Built for Sundays: Why Temerario GT3's success was no surprise to Lamborghini
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- 45 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Not long after taking a shocking first win during the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) round in Oschersleben, Lamborghini's new Temerario GT3 went on to take the chequered flag in IMSA's SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix, just a week later. While the new car is yet to demonstrate a strong qualifying pace, what makes it so competitive during race day?
Temerario GT3: An unconventional start of a new flagship
Lamborghini debuted the Temerario GT3 during the 12 Hours of Sebring in March with Pfaff Motorsport. The Temerario finished its first competitive appearance in tenth, scoring its first points.
The car debuted in Europe in the GT World Challenge Europe, with a maiden DTM appearance not long after. In May, the Temerario took its first career podium in Detroit after starting from tenth on the grid and fighting through the chaotic race to finish second.
DTM driver Marco Mapelli continued Temerario's strong momentum by taking second in Lausitzring, earning the car's second podium. In July, Luca Engstler started on the front row at Oschersleben and took second in the first race.
But the breakthrough came the following day. 2024 champion Mirko Bortolotti took the victory after a fast pit stop to leapfrog Thomas Preining for the lead of the race. He kept his composure and held Maro Engel at bay to secure Temerario's first-ever victory by a gap of three seconds.
"Achieving the first global victory for the Lamborghini [Temerario GT3] makes me incredibly proud," Bortolotti said. "And to do so in the series where this car competes at the highest level is something special. We adopted a perfect strategy, but I also managed to make a difference on the track."
Last weekend, the Temerario was competing on both sides of the Atlantic — GTWC Europe at Magny-Cours and IMSA's SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America. The very morning the Pfaff crew was about to start their six-hour trek, the Temerario had taken its first GTWC podium, finishing third.
Starting from eighth at Road America is unideal, but the misfortunes that affect rivals and multiple cautions afterwards allowed Andrea Caldarelli to climb to third by the end of the second hour.
Co-driver Sandy Mitchell kept the car in favourable positions nearing the halfway mark, before the grid shuffled due to different strategies. Caldarelli took over and built a healthy lead approaching the end of the race.
The race finished under caution, earning Temerario's second career victory and its first endurance victory of any format.
Mitchell said: "It has been a huge amount of work to get to this point, and we have done a lot of testing in the background in Italy, so I am so happy for everyone involved in this project, especially the guys and girls at Pfaff Motorsports."
Designed in Sant'Agata: Built for reliability and pace
Unlike the Huracán GT3, which was developed in parallel with the Audi R8 LMS GT3, the Temerario GT3 is the first Lamborghini to be entirely designed, developed and built at their Sant’Agata Bolognese factory. The car is designed with "the end user in mind" according to Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer, Rouven Mohr, during the car's introduction.
The engineers have considered everything, from aerodynamic efficiency to the power curve and to the way the team operates the car. Lamborghini is confident that it will be competitive in terms of lap time, and rewarding to drive in a wide range of conditions.
Before it took on Road America, Pfaff's Temerario received an upgrade: a mid-season switch to Brembo brakes. Having a robust braking system ensured the Temerario could survive one of the most punishing brake-heavy tracks on the calendar.
"This is a brand-new car they developed completely in-house," said Steve Bortolotti, the General Manager of Pfaff Motorsports. "I said from the start, at my first time with the car in June of last year at the first rollout, it was incredible how it ran so much issue-free, and it continues to. The reliability of this car is incredible, and the pace will come with time."
From eighth to victory: How Pfaff managed Sunday's race
The main difference from the previous editions of Road America is that last weekend's race ran to six hours, over its usual 160-minute format. This meant the SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix is counted to the tally of the Endurance Cup.
In traditional sprint rounds, only two drivers shared the driving duties. But last weekend's race saw all GTD Pro teams choose a two-driver lineup. Teams need to manage drivers' fatigue, tyre and fuel economy for this marathon.
Road America has always presented chaotic racing in recent years, with every car squeezing for the best racing line in this narrow circuit. The start of this year's race was marred by incidents in GTD and LMP2. Nonetheless, it has consistently rewarded the teams that played the long game, which can only be achieved with smart strategies.
The Temerario itself was by no means the fastest outright GTD Pro car in the early phase of the race. Mirroring what happened in Oschersleben, the car will come alive when the team aces its stops, combined with other factors beyond their control — FCY, for example.
The team's success in Wisconsin ultimately came through various factors that played well to their situation. "The Lamborghini Temerario GT3 was competitive throughout the race, and the team executed a perfect strategy with flawless pit stops," said Caldarelli. "Sandy also did an amazing job, and together we were able to maximise our package."
"The team nailed the race today," Mitchell added. "They got every call right, we got a bit of luck here and there, but we also had the pace at the end to finish it off, so it was a picture-perfect race for us."
What's next for the Temerario GT3?
In sports car racing, GT3 cars were roughly on the same level playing field due to the Balance of Performance (BoP). However, reliability, a wide operational setup window and a rapid feedback loop from the teams to the factory are what win races — aspects that cannot be balanced for competition.
In an exclusive written statement to DIVEBOMB, Andrea Reggiani, Lamborghini Head of Motorsport, explained that the Temerario's immediate success is not a sudden shock inside Sant'Agata, but a direct validation of their initial development work:
"From the first indoor and outdoor track tests, the car proved to be very reliable and responsive to setup changes.
"The feedback from our test drivers, Marco Mapelli and Andrea Caldarelli, confirmed what we were already seeing in the data. This allowed us to improve the car race after race and achieve better performance across the different championships.
"The results did not surprise us, but they confirmed the quality of the work we have been doing together with our customer teams in different championships, including Pfaff Motorsport, Grasser Racing, VSR Racing, Rutronik Racing and ABT. We have a continuous exchange of data with these teams and with the factory, which helps us keep developing the car."
That continuous exchange of data, combined with a reliable chassis, is precisely why teams were able to execute their Sunday game plan without losing track time due to mechanical issues.
The Lamborghini Temerario GT3 may not have taken the global GT3 grid by storm through single-lap qualifying fireworks. Instead, it has done so by giving its teams the ultimate operational tool: a car built to execute when it matters most on race day. One race at a time, the car is proven to be a worthy successor to the decorated Huracán GT3.
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