Pipo Derani, co-driver of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R with Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist, is the defending and four-time winner of the endurance race at Sebring International Raceway. The Q&A with Derani:

What is it about Sebring that seems to resonate with you and how are you going to make it five (wins) next week?

📷 © Courtesy of Cadillac Racing. Pipo Derani.

Pipo Derani: “Sebring has been very kind to me over the last few years. I won there in my debut in 2016, which was a very cool race win, and then had the luck to be involved with great teams and great lineups that allowed me to win a few more times. I think the GTP championship is extremely strong this year. We saw last year at Sebring that you have to be alive to try to win that race. Luckily, last year things turned toward the end. We weren’t meant to win but we won because we survived. The whole race we were there with the top five, fighting on the same lap, and after the final restart we all know what happened. Sebring is one of those places where you have to make sure you survive because it’s such a difficult race on man and machine. It’s a place that you can’t predict because you might have a strong pace during the day and it might differ at night when the temperature drops, so it’s a unique place to try to set up your car in the best possible way for the end but you don’t want to suffer for 11 hours and 30 minutes as well of the race. The GTP is extremely competitive. I think it’s going to take a lot this year to pull out a win. Focusing on trying to improve the last phase of the race will be crucial for us in such a competitive field if we want to go down a sprint the last 30 minutes of the race. You need to be on your toes and be very quick in this important part of the race if you want to achieve something. Looking forward to it. It’s perhaps physically harder than Daytona because it’s very warm, it’s very demanding. It’s not going to disappoint in terms of how tough the race is and how exciting it is for the fans.”.

After Daytona, does you motivation change any heading into Sebring?

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024. Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist with #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R at ROLEX 24 at Daytona.

Pipo Derani: “I’ve been looking at Daytona with a very positive view. We put on a great show. We led a bunch of that race and came up just short because of a pit stop at the very end. We still had a fantastic showing through the week with pole position, led a lot of the race, the car was competitive from beginning to the end. The equipment ran flawlessly. If you look at all that, it’s very positive. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a Rolex home. It was a fantastic weekend and gives up great hope that we started the year strong. Sebring is a different animal. When you look at last year, we weren’t as quick as we wanted to be at night. With that race finishing at night, we were lucky to win but we had some things that we had to work on for this year. We have been working on those things and hopefully we have a stronger car at the end. In general, it’s been a positive start to the year. A lot of the boxes that we wanted to check from last year we’re already in the process of doing so. Last year was a very up and down year for everybody. On our side, we have been working hard on those points and hope it translates into a quicker car at the end of Sebring. On the other hand, the competition has been very strong and improving as well. I mentioned before the season that I believed Porsche Penske had some untapped potential from last year and it seems they are reaching that from last year. Their car was also quick from the beginning to the end of the race; very competitive, very reliable. We have to be on our toes and keep finding time. The stopwatch does not lie, and we need to be on our toes if we want to achieve a great result at Sebring. If we win, let’s say a proper way, we’ll feel a lot better than how we won last year. That’s our goal.”

What have you been up to the five weeks since Daytona?

Pipo Derani: “We’ve been doing some simulation work. With the GTP cars, it is quite demanding on the simulation side. There is quite a lot that you can learn. Been home with the family as well. I have a young daughter that demands quite a lot nowadays. The simulator has bene the biggest off-track thing that we’ve been doing between races. Sometimes before and after each race. That’s been the biggest workload since Daytona.”

What do you think made this car so good around Sebring last year and will it be competitive knowing the strides the other manufacturers have taken?

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring 2023. Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken and Alexander Sims won the 12 Hours race with #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.

Pipo Derani: “I think last year was one of toughest races in terms of temperature changes at the track. I think it’s quite usual at Sebring that you get times of the day that the track is just so much quicker than others, and that was quite evident last year. For us, comparing to the DPi, I think we had in DPi a car that was stronger than the opposition at Sebring. I don’t that was the case last year, although I believe during the very warm period of the race – during the day – we were definitely stronger than the others. But I don’t think that’s the case when the night came, so it’s something to be seen. I really don’t know what to expect, but looking at last year’s event once the sun dropped the Acuras and Porsches were definitely quicker than us, which hurt because we led a lot of the race from the 01 to the 31 but knew at the end that we didn’t quite have the pace if it had gone through a green flag situation all the way through to the end. I think the car suited the heat but is one of the areas we as a team are working on to have a stronger car for the end of the race.”

What’s your favorite part of the course to attack?

