| Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque Moderator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We appreciate you taking the time to join us here this afternoon. As we kick off a race week for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic part, part of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear of course, our race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, 100 minute race is this Saturday 5:00 PM Eastern time airing live on NBCSN. And we are joined today by our co-points leaders in the WeatherTech Championship DPi class, Ricky Taylor who’s on the screen, and Filipe Albuquerque, who we’ll put on the screen here in a moment or two after we hear from Ricky. As I said, they are the current points leaders entering this weekend’s race, they are 55 points ahead of the number 55 Mazda Motorsports DPi team and drivers, Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell. Filipe and Ricky have won two of the season’s three races so far. They opened the season in January with the victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona alongside IndyCar driver, Alexander Rossi, and now four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves. They also won the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio presented by the TLX Type S last month. Ricky is a three time winner at Detroit most recently in 2017 and Filipe is still looking for his first win in Detroit. And then Wayne Taylor Racing has four wins at Belle Isle, most of all IMSA teams. So Ricky let’s start with you. Thanks again for taking the time to join us. As I mentioned, you’re a three time Detroit winner, your team is a four time winner there. It has certainly been a special place for you guys over the years. Obviously, it’s a little different now going in as it has been for you wearing an Acura uniform last few years, but nevertheless, talk about, how important this Detroit event is to you and what you’re looking forward to this weekend. Ricky Taylor: Yeah, Detroit, obviously it was great coming off of Mid-Ohio as our Acura event and getting a home win for Acura. And now it’s the flip. We’re on the away field this weekend and dropping into the enemy territory. So this is the GM country and they’re going to have the Corvettes back there and Cadillacs are always strong in Detroit. We come into it with, with it sounds big points lead, but 55 points with the new structure is really slim, especially this early in the championship. We just had our pre-event call and kind of the theme of it was we have momentum, but we’re not going to change anything we’re doing. I think the reason why we’ve had a little bit of success this year has been that we’re constantly trying to chase more and more. And we really don’t want to lift up the pressure at all, and we don’t want to settle for setups that may have worked in the past or not. And we’re going to keep trying to improve. And Filipe and I are jelling. We had good success in our first sprint race together. So now we get to go to our street course for the first time in two years, which I’m excited about. So, I can’t wait to get to Belle Isle. Moderator: Thanks, Ricky. Let’s put Filipe in the spotlight here. There he is. As I mentioned, you’re looking for your first win here at Detroit. Of course you went into Mid-Ohio looking for your first win at Mid-Ohio. And as I seem to recall going into that event, you were talking about how you were glad to be joining this team at Mid-Ohio so that you could compete for a win. Is it more of the same this weekend in Detroit? Filipe Albuquerque: Yeah, definitely. I mean like Ricky said, we are having a great run so far. And we are still learning about the car, especially me and the team. Ultimately, Ricky is guiding us through that. But obviously there is evolution. We did a two-day test in Watkins Glen, which made us learn more about the car and eventually to go faster. Detroit is, I would say that it is one of the tracks that I really respect the most in terms of challenge all over the world, because it’s a street course, old school bumpy, which, when you start nowadays to see like Monaco going around in F1, that’s not a street course because that’s flatter than the most flat track that we have in America. So I call it like Detroit, the proper man’s track, very demanding on a driver. I remember the first 10, 15 laps that I did there. I just couldn’t do anymore laps because I was just exhausted off the momentum that the track has because I was just not breathing. It was amazing. I loved it. You know, we know more about our car. Definitely, GM, Cadillac, it’s a very competitive car there. I drove there before with that car. But again, as we could see this year, I think we are also close to each other that I think anyone literally, when I say everyone can win, it’s a true story. It’s a, it’s a fact. I mean, I remember at Mid-Ohio to be having on my mirrors, the 5 car, which I think they finished last in Mid-Ohio and we won. So I think that’s how close we are battling nowadays, which is amazing. So, even, I think it’s a little bit of favoritism for the Cadillacs. Obviously we have a word to say on that. We’re not going to make it easy for sure. And, you know, building our momentum