ADAC GT Masters: Seven Swiss in the field
Highly competitive The 2018 ADAC GT Masters, which starts this weekend, boasts a superb field of participants. Seven Swiss drivers want to make their mark in the field. Rolf Ineichen and Jeffrey Schmidt have the best chances. For Rahel Frey, it is already the fifth season. No fewer than 36 GT3 sports cars from 23 teams with eight different brands have been entered for the [...]
No fewer than 36 GT3 sports cars from 23 teams with eight different brands have been entered for the 2018 ADAC GT Masters. It is therefore difficult to identify a favorite, even after the official tests, which have not yet included an up-to-date Balance of Performance (BoP). But we can assess the chances of the Swiss.
Rolf Ineichen has the best. As he did most recently as the winner of the 2017 final round at Hockenheim and in January at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the fast gentleman driver at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracan showed what he is made of.
Grasser Racing has also already won the opening round of the 2018 Blancpain GT Sprint Cup with its regular partner Christian Engelhart. So if the Lambo is classified normally, this duo will be right up there at the front.
New team for Jeffrey Schmidt
In Daytona, Jeffrey Schmidt drove for Land Motorsport, as he had done the previous year. Due to unforeseeable internal team changes, the driver from Basel had to find a new team at short notice, although Wolfgang Land would have liked to keep him.
Schmidt found what he was looking for at Mücke Motorsport, where he will continue to drive an Audi R8 LMS in the now typical pink of the main sponsor BWT. In DTM driver Jamie Green, he will have a top-class partner at Oschersleben, who will step in whenever Stefan Mücke is in action as a Ford GT works driver (currently in Long Beach).
As last year's second-best rookie with four podium finishes, Schmidt has his sights set high.
Jeffrey Schmidt: "I'm happy to be with another good Audi team after what happened at Land, where I would have liked to drive again. The goal is top-5 finishes and the first victory - but of course a lot depends on the Audi's BoP. We'll see this for the first time this weekend."
This affects four other Swiss drivers in Audi teams. Rahel Frey will tackle her fifth season together with Philip Geipel at Yaco Racing. After one victory each in 2015 and 2016, they clearly underperformed last year.
The same applies to Ricardo Feller. At 17 years old (18 on June 1), the man from Aargau is still the youngest in the field. At Mücke (which AutoSprint online already revealed on February 8), he can now show what potential he has. With Christopher Haase, who drove with Schmidt at Land in 2017, the talented youngster will have one of the most successful GT3 drivers ever (champion in 2007) at his side. So anything is possible for the duo.
Nikolaj Rogivue, who is moving to Aust Motorsport after two years at Zakspeed (two third-place finishes in 2016 on Mercedes), has also not yet been able to really develop. The Swedish-born driver from Zurich also has a top partner in Belgian Frédéric Vervisch.
Driving the second Aust-Audi is Remo Lips, who actually wanted to retire after his 100th ADAC GT race at the 2017 finale in Hockenheim...
Honda NSX as still unknown quantity for Giorgio Maggi
Two of the newcomers in the field are Philip Ellis and Giorgio Maggi. Ellis, who grew up and lives in Switzerland and won the last Audi Sport TT Cup in 2017, has found a top team in Phoenix Racing - it's just a shame that he continues to compete with a British license.
Maggi drives a Honda at the previous BMW Team Schubert. In the U.S., the new NSX GT3s have been very fast so far, which the Germans still have to prove at the European premiere and the other races. For the 20-year-old from Nidwalden and his German partner Christopher Dreyspring, good points finishes would probably be the highest of the feelings.
All races live on Sport1
All 14 one-hour races of the seven events at Oschersleben (April 14/15), Most/CZ (April 28/29), Spielberg/A (June 9/10), Nürburgring (August 4/5), Zandvoort/NL (August 18/19), Sachsenring (Sept. 8/9) and Hockenheim (Sept. 22/23) will be broadcast live by free TV station Sport1.
The broadcast times from Oschersleben: Saturday from 12:45 to 14:30 (countdown, race 1 and analysis) and on Sunday from 13 to 14:25. You can also follow the races in the livestream on the Sport1 homepage and the ADAC Youtube channel.