Pipo Derani: “I think the hairpin is a nice area. It allows some overtaking to be done. Turn 1 as well is amazing with how quick it is and how bumpy it is and still how quickly you’re going through those bumps.”

With the GTP and tools you have to work with, can you shrink that gap from day to night?

Pipo Derani: “I wouldn’t say so. The tools that we have are not to compensate for temperature changes. It’s more about how you migrate brakes from the front to the rear and how you operate the hybrid system. It’s more about taking the car to a 7-post rig and trying to understand what you can do to the suspension and springs and suspension-wise that you could potentially find some pace toward the night. That’s what the team has been working hard on, and something that you have to be evolving and learning through the process of getting to know a new car. It’s still relatively new for us because it changed so much from the DPi in terms of how the car is built, how much heavier it is, how much fuel you carry through a stint, the tires have a different feeling. So, you have to balance the car not only on warm tires, but you have to find a compromise when you get out of the pits with them being cold. So, there is so much to this new GTP racecars that it’s not only about the tools we have in the car but understanding what’s the best way to operate this car.”

Does going into Sebring as the defending champion give you more confidence in terms of the equipment, the engineering?

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. Podiums for Pipo Derani at the two last editions of the 12 Hours of Sebring: P3 in 2022 with Mike Conway and T. Nunez; victory in 2023 with Jack Aitken and Alexander Sims.

Pipo Derani: “I think it certainly does give you a lot of confidence. Last year was very up and down and one of the goals for this year was be more consistent, more at the top throughout the whole season. Having Daytona be very positive for us also gives us great hope, even more so than winning the championship last year, that we will continue to be strong. There are many things that we need to improve on if we want to be at this level, but we believe we are on the right path and Daytona was a great result to prove to ourselves that we are working on the right things to be competitive. It’s details and experience that help you build and create a championship fight year. You can’t let yourself down once in a while because it will hurt you. Having the experience gives you even more confidence that you can achieve that year in and year out, so having gone through the ups and downs of last year it’s allowing us to be stronger this year and be more consistent at the front. If you are competitive and constantly putting yourself in that position to win without mistakes, without giving your adversaries a chance to do better than you, then I believe the year will be much better and wins will be a consequence and championships as well. It would be great for me to win the fifth, but I’m honestly not thinking of that. I’m just thinking of it as any other race to do your best. If we repeat the win, to be the only GTP car to win at Sebring would make it special.”

Have you considered your legacy at Sebring and the racers who have raced there before?

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring 2023. Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken and Alexander Sims with #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R won the 12 Hours race.

“Pipo Derani: I do sometimes think about how lucky I have been over the last few years, how lucky I’ve been to work with so many great teams and great people and great teammates that allowed me to have that much success. Not in my dreams would I have thought by the age of 30 I would have won four times at Sebring. When you look back over the years, it was only during the Audi dominance that someone was able to win as much as what I was lucky to win over the last few years. In itself, it’s quite nice, but it wouldn’t have happened without a great team and great people behind me. Come race week, you don’t allow yourself to think about that much because what happened is in the past. You want to do it all over again, like it was your first one. It’s nice to be able to walk into the track and see your name or walk into the hall fame and see how many great drivers have won Sebring. And to think you’ve done something nice in this very iconic and special race is nice, but I don’t look at it the same way once I retire. At the moment, I’m constantly trying to win more. Sebring will be up there with the best things I’ve achieved.”

When you think back on 2016, do you look at Sebring and Daytona as what set you up for the career you now have?

Pipo Derani: “Absolutely. I think more Sebring than Daytona. Daytona was a bit more shocking to many people because I was an unknown to most in America. But Sebring 2016 came in a different way because we weren’t leading in the last 30 minutes. We were I think P4 and I was able to overtake those guys and win in a very nice way. Some people, with truth, said we won Daytona only because the car was so good. That’s fair because you don’t get to win such a big race without a good car. Then, because we won Sebring because I did a very strong job at the end, I believe is what cemented myself as a new, young and perhaps up-and-coming star to the sport. It was for me a career-changing moment because up until that moment I was nobody. I was racing in Europe; I had done a year of WEC that went really well. It was my first two races in America and had been in a moment when I had just turned pro. So, I went from someone who had a dream of being a professional to then becoming a professional and immediately when that happened I managed to win two of the most prestigious races you have around the world. That helped cement my name and push me to where I am now. I would say Sebring '16 was a very special one.” Source: Cadillac Racing

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