as well, use the momentum and building from learning on the car of Acura having new ideas to make the car, you know, more faster, and easier to drive with help with aids that we have during the race. So we are just getting better. So we go to Detroit to try to win, but again, if we don’t win, we will not be devastated, let’s say like this, because we are going on a good run. And we just doing our best and me and Ricky and learn from that. Moderator: Thanks, Filipe. If anyone has questions, use the raise hand function, let me know in the chat, we’ll have a few already queued up. We’ll start with John Dagys John, go ahead. Q:Filipe, how do you guys sort of approach a street race weekend knowing that you can’t test beforehand? And this will be your first time in the Acura on a street course. Ricky’s obviously done it before, but the limited track time and everything, how does that sort of factor into your strategy for the weekend ahead? Filipe Albuquerque: Yeah, I think one thing that we are having great with the team as well, we just had a meeting as well. Me and Ricky and the engineers. It’s exactly no ego in there. And so we are completely open to see who is the most comfortable to go for the qualifying and then see who is the most comfortable to finish the race. So we are completely open for that. We have a strategy aligned, but it’s super open for that. You know, knowing the Oreca, knowing that it is a car that likes a lot, the aerodynamics, the downforce and does not like to be upset. Obviously, you know, there is these things that you normally do with street courses, which is raising the car or eventually go softer and working with the traction control as well to put the traction down all those things it’s like, I think it’s on our priority list of the checklist, I would say. But I think everyone is on that. I mean, obviously me and Wayne Taylor, we are discovering that and, and Ricky is already telling us that, ‘Watch out for this because it happened as in the past.’ I mean, we should not forget as well that they qualified on pole in the past. So for sure they have a good car there. But again, I think it’s like always, we need to trust ourselves that what we are doing is good enough. Otherwise we would have not won Daytona as the first appearance with the car. So we trust ourselves. And I think that’s the most reliable fact that we can have. Q: And for Ricky, I think you mentioned how tight the points are. How do you sort of take that into qualifying considering, you know, every point probably does count? Is qualifying more important than it’s ever been for you guys now? Ricky Taylor: Yeah. I think when you go to Detroit first of all, it’s always important in Detroit, just from a strategic perspective. So, leave the points out of it, it’s already, like, I think the single most important 15 minutes of the whole weekend. And then the points you throw on top of that, I think it’s great because as drivers, we all love qualifying and we’d like to be rewarded for what happens in qualifying because it really it takes a lot of effort and time and work that goes into trying to make the car as fast as possible for a single lap. So that’s really cool. And then just to address your previous question, Filipe had been there in the Cadillac many years and he didn’t have any issue getting up to speed anywhere else for the first time and finished Daytona. And so I just know he’s going to apply his skill and his experience and yeah, like he said, also, we’re just going to kind of go with the flow on the weekend, and decide who wants to qualify and who wants to finish. Q: Okay. So this is for both drivers. So you guys, won the longest race of the year, and now you’re going into one of the shortest races of the year. In the 24, if you make a mistake, you’ve got plenty of time to play catch up, but in this race, just looking at it, it appears like you’ve got no room for error on this race. For both drivers. Ricky Taylor: Yeah, so we’ve won two races this year and it sounded good when you said we won two out of three, but, and like, if you look at the stats that sounds really strong, but both of the wins were really tight and really difficult. And a tiny little thing with either race could have gone a different way. And we would have really enjoyed a little bit more of a cushion in both of those. And then you look at Detroit and as we said, qualifying so important, obviously it’s very unforgiving. Kind of going over past years and two tires versus four tires ,left side tires, rear tires on a stop. What do you do? Because the strategy’s so important, it’s only two stops. So those become more important. If you do fall back in the pack, we were referring back to another incident where the 10 car got into an incident with the CORE car and was out of the race. There’s just a million things that can go wrong. And just being such a short race, it actually opens up the strategy more where you can try more things to maybe gain track position and just hang on for the end. Or people might, you know, play more of a traditional strategy and rely on pace. So it’s really difficult. I don’t envy the strategists and engineers. But for us as drivers, it’s really an unforgiving track in terms of the walls. It’s