It’s All About the Details for Felipe Nasr
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
By Dennis Krause
It’s been a long wait for Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Felipe Nasr.
Nearly two months have gone by since Nasr and teammates Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich drove their No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 to the overall victory in the twice-around-the-clock season-opening race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
For Nasr, the wait for Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring has been almost been too long.
“Yeah, it feels like a lot of downtime, but at the same time, we've been constantly speaking and meeting up with the team and catch ups about what we learned from Daytona, what we learned from the Sebring test a couple of weeks ago, whether it's tires, aero and everything that we go through the past races. This keeps us in the loop, and what to expect to Sebring as well points we got to improve at the same time.
“I'm always keeping myself sharp and preparing for Sebring, is pretty physical for us drivers.
“I wish there was a race in in February,” Nasr continued, “but at the same time, it feels like it went just too quick from December to off season to Daytona. Then it's good to also have some time after Daytona, just to enjoy what just happened, and gather the team, catch up with everybody and prepare for Sebring again.”
It’s understandable why Nasr is so eager to get back to racing. The 33-year-old Brazilian has won 15 times in his 72 races in the series, including the last three Rolex 24’s at Daytona and last year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
While his resume, which includes three IMSA top-class championships, is glittering, what drives Nasr the most isn’t necessarily a certain bucket list item. Rather, it’s just about the day to day fine tuning that takes him and the team to another level.
Brandon Bardaoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“I'm always learning. It's that day to day learnings that you gather with the team, and how to make the car better, how to make our operation better, everything. Honestly, even though we we win races, we win championships. That's what I love about my job is to get in the car and just bring everything forward.
“It's the whole team as as a whole, honestly, and as a driver,” Nasr continued, “I'm just eager to go out there and go win for those guys, I still have the desire every time I get in the car to give my best and to bring the best from the team as well. So for sure, the aim is to is to go there and win Sebring, go for the championship as well.
“Such a good group of guys in the seven car. You know, we have Julien and Laurin, who just step up from the GT class there, are super talented. And it's just cool to have the opportunity of three good drivers in the car and just go out there and try to bring it to the team. So, I think those are my goals.”
When pressed about what, specifically, he’d like to add to his accomplishments, Nasr circled back to his original answer.
“Well, I'm seeking exactly what I said. It's just that desire every time, to just go out there and win those races. I mean, if you put on a bucket list, of course, I want to add more wins to Daytona, Sebring — Le Mans, the one race that I still want to go out there and fight for the overall win, which unfortunately won't happen this year. But who knows what the future holds.
“But I'm just thankful to be in an organization that we keep pushing things forward. And like I said before, I love winning for Roger, for Porsche. I've been there from the beginning, so since day one, when I joined the team and helped the car to be developed. Help the team. This is exactly what I dream about, you know, and we are in that position right now.
“The competition is getting higher. Everybody's bringing their updates, and I still feel coming to Sebring, it’s a completely different environment and track, so it requires different areas of the car. So we'll see.
“It's such a prime time to be involved in sports car racing. I feel everybody, every driver, is having a blast. The racing is great. What we saw at Daytona was, just re-watching the race, you can see the races are just as good as they get. And, like I said, just enjoying every race. I think that's all I can say for now.”
Michael L. Levitt/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
It’s evident that Nasr has embraced the role of team leader. It’s also obvious that his new teammates for this season look up to him and are eager to learn from his experience. In a way, it reminds him of when he was younger.
“Yeah, it's pretty nice to work with Laurin, and I can see a lot of myself when I started racing as well, like that level of just trying to understand things, curiosity and trying to be better as a driver. He listens to everything that I say, or Julien says, or the engineers are saying. So that's how you can really learn as fast as you could. So I can see him. I can see his potential. He's a very talented driver. He deserves to be with us in the works team, because he proved himself as a Porsche junior, and then getting the chance to be a works driver, driving for a factory team. I think that's the ultimate goal for anyone at his age, and I can see myself a lot into it, you know, when I was, let's say, younger now more to the more experienced guys.
“You know, I just tried to bring all my experience and pass them as much as I can,” Nasr explained. “And that's why Daytona was very successful, because it really worked well between us three, the way we share the information, we were very open with with that, which one and just listening, you know, like, what are the critical points of the race? What are the key points, how to keep the car in one piece, minimizing mistakes.
“So it's phenomenal. It's exactly what endurance is all about, because nobody wins alone in these sports. You got to have all three members, or two drivers, working well together. And that's what I love about this sport.
“It's that fine tuning that brings you up to another level.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.