Philip Ellis alluded to a possible disadvantage for IMSA’s Mercedes-AMG customer teams on Stuttgart’s lack of experience with torque sensors.
The Winward Racing driver previewed the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship campaign ahead of the season-opener, the 24 Hours of Daytona on 25-26 January.
“Well I think there’s a lot of new challenges as well with the torque sensors coming so it’s a new ball game,” he replied to Motorsport Week amidst other members of the media.
“We had the same or something similar [in 2024] with new tyres.
“So everybody kind-of started on zero and we had a really good start with the tyres in Daytona already, came off with a win and I think that carried us on to the next couple of wins very early in the season – which gave us a good cushion where other teams had to catch up a little bit more.
“And we’re hoping to do the same again with the torque sensors now, but I think we have a bit of a disadvantage maybe with Mercedes.
“We’re not in WEC where they already have the system running as do other manufacturers.
“So it’s a new learning game for us, some catch-up to do I think and it will be very tough, but I think everybody in the team knows that we have a good team, a good group of people and a good engineering team as well that will help us get there.”
Torque sensors implemented for IMSA 2025
In the 2025 IMSA season, GT cars across 11 manufacturers are fitted with MagCanica UHA (Ultra High Accuracy) driveshaft torque sensors so that IMSA can further regulate each powertrain’s performance.
Mercedes-AMG revealed to Sportscar365 about the resolution of data communication issues on their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos after the first day of the Roar Before the 24.
The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) implemented the systems on the new LMGT3 class for last year, which saw teams adapt and grasp with them during the opening half of the season ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
United Autosports McLaren driver James Cottingham told Motorsport Week in an exclusive interview about their struggles with adapting to the new implementations which hindered progress during the early rounds, as Manthey begun their dominant campaign as clear favourites for the title – much like Winward Racing in last year’s IMSA season.
Winward’s efforts to defend their championship plus wins at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring may come at more difficulty as all nine other GT manufacturers had experience in the WEC’s LMGT3 class last year.
Moreover, Mercedes-AMG are the newest manufacturer joining the WEC and the LMGT3 category for this year even though they missed out on the inaugural season for the successor to the GTE-Am category.
Nevertheless, Winward Racing will attempt to pursue a consecutive victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona this year against 21 other GTD class competitors.
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