you know, no real room for error. Filipe Albuquerque: Yeah, I think it’s just the stamina that it goes on that. Like, I mean, like I think we said in Daytona when we started the strategy of being in first position with 12 hours to go of not making a mistake, and I think that’s why they Daytona was demanding. And then now going to a short race, it just means even more so that you need to be starting defending your P1 position earlier. But that goes without saying, it’s just the intensity of the race will be just higher and obviously kissing the walls, but without damaging the car. Thanks God, that is shorter than 24 hours, otherwise I’d want to kill myself in that. And as well, it can be very, very demanding on the second driver because as you will see, there is not much of a minimum driving time in there. So it can happen that there is a yellow flag in the first 15, 20 minutes. That means that it’s a clear run that it’s open for driver change. So it means that the first driver that’s qualifying and does 15 minutes and barely sweats. And the other guy has to do all the rest, which is like two long stints in a very demanding situation. So it’s going to be hard and for who is inside and outside, for example, for me in Mid-Ohio I was panicking there just looking at the numbers and telling Ricky to go faster, but completely trusting my teammate. I don’t think it’s easy for anyone else, but I think at the same time, that’s why IMSA is so amazing on putting the show for everyone that is watching, but yeah. And that’s why I think we love to race in IMSA as well. It’s like that adrenaline that goes on that no one knows who’s going to win. Q: And I’ve got one follow up for Ricky. Just how bumpy is that racetrack? I mean, do you have to like wear a mouth guard or chew gum or something? Ricky Taylor: We haven’t been there in two years and every time you go back to a street car, it’s like, first thing you notice is man, it’s narrower than I remember. I don’t know how we’re going to go fast around this place. And then the second thing is even on the simulator I was driving like, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is way bumpier than I remember.’ And especially, there’s a couple of places on track, braking for turn seven off the back straight, but really braking before the second-to-last corner, there’s a big bump right in the brake zone. You can either brake before it, or just like lightly on it. But every time you hit it, you like lose your vision quickly, and then you have to like readapt to get your eyes into the corner. And it’s one of those places that I think if you had that eye tracking stuff you’d see the driver’s eyes really working a lot because you’re looking at so many things and then the bumps, it does take you some time to adapt for sure. Moderator: We have another one for Ricky, and then we’ll go to Calvin Fish for a couple. This one that I’m asking on behalf of Andrew Cotton, who was having a little battle here with internet connection, but in the past the Acura has performed well in qualifying and struggled a little on full tanks. How has this team changed the setup to be more adaptable for different conditions compared to last year? Ricky? Ricky Taylor: Yeah, I think as kind of the history has shown, WTR has got great history at Daytona and sort of the big iconic races. Although they do have good history at Detroit, I think the emphasis placed on race performance is just a different approach to our history with the Acura. I’m hoping that that’s proven true this weekend, but I think it’s just a difference in prioritizing your qualifying, track position or how much time you wanna give towards working on a race car for long runs. And that’s something that I feel like so far this year has been quite favorable for us. It’s worked out quite well. I think understanding the tire is really important. When the Michelin first came after the Continental, I think we saw a big learning curve with the teams and just kind of learning what the tire wants. It’s easy to find the peak obviously. And I think it was just more of a matter of seeing what it likes, how sensitive it is to temperature and sort of where that window is. And I think after a couple of years with it, I think in the last season, 2020, we were going in the right direction. And I think coming over to WTR and Konica Minolta, I think it took a really nice next step. Q: Hey guys, congrats on a mega win at Mid-Ohio. A quick question for Ricky. How does that stint that you put together there at the end with a pass on Felipe and the fuel save and all of the stress of that rank? I know you’ve had a lot of success lately, but where does this one rate in terms of that? Ricky Taylor: That was one of my favorite wins for sure. It was, I think the last one’s always your favorite, but that one was really cool. I think aside from like the driving side it was a really fun, strategic race, even from the driver’s seat knowing the fuel numbers and knowing when to push, and I think using what we’ve learned, ‘Okay, how do you turn the tires on for the restarts? And what’s going to be the plan for this stint? And our guys do a lot of work on understanding the fuel mileage and how long we can run on fuel. And I think the big