The 32-year-old returns to race alongside brother Ricky at his father’s Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti team in IMSA after a stint with Corvette Racing battling in GTLM and then GTD Pro.
Taylor, who will co-drive the #40 Acura ARX-06 with Louis Deleetraz for the 2024 season in the team's expanded second entry, received his first taste of the hybrid GTP in a test at Sebring International Raceway and told Autosport the experience “was eye-opening”.
“A week before our Sebring test, we were an Indy for three days at the simulator and checking everything,” explained Taylor, who won the title in GTP's forerunner, the non-hybrid DPi category, with his brother in 2017.
“And then getting down to Sebring, the weather wasn't great, so we didn't get a tonne of running, but on day one I think I got two runs in the car, and it was a lot going on.
“I think the steering wheel manual is about 30 pages, and once I started driving the car on the whole first day, I didn't even look at the steering wheel because I was just trying to pay attention to how to drive the car and just drive it on its own without even focusing on the systems and the diff changes, TC changes, all that stuff.
“It was just overwhelming.”
Taylor was taken aback by how advanced the GTP compared to his previous experience racing the previous top category prototype, DPi, from 2017 to 2019 – the last time he drove for his father’s organisation.
“The power is super impressive,” he said.
“I mean, coming from the DPi, I don't know if it's got a tonne more power or less drag or the combination of the two, but the car accelerates like no other car I've driven before and accelerates all the way through seventh gear; just pulls every gear like it's first or second gear in a normal car.
“All the systems are super impressive but understanding that was a lot of it. We only got two runs the first day and then had a night to kind of think on it and go back the second day.
“It felt way more natural, thankfully, on that second day to kind of get back into driving and making some adjustments on the steering wheel and getting a feel for it.
“But yeah, it was nice getting my first taste back into it and we get to test Daytona (in a few days), so hopefully the learning just keeps progressing.”
Up next for Taylor is a private test at the 3.56-mile road course at Daytona International Speedway from 6-9 December, the only IMSA-sanctioned test prior to the Roar Before the 24 in January.
Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 champion, and IndyCar star Colton Herta will join Taylor and Deletraz for the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours.
Taylor has won the blue ribband round twice outright, in 2017 and 2019, and also took GTLM class spoils for Corvette in 2021.
Taylor added that while “driving the car is no issue,” he feels he has to work on understanding “how to then make a change on the steering wheel that's going to benefit you”.
He explained: “Understanding all the system stuff is super complicated and technical, and I've definitely spent probably more time looking at steering wheel notes and in-car specific notes probably in these past two months than I probably have, honestly, in my entire career combined; just to understand how the brake system works, how all the different adjustments works, all the different TC adjustments.
“There's just so much going into it that a lot of it's just controlled by HPD, but a lot of it is also in the driver's hands to adjust.
“I'm just trying to get on the same page as all the others who have been in these cars now for a year.”
