of LMGT3 last year.

“First of all, I think we found a much better environment and we are happy with how the relationship is developing with AMG,” Piccini told Sportscar365.

“We are coming from a very stressful situation from last year. Honestly the way we started, it was very late.

“It’s been very messy, let’s say, but at the end of the day we quickly developed a good relationship with them.

“We tried to support each other because it was very tight here so I think everyone did his part as a team.

“Giving them all the advices we could and all the support we could and them on the other side trying to develop the car quickly.

“We made it just because we finished [putting] the car together at HWA on the 9th [of February] in the evening.

“We took the car to Hockenheim, on the 10th we did a rollout, a full day of rollout, and on the 12th we flew the cars here, so quite close.”

Piccini outlined that, with the Hockenheim rollout included, Iron Lynx completed five days of testing with Mercedes-AMG machinery, with additional outings late last year at Portimao and Vallelunga before the car was converted to LMGT3 specification.

“You never feel a 100 percent prepared anyway,” he said. “I think we are in a much better situation than we were last year.

“The difference is that last year was the first year for any manufacturer and this year Mercedes-AMG will be the only newcomer to the championship. So we are for sure one year behind.

“Honestly, we were looking at Daytona with a lot of interest because we wanted to see the car running for the first time with the torque sensor and a very similar system at the end to what is used in the WEC.

“I have to say the car was performing surprisingly well. The car was very fast by the end of the race so this let us feel pretty optimistic, let’s say.

“So yeah if I compare it with last year with the Lamborghini we haven’t done anything before coming here so it was like half a day of rollout in Barcelona and then we came here.

“It’s actually better than last year, so let’s be positive.”

Piccini also gave some insight into the support Mercedes-AMG is providing for its first world championship campaign, describing it as “very good.”

“They provide a kind of a standard support to what a manufacturer is supposed to do,” he said.

“They’ve done all the development of the car of course and on track here they’re coming with very good support.

“We have a BoP guy, an engineer dedicated to following all the championship.

“We have a system engineer, we have a performance engineer for them so I think they put quite a good effort in supporting the team for the WEC. Also for the ELMS, but especially here.

“For them, it’s I think it’s really important to have the opportunity to come into WEC and to be back at Le Mans so I have to say I have the feeling we are pushing in the same direction.

“As I said, things look there working pretty well from the beginning. This doesn’t mean it will be easy and it will be working right away but at least the approach is right.”

Iron Lynx Saw “No More Possibility to Continue” With Lamborghini

Iron Lynx’s new alliance with Mercedes-AMG comes after the brand ended its relationship with Lamborghini, bringing down the curtains on what was understood to be a multi-year deal to run the SC63 LMDh program in WEC’s Hypercar class.

It also competed with the Italian brand in GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup, amongst other series.

While the SC63 is absent from WEC this year, the car has continued in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, embarking on a Michelin Endurance Cup program with Riley Motorsports as the new service provider.

When asked about the end of Iron Lynx’s relationship with Lamborghini, Piccini replied:

“We had a long-term deal, you all know that was something we wanted to do for a long time, but things at a certain point just didn’t work anymore.

“We did everything we could on our side. We were ready to continue, both on the LMDh and on the GT side, but there was no more possibility to continue.”