Robert Wickens is ramping up preparations for his part campaign in the GTD class of the IMSA SpoꦗrtsCar Championship this year.

Wickens will share🥀 DXDT’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R with factory driver Tommy Milner in the five sprints round on IMSA’s 2025 cale𝓀ndar, starting with the Grand Prix of Long Beach on 12 April.

Tꦯhe Canadian got behind the wheel of Corvette’s GT3 contender for the first time this week during a two-day test at Sebrin🌸g, an outing that made him feel “like a kid of Christmas”.

The car has been equipped with Bosch’s state-of-the-art hand-control braking system for Wickens, who was paralysed from the waist down in a violent IndyCar crash at Pocono in 2018.

Wickens already raced with the new versi🤡on of the system on his Hyundai TCR car in the final two rounds of the 2024 IMSA Michelin ♋Pilot Challenge, but it has been modified further for the Corvette.

Changes were made to incorporate traction control and the brake-🐼by-wire system, and Wickens immediately felt that he felt more comfortable in the car d❀uring braking.

“The biggest takeaway I have so far is that it feels like the Bosch EBS [electronic braking system] and t꧋he hand💎-control system developed by Pratt Miller belongs in his car,” he said.

"There hasn’t been a single hiccup. It’s like when they designed the Corvette Z06 GT3.R it was always in the plan. It looks like it belonᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚgs in the car. It feels like it belongs in th❀e car.

“Immediately I felt way more comfortable withᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ the braking feeling and braking sensation than I had in my past racing in TCR with the Bosch EBS.”

Wickens also completed a short run in Formula E’s Gen3 car at Portland last year in what was his first appearanc𝄹e in a single-seater since his In♏dyCar career was cut short by the Pocono accident.

However, in contrast to the Formuℱla E machine, the EBS worked so well on the Corvette that Wickens felt like the car was specially designed with hand controlsဣ in mind.

“Quite a bit different. The Formula E car was pretty much a temporary hand-control solution where we repurposed the ꦉre-gen paddles at the bottom of the steering wheel so one side was for throttle and one side was for braking,” he explained. “It worked but i🦄t wasn’t effective.

"Here, everyone put their heads to✨gether and we have a very well-integrated hand-control system where the paddles and everything.

“The sensat𒅌ion and feeling that I have, whenever I embarked on this journey to race with hand controls, I was always en𒅌visioning that hydraulic sensation with my hands when I’m applying the brake. Everyone involved made it happen.”

Before the Sebring test, Wickens developed 💫an understanding of a hand-operated Corvette GT3 car in a simulator at his home.

“After driving this Corvette Z06, I feel like th🌞e next step for me is actually to start doing more throttle application with my༺ right hand just to build that muscle memory,” he said.

“Because for people that don't know, I pretty much do like 98 per cent of my throttle application with my left hand. So that way I can freely upshift with🐽 my right hand and then brake with my right hand and downshift with the left hand.

“So with th🃏is car, like with Turn 🎃7 at Sebring, there's a few corners here where I feel like I need to start practicing using throttle with both hands a little bit more.”

The IMSA SportsCar Championship marks the next stage in the career of Wickens, who wಌas crowned the TCR class champion in the 2023 Michelin Pilot Challenge.🌺 He stayed in the same series last year.

But apa⛄rt from switching championships, Wickens is also having to learn the new Corvette Z06, which is more powerful and sophisticated than the Hyundai Elantra N TCR he raced with Bryan Herta Autosport teammate Harry Gottsacker in 20🌳23-'24'.

“I'm also still trying to learn what the car likes and how the car likes to be driven,” he explained. “When I did this in the TCR car, I had driven the TCR car for two years so I knew how to drive it and how to get the lap time out so it wa🍌s just solely trying to get the brake feel to what I wanted.

“Now it's kind of a much more foggy experience because I feel like I'm learn🧔ing both at the same time. We only have basically a day-and-a-half and we're on to the launch.”

Wickens’ teamm👍ate Milner shook down the hand-operat🎃ed Corvette for the first time last month to ensure everything was working according to plan.

During the season, Milner himself will be using the usual pedal controls on his car, but he provided a detailed explanation of 💧the hand con🌜trol system designed for Wickens.

“In Robbie’s case, he has to do all of his driving with his hands, with him being paralysed from the chestꦯ down. So he has no use of his feet,” the American explained.

“So this s🔴ystem is basically set up so that he can do all that with the steering wheel itself. There's a brake ring and there are throttle paddles that take the place of what I would normally use in the pedal box.

“Those are some of the common questions that I've heard about this system when I've told people who know a little bit about racing but not this s💙ituation.

“The system is quite impressive with how it functions and how it works. With just one push of a button, the system switch✅es from the able-bodied driver controls to the hand controls, which obviously is important for sports car r𒊎acing where we have driver changes.

“But fundamentally, evꦑerything happens on the wheel. And it's a system that took me initially a little while to sort of understand in my own brain, how it is supposed to work, how to find lap time out of it and things like that.

“But ꧋the system is set up quite welไl to where by the end of the second day of testing that I had in the car to prove the system a bit, I was able to find quite a bit of lap time and get closer to what I was capable of with the normal able-bodied setup.

“So for someon🦂e like Robbie, who has as much racing experience as he does, as good as he was and still is, you can tell just from talking to him how focuse𓂃d he is on doing what he's always done, which is drive race cars very fast.

“The system is designed to allow that to happen for him. His drive and determination are pretty incredible. It's pretty inspiring to see that and I’m excited to go racing with him at Long Beach.”