Wickens: ‘Not a Single Hiccup’ During Sebring Test

Photo: DXDT Racing

Robert Wickens hailed the Bosch hand-control system aboard the DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R as “a massive step forward” after sampling it during a two-day test at Sebring International Raceway ahead of his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship return at Long Beach next month.

Wickens will race the No. 36 Corvette for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, with Corvette factory driver Tommy Milner confirmed on Wednesday as his co-driver for the 100-minute contest.

It will only be Wickens’ second WeatherTech Championship appearance, following eight years after contesting the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona in a Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09.

At Long Beach, Wickens will make use of the latest version of the Bosch hand-control system, with a newly developed braking system that was debuted on the Canadian’s Hyundai TCR car in the final two rounds of last year’s Michelin Pilot Challenge season.

The new system that Wickens will be working with was developed using Bosch’s existing electronic brake system module from the LMDh platform, but has been adapted to feature a brake-by-wire system on the No. 36 Corvette.

After the system was first tried as part of a straight-line test at Florida International Rally and Motorsport Park by Milner last month, Wickens turned his first laps at the wheel of DXDT’s GTD challenger as part of a two-day test at Sebring in the days after the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Wickens gave a positive first impression speaking to reporters during the second day of his test, noting that it ‘feels like the system belongs in the car.’

“There hasn’t been a single hiccup,” he said. “It’s like when they designed the Corvette Z06 GT3.R it was always in the plan. It looks like it belongs in the car. It feels like it belongs in the car.

“Immediately I felt way more comfortable with the braking feeling and braking sensation than I had in my past racing in TCR with the Bosch EBS.

“It was a massive step forward so hats off to all the men and women at Bosch, Pratt Miller, GM and DXDT Racing for collaborating in making this all possible.”

The Long Beach event will be Wickens’ first racing appearance at the wheel of a rear-wheel-drive car since his NTT IndyCar Series career was cut short by his Pocono crash in 2018.

Prior to that, his career record also included junior single seaters, as well as a six-year stint in DTM in which he picked up six race victories.

“I feel like I never left in a way,” Wickens said about returning to a rear-wheel-drive car.

“That being said, a TCR car with it being front-wheel drive, a lot of your instability moments it’s all kind of corner entry and mid-corner. By the time you apply throttle, you’re not really fighting the car.

“It’s been an interesting adjustment here, trying to maintain a consistent throttle position while the rear is starting to slide or step out a little bit.

“So that’s taken some getting used to, and I still need to learn that. Sometimes I’ll get a snap oversteer, and I’ll accidentally lift off the throttle completely and just bleed loads of lap time. So, yeah, a lot to work on.”

One of the specific challenges Wickens said he’ll have to deal with is learning to understand the Corvette’s traction control system, as he noted it is not something he has a lot of experience with.

“I’ve done some testing in GT3 from my time at Mercedes and some other stuff in a couple other race cars here and there,” he said.

“But in terms of extracting lap time from a proper traction control system and all the aids and assists that we have inside the car, [I’m] still trying to understand what makes it click.

“Because I think when I’m applying throttle, my resolution is not spot on yet.

“So I think I’m applying like ten percent throttle, but I’m actually more like 30 percent, 35, 40 percent throttle and I’m immediately getting traction control intervention.

“The car is coping and handling it great and there’s no dramas. But I feel like it’s still catching me by surprise and it’s still something I need to keep working on.”

While Wickens did the bulk of the running in the No. 36 Corvette during the test, former IndyCar and Mazda prototype driver Spencer Pigot was on hand for the initial shakedown and installation runs.

Wickens went on to praise the system that has been built into the car, describing it as “very well-integrated.”

“The sensation and feeling that I have, whenever I embarked on this journey to race with hand controls, I was always envisioning that hydraulic sensation with my hands when I’m applying the brake,” Wickens said.

“Everyone involved made it happen. When you take a look at it, you’ll see there’s a damper on the top of my brake paddles.

“We’ve evolved and evolved, and now we’ve changed spring rates… it’s basically like you’re changing suspension settings.

“We have bump rubbers and packers. It’s teeny tiny things like surgeon work.

“It’s amazing the feeling that I have and I feel like I’m extracting a lot of pace because of it.

“The fact that I was straight away comfortable… frankly internally I was concerned that it might take me a little bit to get up to speed. But thankfully that wasn’t the case so far.

“There’s a lot of work to be done but so far the signs are positive.”