Piccini confessed he was taken aback when its new car outpaced all of its GTP class rivals on the opening day of running at Daytona on Wednesday.
It won’t compete in next month’s Daytona 24 Hours but will instead make its IMSA SportsCar Championship debut at Sebring in March.
“I think it’s developing well,” said Piccini. “The first day was very positive, the car ran without major issues.
“Honestly, the pace is there. The time was great.
“We were a little bit surprised as well to be immediately so competitive but there is so much to do to make the car reliable, to be able to run consistently, to use the tyres properly – there’s a lot to do.
“We had a slow start in the morning because we had some stuff to finish – in IMSA things are a little different, at 7pm everything closes here, whereas in Europe we work until late at night!
“We had a lot of work to do and not enough time, so we had to carry it out in the morning. But it’s certainly very encouraging to be leading the first session.”
Source: Autosport