Stroll hails Jackie Chan team package ahead of Daytona return

Lance Stroll is confident the Jackie Chan DCR Jota team has one of the strongest packages in the Rolex 24 field ahead of his second attempt at winning the Daytona endurance classic this weekend.

Williams Formula 1 driver Stroll made his Daytona 24 hours debut in 2016 with Chip Ganassi Racing, finishing fifth, and will return for this year's running in the Prototype class.

Stroll will share the #37 Jackie Chan DCR Jota Oreca 07 Gibson with Felix Rosenqvist, Robin Frijns and Daniel Juncadella, and was pleased with the first impressions coming from the 'Roar Before the 24' test earlier this month.

"The test was very positive. We didn’t had any problems and we basically ran all the time available during the Roar," Stroll said.

"Performance-wise, I think we are good with a strong balance between all four drivers. It was fun to share the car with my friends and there’s a very good atmosphere inside our team. We need to work still on our drivers changes, but I’m really looking forward to this weekend.

"The team is very professional and friendly, and that made the adaptation to the car easier. It was a pleasure to work with them for the first time but we had good feeling already from before when we got together to the seat fit. The engineers and mechanics are also very good as expected in a top team like this and everything ran smooth."

Stroll joins F1 rival Fernando Alonso in the Rolex 24 field this weekend, and is hopeful of giving his best shot at taking top honours despite an anticipated performance deficit between his LMP2 chassis and the DPi cars.

“I’m here because I love motorsport and I like to race in every car and category that I can," Stroll said. "Two years ago I had a lot of fun in my first experience in Daytona and the vibe in this race is really special.

"Of course this year I expect the same and we are here to give our best and try to win the race. Competition will be strong, but I believe we have one of the best packages out there.

“It was a good experience and for sure the LMP2 is very different compared to the DP car I drove in Daytona two years ago. For sure the car has a different feeling compared to F1 but I was positively impressed by the amount of downforce and grip that this LMP2 has.

"Visibility to the outside is not great, and that’s something I still need to work on as it will be important to deal with the traffic. "