Wickens explains ‘chicken or egg’ hurdles to securing IMSA seat

Robert Wickens has explained the “chicken-or-the-egg” hurdles he has faced before securing a drive in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for 2025 that marks the next phase of his racing return.

The 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 champion suffered a serious spinal cord injury in an IndyCar crash at Pocono in 2018, which has left him paralysed below the waist, but has continued to race using hand controls and won IMSA’s Pilot Challenge TCR title last season.

It was announced on Monday that in 2025 the Canadian will make his first outing in the top category of North American sportscar racing since the 2017 Daytona 24 Hours, when he was entered in the LMPC category.

He will race a GTD class Corvette Z06 GT3.R entered by DXDT Racing in the five sprint distance rounds, beginning at Long Beach, as the squad switches to IMSA after finishing second with Tommy Milner and Alec Udell in a partial GT World Challenge America campaign.

DXDT will link up with Wickens to run a full brake-by-wire electronic braking system, developed between General Motors, Pratt Miller and Bosch, with a second driver to partner Wickens yet to be announced.

The 35-year-old revealed that “it was always a difficult communication trying to convince the OEMs or the team owners” to put him in an IMSA seat and to facilitate the design of a bespoke braking system.

When asked whether the biggest barrier to entry had been the availability of technology or budgetary concerns from teams, Wickens explained: “I think it’s kind of chicken-or-the-egg, because you can’t have one without the other for most things.

“There were a lot of people I spoke to prior to my partnership with Bosch. The technology was always available, brake-by-wire is not that modern anymore.

“Knowing that the technology existed, just how it can be implemented and everything else, that was always a daunting task.

“All racing teams are so efficient in their operation but, in doing so, there’s not a surplus of staff that you can just take off an existing project and put onto mine of developing a brake system that doesn’t exist.

“That’s where Bosch really came to my rescue when they partnered with me. That whole element was eliminated.”

Wickens said his greatest desire “was to be evaluated as an ordinary driver for various race seats, and if I’m quick enough to get the job then hopefully I get the job” but found such opportunities for evaluation hard to come by.

“It was always going to be difficult, because I might have a conversation, let’s say, with you and you’re interested in running me in a test,” he said.

“Then it’s like, ‘Well then how do we get him into the car?’ and it’s months and months of planning and development and everything to even get that first opportunity.

“The Bosch system frankly fast-tracks that because the majority of the problem is solved and then it’s just how does it fit into that physical race car that we’re going to be driving together.

“So I would say the biggest limitation if I had to say one thing was always budget. I think everything in motorsport is a budgetary restriction but thankfully I have some great support behind me with DXDT, with General Motors, with Bosch and then everyone else.”

Wickens has already raced with a version of the EBS he will use in the Corvette, but said adaptions are ongoing to get it configured with the car.

“It’s really cool to see the development because it’s kind of starting from near nothing,” he said.

“I’ve been to [Corvette manufacturer] Pratt Miller already. I saw the 3D-printed, rapid-production concept of the steering wheel, the hand controls and kind of fine-tuning stuff.

“It’s tailor-made, really, at the end. It’s a unique situation.

“Not many drivers can tailor-make their throttle and brake and everything to how they want unless you’re driving in Formula 1 or something.”

#33: Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian, Hyundai Elantra N TCR, TCR: Robert Wickens, Harry Gottsacker

Photo by: Jake Galstad

Wickens said heading down the full brake-by-wire path and moving away from the hydraulic element used in TCR would smooth his path to enter other categories and namechecked the top GTP class in IMSA.

But, while Wickens suggested he would be interested in exploring opportunities to fight for outright victories in IMSA’s biggest events, he stressed he would be pleased to become a regular in the GT ranks and plans to increase his part-time schedule to a full-time programme in 2026.

“I’ll never say never, right?” he replied.

“For me and in my time in my life, if I had a 10-year career with General Motors in GTD, I think I’ll retire a happy man.”

Wickens believes he has “still got some work to do” to be performing on a par with 2018 as he continues to adapt to using hand controls, but anticipates that going back to rear-wheel drive in the Corvette, after spending recent seasons with front-wheel drive in TCR, will “suit my driving style a bit more”.

“By the time we get to Long Beach, the dream is that really I’m at no pace deficit to anybody and we can go out and try to get poles, wins, fastest laps and all the above,” he added.