The Haupt Racing Team celebrated its first overall victory in the ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring with Salman Owega and Finn Wiebelhaus in the Ford Mustang GT3. Their teammates Max Reis and David Schumacher completed the one-two finish with second place. The front row was also occupied by HRT's Ford Mustang GT3s in both qualifying sessions of the weekend. HRT CEO Ulrich Fritz sums up HRT's best team result of the season so far and looks ahead to the coming weeks.
Mr Fritz, congratulations on your first victory with the Ford Mustang GT3. How would you rate this debut success for HRT? "First of all, we are all very happy that we were finally able to secure our first victory with the Ford Mustang GT3. And then there was the double victory with Max and David in second place. It's just incredible. But the result was somewhat on the cards. We've seen a real upward trend with the Mustang in recent weeks. First came the class victory and a very good fourth place overall at the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring. In the DTM, Arjun Maini achieved his best result of the season so far at the Norisring. Now we have our first victory in the ADAC GT Masters, which is also the Ford Mustang GT3's maiden victory in Europe. A well-deserved success for the entire team and for Ford Performance."
This is the first year with the Ford Mustang GT3. How is the the development progressing? "Everyone is working hard to get every tenth of a second out of the car. We understand the car a little better every day. Every race car has its own dynamics. Compared to previous years, we first have to work through the data for every race and every test—a task in which Ford Performance provides us with excellent support. Everyone in the team is highly motivated to push us further forward. The success in the ADAC GT Masters will certainly give us another boost to hopefully secure more victories."
On Saturday morning, there was a last-minute change to the driver lineup, with Niklas Kalus being replaced by David Schumacher. How did this happen? "Niklas Kalus, who is the regular driver in the #3 car, was injured during the track walk on Friday evening and was unfortunately unable to continue the race weekend. This is obviously very unfortunate. Thankfully, David stepped in at short notice to support the team and his fellow driver Max Reis. He made the long journey and arrived at the Nürburgring at a short-term moment before the start of the first race. David had to get into the car cold, so to speak. After a few laps, he found his pace, and the result this weekend shows that he is an experienced and fast driver in the Ford Mustang GT3. We also wish Niklas a speedy recovery so that he can return to the cockpit soon."
What does the program look like for the next few weeks? Will you be able to relax a little during the summer break? "No, the summer break will be very short. We have a lot of races coming up in the next few weeks, including the DTM, where we will be back at the Nürburgring. We want to build on the momentum, of course. Everyone in the team has now seen that the Ford Mustang GT3 is capable of winning. The entire team and the drivers will do everything they can to achieve good results."
