First updates arrive for Lamborghini's SC63, but does the program have a real future?

For the first time since announcing its decision to pause the SC63 LMDh program in 2026, the top executives of Lamborghini gathered with members of the sports car racing press to discuss what the future of the program might look like… if there is a future at all.

This roundtable with Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr, and president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the SC63 received its first major Evo ‘joker’ upgrade for the Battle on the Bricks: A new rear suspension.

First, Mohr explained why the upgraded rear suspension was necessary to help rectify some critical problems that became apparent early in 2024 – the SC63’s first season in IMSA, and its only season in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The previous rear suspension design suffered on all but the smoothest courses, was ill-equipped to take a lot of kerbing in the corners, and this also affected tire degradation and warm-up.

“One (reason) was with the tire degradation: We suffered a lot to warm up the new tires, and also then we had quite strong degradation. And the second thing was the mechanical balance of the car,” Mohr said. “One of the reasons this was clear for us already, since the third race I’d have to say, was that the rear suspension had some weaknesses from the kinematical point of view, and the stiffness itself.

“It was already decided within the last year that sooner or later, we have to adjust it. Last year we didn't do it because we said, ‘Okay, first, let’s collect some further information. Even with the car not running on all the tracks, let’s collect the information and make a proper decision.’

Lamborghini took a conservative approach to implementing Evo ‘jokers’ from the outset of the program, which had a troubled development that wasn’t helped by a costly testing accident at Circuit Paul Ricard in August 2023, just before the car was due to be homologated.

“A lot of people ask me, if you are convinced on the program, why are you not taking Evo jokers? At the end of the day, it was the first time that we did this kind of motorsport. So it was clear the first year, last year, was learning, learning, learning,” Mohr continued.

“We are not arrogant. We know that there are big names in the field that have been doing prototype racing for decades. Our strategy was to collect as much information as possible and then to put on the most weakness, to cluster the main problems or optimization fields, and then make a prioritization. And therefore, we didn’t use any jokers last year.”

The news of this upgrade was particularly eyebrow-raising; Lamborghini had announced the SC63’s hiatus in August, and the SC63’s improved suspension would only be used at Indy, Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and then be shelved for 2026 – or, as many fear, shelved forever.

But the truth is that this upgrade had been something that Lamborghini had planned as far back as January, when Mohr, Winkelmann, and then-new Lamborghini Squadra Corse boss Mauricio Leschiutta first discussed plans of a customer-focused future for the SC63 at Daytona.

“If you ask me if this was before or after the pause decision, it was much before,” Mohr confirmed. “For sure, we want to explore, also, the potential of the car, to learn something from our side. And we decided, independently from the pause that we do now, the suspension upgrade was needed to check our biggest difference.”

From three different options for rear suspension upgrades, one was chosen after extensive simulator and real-world track testing. It then raced for the first time this past weekend in the hands of drivers Romain Grosjean and Edoardo Mortara, plus the Riley Motorsports team which is serving as the operating partner for Lamborghini Squadra Corse in IMSA.

Rear suspension updates have helped one of the SC63's fundamental issues. Michael L. Leavitt/IMSA

“The drivers’ feedback was that one of the major issues was very, very sensitive at the rear axle regarding the bouncing,” Mohr continued. “And if you look at some races, you’ve seen that the car was a little bit unstable, in the sense that the mechanical platform was moving a little bit too much, especially on kerbing. This was also the reason why at flat tracks we were also at last year, we were not so bad. And as the tracks are getting bumpier, as we were forced to cut the kerbs more on these kind of tracks, we were nowhere.

“The tire degradation is part of this: It’s not 100 percent only, but it’s strongly influenced (by the suspension). Because at the end of the day, if the dynamic load changes, you change also the tire wear, and then you generate secondary effects. At the moment, everything seems to be like it was forecasted. How big the step is, let’s see.”

And with one major pain point resolved, Mohr revealed that an aerodynamic upgrade would follow, when – or if – the SC63 returns to racing from 2027 onwards.

“For sure, we have a list of actions (to take) – for instance, also on the aero side. But first, we had to solve the suspension, because the mechanical suspension is influencing the aero, based on the ride height changes. It’s clear that priority one was the suspension,” Mohr continued.

“Now, we hopefully fixed the suspension. Then the next field where we see potential is aero figures. Because we have a more stable mechanical platform, we can also improve the aero side. This would be the second package,” he confirmed. “And then we have also, let me say, some smaller modifications that are also related to weight saving and all those things – but this is then fine tuning.”

This traces back, once again, to the August 2023 testing accident. With a shortage of spare parts available and not a lot of time before the car had to undergo its required Windshear wind tunnel test in the US, the car was reassembled in a rush: overweight (yes, this still matters in a Balance of Performance category), underdeveloped, and unoptimized.

