Schmidt Peterson team impressed with Derani, Dorrbecker, Wickens

IMSA ace Pipo Derani, who last year won the Rolex 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours outright for Extreme Speed Motorsport, took part in the Wednesday morning session. The fastest of his 68 laps around Sebring Raceway’s short course was a 52.69sec, which compared favorably with the fastest time of the morning – a 52.0 from Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay.

DTM star Robert Wickens who had recorded a 52.9 in his interrupted and short runs on Tuesday [for Wickens interview, click here], took over James Hinchcliffe’s #5 car from Derani on Wednesday afternoon and whittled down to a 52.41 in his 78 laps.

Meanwhile Auto GP champion Luis Michael Dorrbecker recorded a 54.0 in the morning and ended the day with a 53.61.

By way of comparison, fastest time of the day went to Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi who set a 51.64sec lap in the afternoon.

Phillips told Motorsport.com: “It was a very successful and interesting day for Schmidt Peterson because we're always looking for new and future talents. We’ve had the idea of running Pipo and Luis for a few months now, and this was the perfect opportunity to see how they adapt, perform and interact while driving a car that’s a completely different animal from what they’ve been used to.

“Drivers who come from a different background, in particular top sportscar drivers, come with a much more rounded approach, a deeper knowledge of engineering, and Pipo was no exception.

“From the minute he got into the car from the moment he stepped out, he showed a level of maturity that surpassed his age. He’s driven so many different cars it’s almost second nature to him to learn on the job and just get on with it. He was an absolute breeze, absolute joy to work with. And his laptimes were strong on what was generally regarded as a slower day [than Tuesday].”

Phillips said he noticed that Derani was a little tired at the end of his morning run, but said his helmet configuration was partly to blame.

“He started to suffer with his neck a little bit," he said, "but it was more because he had his sportscar helmet which didn’t have the little aerofoils so his helmet was being lifted and his head pushed back.

“But his laptime was very tasty and might have been three or four tenths quicker. But it was his first time in the car, first time on new tires, and learning how to extract that peak performance takes a bit of a time. So overall, it was a very impressive effort.”

Dorrbecker’s performance, according to Phillips, was also strong given the very different power delivery of AutoGP’s 550hp normally aspirated 3.5-liter V8 and IndyCar’s 700hp 2.2-liter twin turbo V6.

“Given that his most recent drive in a powerful open-wheel car was last October, I thought Luis would struggle,” Phillips admitted, “and yeah, it took him a little longer to get used to the IndyCar. As well as the engine difference, there’s no power steering and there’s a lot more downforce. But I think in the end we were all very impressed with Luis’s lap time, how he progressed, and how he learned from the driving point of view and the engineering point of view.”

Wickens’ return to the car he’d sampled the day before was a more satisfying conclusion to the first half of the car-swap that the DTM driver is performing this month with Hinchcliffe.

“We had a few teething issues on Tuesday [primarily with Wickens’ seating position], which kind of limited his running,” said Phillips. “So once IndyCar had done their filming with him about the car-swap, we decided to put him back in after Pipo, give him a better run and allow him to give better feedback on the experience.

“And we were actually able to use Robert’s feedback for our own work, primarily a damper program we’re working on. Then at the end of the day, as a reward for being a good boy, we gave him a new set of tires to go for it and see what he had in him.

“Again he was a consummate professional and I expected that. I’d never worked with him personally but when I was working in Europe, a few of the guys I know had highly recommended him. Sure enough, he was a pleasure to have on board today; just bolt him in and off he went.”