SUPER GT: Impul Nissan’s Fuji performance “unacceptable”

Baguette made the comments after he and Kazuki Hiramine finished a distant ninth in their Nissan Z GT500, one minute and 20 seconds down on the winning TOM’S Toyota in a 450km race that ran completely free of full-course yellows or safety car periods.

The Belgian driver took the wheel for the opening stint from a lowly 12th on the grid, but failed to make significant progress as he got stuck in a long train of cars headed by the struggling Racing Project Bandoh Toyota of Yuji Kunimoto.

Baguette pitted to hand over to Hiramine on lap 36 of 100, but the Japanese driver likewise failed to make any real headway and was on course for a finish outside of the points until late dramas for three cars in podium contention elevated the Impul car to ninth.

It marked the reigning champion outfit’s worst finish since the final race of the 2021 season, before Nissan switched from the aging GT-R to the more potent Z.

“We have to work hard to analyse what went wrong, because races like this are unacceptable,” Baguette told Motorsport.com. “We are not happy at all to be where we were. We are the defending champions, and we shouldn’t be far so away.

“Usually whichever position I start the race I am able to come back. Race pace was always our strong point, which is how we were able to become champions last year. But today there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t get close to the car in front.

“We were just not fast enough. In fact, we were one of the slowest cars on track. We need to find a solution, and quickly.”

#1 MARELLI IMPUL Z

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Asked about the Impul car’s noticeable lack of straight line performance in comparison to the other Z crews, Baguette replied: “That’s one of the things we have to analyse. But there are plenty of other things that didn’t go well this week.”

Baguette added the strong performance of the Yokohama-shod Kondo Racing squad, which was on course for at least third position until Kohei Hirate dropped out after making contact with GT300 cars, put Impul’s lack of speed into sharp focus.

“I am not surprised because they were fast here last year in Round 4, but we were faster than them and we finished P2,” he said. “They are in the position they should be; it’s our team that is not where we should be.”

Impul will head to next month’s third round of the season at Suzuka with one of the lightest cars on the grid, having only picked up 14kg of success ballast so far.

But Baguette feels the team cannot be confident of repeating its win of last year at the Japanese Grand Prix venue without a serious jump in performance.

“Nothing is lost yet, but it’s time to wake up and find out why we were so slow,” he said. “The most important thing is to be in the fight for the championship for the last two races, but if we continue like this, that will not be the case.”