All well and good that the car has a clear plan for future development, but will that ever become a reality?

“If you ask me if we want to come back? It’s a clear yes,” said Winkelmann. “If you ask me if this is going to happen? I don’t know.

“If we find the right partner, this is, in my opinion, the biggest thing. We are constantly looking for somebody who could step in and do it on the racetrack. This would be one of the biggest things we are looking into.”

The need for not just a stable racing operations partnership, but also one that could provide a long-term financial commitment, is a critical one after Lamborghini’s acrimonious separation from its former racing partners at Iron Lynx and PREMA, which overlapped the decision to withdraw from WEC rather than strain to put together a two-car Hypercar program for 2025.

Riley has done its best this year to operate the SC63 as a factory program after being called at the 11th hour, but that was only as a short-term solution.

Winkelmann’s ideal is “a partner which is able to understand this type of racing, which is more complicated than what we had in the past, with the financial power to lead it, and that also has the knowledge in terms of how to deal with the team and to have the right driver solution. It’s a major agreement.” Which, of course, sounds a lot like the partnership Lamborghini once had with Iron Lynx and PREMA.

Lamborghini wants the right partner to keep the SC63 program going. Jake Galstad/IMSA

Mohr gave his thoughts as well: “Our interpretation at the beginning, when we started to jump into this program, was that in the future, it’s a top-end customer racing approach. At the end of the day, this was our philosophy. It would make sense from our side if we can find a partner, then we can activate the program – with the technical support from our side.

“So to come back we would need a team that is seeing this as a kind of investment, to do, let me say, factory-oriented customer racing. A pure factory racing (program) was never our intention,” he stated.

If the SC63 resumes racing after 2026, Mohr said it will likely be back in IMSA. The Huracán GT3 has been successful in the GTD and GTD PRO categories (with the new Temerario GT3 set to debut at next year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring). Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America is a long-serving IMSA support series. And if nothing else, the SC63 does have a loyal following of fans in the US who were happy to see it come and sad to see it go.

“It’s clear that IMSA, for us, it’s super important, because it’s our most important single market. Fantastic race series, a good partner also on the GT3 side. And I have to be honest, if I count only the facts: WEC is much, much more expensive on top,” admitted Mohr. “So if we have not solved the problem for IMSA, we will also not solve it for WEC.

“Not because we don’t like WEC; Le Mans is one of the biggest races that you can have in the world. But unfortunately, it’s also much more expensive.”

But with the Asian Le Mans Series set to introduce a Hypercar class for the 2026/27 season, it opens another door for the SC63 to potentially continue racing in the future. But again, the project would need a partner that could meet all of Lamborghini’s needs and wants.

“Asia would also be interesting,” Mohr admits. “If there would be the right partner, it would be great also for us. But at the moment, we were not able to find the proper partner for Asia.

“It’s not that we didn’t check for 2026, but it’s also in this category, there are not so many teams that could (support us). Also, Squadra Corse is still a quite small team inside Lamborghini. This is also our strength, but also our limit somehow,” he said, reiterating that Lamborghini’s workforce is only a fraction of larger Volkswagen Group subsidiaries such as Audi and Porsche.

Then there are other knock-on effects of putting the SC63 program on pause for a year. If and when it returns, who would drive? Matteo Cairoli left Lamborghini not long after the SC63 dropped out of IMSA. And Romain Grosjean has said that racing for Lamborghini as a GT3 driver next year is less appealing than staying in prototype racing – even with another manufacturer – for 2026, if he cannot secure a return to IndyCar.

Even if Lamborghini had the means to get back on the WEC grid tomorrow, the brand would need to field two cars by regulation. And the impending arrival of Genesis, Ford, and McLaren would make it tough for the championship organisers to create space on the grid for them if all the current manufacturers continue on.

At least in IMSA, Lamborghini has the flexibility to run select races if it so chooses, and customer-focused GTP programs feel more welcome in North America than in the factory-focused WEC Hypercar category. But even then, the reserve lists for IMSA’s marquee endurance races are getting longer and longer, with more teams wanting to race than there are places on the grid – and the incoming manufacturers are at least considering the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in their future plans.

Many within Lamborghini Squadra Corse, not just the higher-ups, clearly believe that there is still potential in the SC63 to race again in 2027, better than it was before. But it is telling that fans and insiders are already treating the SC63’s one-year pause the same way as Mika Häkkinen’s Formula 1 sabbatical or the temporary closure of the oval formerly known as California Speedway: Sometimes, comeback plans don’t work out.

All that remains for the SC63 in 2025 is the 28th running of Petit Le Mans: The last race for the Lamborghini SC63 for a year? Or, the last race for the Lamborghini SC63? We’ll have to wait and see.