There was a sense of trepidation in the lead up to the Daytona 24 hours. There were issues with teams learning about the Cosworth electronics that are standard in WEC trim and optional in DPi, the Continental tyres were a concern for teams as rain and cold temperatures were forecast, and as one commentator put it, starting the season and the career of the DPi cars with a 24 hour race was like learning to swim by cliff diving.
Michelin was not able to bring its confidential wet tyres, and so at least one GT LM manufacturer was predicting that if the rain was too hard, the cars may have to park up and with the GTD cars running with ABS, and with a straight line advantage over the GT LM cars in practice and qualifying, another shock result was certainly a possibility. However, racing folk are either extremely resourceful, or eternal pessimists. Yes, the Continental tyres were a problem for all the prototype cars in that the drivers struggled to generate heat into the tyres. Watching Christian Fittipaldi driving off the circuit while leading, on his out lap on Sunday morning, was not a surprise ? everyone had the same problem and the drivers, not normally known for their patience, had to learn it.

Tyre wear was high as this was the furthest that anyone had driven these Daytona special tyres (designed to handle the higher loads for the DPi cars on the banking) as set ups were compromised. The sandbagging that went on in the tests leading up to the race meant that the teams d...