takeaway from that was all of the homework that the guys do and the background of everything, how much it paid off in that race, lots of lessons that were used there. And so like being able to attack at the restart and not saving as much fuel, I think he (Felipe Nasr) said in his post race that he saved too much fuel under yellow. And that was how we got him. I mean, that’s really the only chance to pass without traffic is on a restart. And we just, I think simply had a better car early in the run because of tires, and then controlling it from there where he was able to attack. And we were kind of going for a number and then both of us pushing in traffic it was really hectic, but I feel like the team just did an amazing job of giving me the information, the important information. You know, how much to save here and kind of what they were communicating with their drivers as well. Q: I assume the technique of saving fuel is something that you’re both constantly working on, either in the sim or otherwise. I remember talking to your team or Wayne’s team earlier, and they always raved about Jordan, how good he was at saving fuel. I assume when you were teammates, he shared some of those secrets or how did you get better at it? Ricky Taylor: Yeah, it was difficult driving with Jordan because anytime there was a situation where it was looking like it was going to be a fuel race, they just put him in. So I never got to practice. And cause Jordan was really good at it. And obviously you can explain the techniques and what you do. And so he always would share with me how he did it because he almost won the GT championship with Bill Lester, in what was it? 2012 or ’11. And there were maybe six or seven races they almost won on fuel and did some crazy things. And so he shared a lot with me obviously over the past few years with Acura, getting to learn their strategies for that was helpful, but I think it’s been big just getting the practice. Not driving with Jordan has actually been helpful because I get to try it myself. And yeah, and obviously all the great people around you that kind of give you the information of, where is efficient and where it’s a bit of a waste of time. And yeah it’s kind of an accumulation of all that. Q: And I don’t want to take up too much time with everyone, but quick one for, for Filipe. It seems like the team are very detail oriented, is it because you’re in your sweet spot with the car and the car is working well? I noticed at Mid-Ohio on the warmup, you were practicing the initial start, which is unique there. Ricky talked about, and you’ve talked about the, what ifs, you know, if you do get on the back foot in Detroit, what you’re going to do? Is that something that’s typical with a race team Filipe, or is that something that this team, because you’re in a good spot with the car allowed you the bandwidth to do that? Filipe Albuquerque: I mean I think I’m gonna tell you guys something that I think you guys don’t know, but Mid-Ohio obviously we had a great car. But, you know, we were not a hundred percent with it in terms of the sweet spot of the performance of the car. But I mean, we took decisions to make it better, which didn’t really pay it off, but I’m not saying that it was bad, but it could be better for sure. So we had to adapt. I think what we are experiencing at the moment now here with Wayne Taylor and the Konica Minolta Acura team, is like, I think everyone trusts each other on doing their jobs. So, I think the engineer is very comfortable of whatever we are putting for qualifying, you know, like in the early days in Daytona for the Roar, I mean, they were fine to put me with, you know, first times with low fuel new tires and go. I was comfortable to be completely in the dark of going and not having the pressure or trying to do too much and then eventually compromise the weekend. And then as well, then goes down to the end of the race in Daytona of Ricky saying, ‘Can you continue? Like maybe it’s going to be too hard for me. Let’s put Filipe again.’ But I would, if Ricky would say, ‘I’m comfortable to go to the end, I would be completely comfortable to stay in.’ And as well, you know, I think the engineers were like, ‘Ricky in Mid-Ohio you need to save fuel and hold position.’ I think we are each of us trusting on what we are doing and it’s making our execution really good because at the moment, I mean, it kind of sounds crazy, but I don’t think we are being the fastest guys on track. And I think you can see that more, you know, it’s been quite clear that some of other cars, they are just getting better but just, you know, bad luck which sometimes happens. And some mistakes from their sides is not making them being able to win the races. And I think that especially, you know, you guys are following every race and I think, you know, what I’m talking about. So I think that goes down to the combination of the package of drivers, engineers, strategy guys, doing their own bits and just relying on the other guys and not wasting energy on the other guys to try to help them. No. It’s just like, ‘Okay, I need this number, Ricky. Just try to defend.’ Everyone is doing his own job. Obviously, you know, we will not win all of the races, but it does not mean that we are not going to be happy about it. We cannot, we can finish second or third, but still be happy about that result because it’s part of the game. Right? So I think that’s what we’re making the difference. And again, I don’t think we are still yet on the sweet spot because my sweet spot is like, when we qualify on the pole, win the race and completely dominant on pure pace. That’s when I’m happy. And at the moment we are having the wins, but we are missing that little spot there of completely dominating the race, which has not been the case. Q: Yeah. For Ricky. If you win this race, you don’t have to worry about getting a Father’s Day present? Ricky Taylor: I think that would be a nice Father’s Day present. I think it’s funny with the weekends and everything, this is like one of the first Father’s Days that we’ll be together. And maybe for Filipe too, with Le Mans being moved. As a dad not being in Le Mans, so I think a win would be pretty good for dad. I think he might be happy with that, or maybe he’ll just be thinking about, ‘Now we need to win Watkins Glen.’ So, it’s never enough. Moderator: I had one more quick one for both of you guys, as I alluded to at the beginning, obviously your teammate your Rolex 24 teammate Helio won the Indy 500 last week. I’d just be interested in your in your comments on what that was like to see him do that. Filipe, why don’t you start? Filipe Albuquerque: Well, actually, because I was in America as well, testing for Watkins Glen, I went with my partner GMR and I went on to watch it live. And it was funny because Helio came over to have dinner with us and he was doing the speech. And, you know, if we go for the fourth and stuff like that, and he was looking good. And in the end of his speech, I said, ‘You know, Helio, even, if you don’t win, you are a great driver and we will still like you.’ But then he went on and it was super interesting because then, I was the one in the suites that was understanding a little bit more about racing. And these people, they were like super excited, like, ‘Oh my God, he’s P3 now he’s going back.’ (I said) ‘No, no, no, it’s fine. It’s fine.’ And then on the closing laps, I was getting nervous as well because like, ‘S—, has a chance!’ So he’s like completely on it and I could start narrowing it down for him, between him and Palou. And I could see that Palou didn’t have a chance. I could see like what shot guys had as well, because I was interested as well to talk with Simon Pagenaud that he was happy about the car. In one point, he reached like P4, which was amazing. And I was telling them in like five laps to go, ‘Is it now the time?’ ‘Just hold on. It’s still not now.’ And it was just interesting the whole weekend. And then he won the great timing. I think I has a great question for him as well. It’s like if you timed it with the traffic or not? Because I think he had like the perfect timing with traffic on the last lap. I think it gave him a little bit of luck or not. It just doesn’t matter. The win is his. So I was super happy about him and at the same time sad for our other teammate, Alex Rossi, that then I got to spend the evening with him and his girlfriend. Obviously, you know was not the most cheery night ever, but you know, it’s part of the game. And it was an interesting race and somehow it’s a race that I like to go and be a complete fan because it’s not really for me. Moderator: And Ricky for you. I mean, obviously you and Helio went through quite a lot the last three years. And certainly celebrated some big successes just in the last six months with the championship and winning the Rolex. What did seeing him do that mean to you? Ricky Taylor: Yeah, I think Filipe said like the four of us, Alex, Filipe, Helio and I are a great team together. And it’s rare to find like such a great chemistry between a group and everybody got along so well. And so I mean, that, that was the most I’ve sweated watching her race before. That was unbelievable. And just, I think knowing him for the past few years, and it’s been like, it’s been 12 years, he’s been trying to get his fourth and I think that’s the number one thing he wanted to achieve. And so to see it happen, like, when we were in the sports car program together, it was like hard as a part-time guy. If I was in his shoes, and I can’t put myself in his shoes, but you kind of think to yourself, ‘Is it, is it the goal, is the dream kind of gone as a part-time guy because the full-time guys with the pit crews and how crazy competitive it is,’ everybody doubted how his chances and man, he never doubted it. Every year he went back, even this year with a part-time crew, not even a big Penske fourth car, he never gave up and never, never thought he couldn’t do it. And I think from like the start of that race, you watched the start and going three wide on the outside. Like from the beginning, you could tell like he wanted it so badly. And yeah, it was really, really cool to watch and I’ve never been so happy for somebody else to win a race. And I think everybody shared that together. Like, I don’t think anybody was upset except for maybe Alex Palou, but it was for sure a fan favorite win and the celebration seeing him running around. It was, it was awesome. |
