Audi on the third row at the Kyalami 9 Hour
Torrential rain prevented the Audi drivers from improving their positions during the rain-interrupted qualifying sessions for the Kyalami 9 Hour, the third and final round of the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge. Due to the weather causing the cancellation of the qualifying and superpole sessions, the grid positions for the race are set according to the results from the pre-qualifying session. This sees the best-placed Audi R8 LMS on the grid as the number 25 entry from Audi Sport Team Saintéloc in fifth place – driven by local hero Kelvin van der Linde, together with Patric Niederhauser and Markus Winkelhock. They line-up ahead of Mattia Drudi, Christopher Haase and Charles Weerts in the number 32 Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team WRT. Customer teams Saintéloc Racing and High Class Racing complete the fourth row on the grid, while local team MJR Motorsport will line up tenth and eleventh respectively with its GT3 and GT4 versions of the Audi R8 LMS. The 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge titles are up for grabs in South Africa on Saturday. Audi leads the manufacturers’ standings by 36 points, while the drivers’ title race sees three Audi drivers trailing the leaders by two points – with the pairing of Niederhauser/Winkelhock or Christopher Haase all in the running to win the title. Audi has so far won five Intercontinental GT Challenge titles since 2016, three times as the triumphed manufacturer and twice as the best in the drivers’ standings.
Ready for the title decision
Nine weeks after the originally scheduled date, the finale of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in South Africa will take place on February 5. The latest Corona virus variant had forced a postponement of the Kyalami 9 Hour at short notice in December. Audi will face the title decision in the only worldwide GT3 racing series with two powerful teams and six Audi Sport drivers: Audi Sport Team Saintéloc will field the number 25 R8 LMS for Patric Niederhauser, Kelvin van der Linde and Markus Winkelhock. Audi Sport Team WRT relies on the driver trio Christopher Haase/Dries Vanthoor/Charles Weerts with number 32. Audi Sport leads the manufacturers standings with a 36-point advantage after the victory at Indianapolis. A maximum of 43 points can be collected by a manufacturer at the last race. In the drivers standings, Winkelhock, Niederhauser and Haase in second place are only two points behind the leaders of the standings. The High Class Racing, Saintéloc Racing and MJR teams will also be fielding privateer driver lineups in the finale.
Audi on grid rows one and three at Indianapolis
Audi Sport has achieved a good starting position for the second of three rounds of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The leader of the manufacturers standings will tackle the Indianapolis 8 Hours from the front and third rows of the grid. Patric Niederhauser in the Audi R8 LMS #25 of Audi Sport Team Saintéloc was the fastest Audi Sport driver in second place. The Swiss was a mere 58 thousandths of a second behind the Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi – Audi’s main rival in the title fight. Audi Sport Team WRT starts from the third row with its brace of cars: Belgian Dries Vanthoor was fifth in shootout qualifying in the #32 car, his Italian Audi Sport driver colleague Mattia Drudi in the #37 followed in sixth place with a gap of 28 thousandths. The privateer team of Saintéloc Racing, which had qualified for the shoot-out of the top 15 teams, also managed a good performance. Aurélien Panis finished twelfth in the battle for grid position and was thus the third-best competitor in the group of Silver Cup drivers.
Audi runner-up after 24 race hours
In the final phase of the Spa 24 Hours, a tough battle for victory took place in difficult conditions. In rain and poor visibility, two teams from Audi Sport customer racing held the lead for a long time. The lead changed several times between the two Audi R8 LMS entries. Due to several safety car phases, the field repeatedly moved closer together. Eight racing cars from four manufacturers were within one lap of each other with 40 minutes remaining in the race. After 527 laps, Audi Sport Team Attempto, with Mattia Drudi, Patric Niederhauser and Frédéric Vervisch in the #66 Audi R8 LMS, crossed the finish line in second place, 4.687 seconds behind the leader. Audi Sport Team Saintéloc finished the Belgian endurance classic in sixth place with drivers Dorian Boccolacci, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock in the #25 Audi R8 LMS . Audi Sport Team WRT took 14th place with Ferdinand Habsburg, Dennis Marschall and Matthieu Vaxivière in the #30 Audi R8 LMS. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT with Rik Breukers, Benjamin Goethe and Stuart Hall dropped out after 21 hours when Benjamin Goethe had slipped into the tire barriers. Until then, the #33 Audi R8 LMS had occupied fourth place in the Silver Cup.
A word from ... Dieter Gass
The Head of DTM at Audi Sport about the new rules in DTM. Mr. Gass, behind the scenes a lot of time was spent on fine-tuning the new format for the DTM race weekends. Now the key parameters have been established. As Head of DTM at Audi Sport, are you happy with the result? We manufacturers extensively discussed the new format with the ITR as the marketer of the series and the German Motorsport Association (DMSB) for a long time. There were numerous constructive ideas and proposals. I think we came up with a good approach. The DTM fans can look forward to a thrilling season and to DTM weekends with high entertainment value. One thing happens right after the other and our teams still have a lot of work to do especially after the first race on Saturday. You have to explain this to us... We are driving two races per weekend this year – one on Saturday and one on Sunday. After the first race, there is not much time to prepare the cars for the next day – especially if there are any accidents during the race. This will be a great logistical challenge. We’ll have to make even better use of every minute. The first race on the DTM weekends lasts 40 minutes without a pit stop and the second one for 60 minutes with a pit stop. What does that mean? For one, the tires have to last for 40 minutes in the first race – that’s basically not a problem but may well pose a minor challenge on some of the race tracks. In addition, qualifying and the grid position are particularly important in the first race because without a pit stop the drivers can only overtake on track. That’s why they can activate the DRS, in other words the adjustable wing flap, three times per lap this year. This is intended to result in as many overtaking maneuvers as possible – of course during the second race on Sunday as well. The qualifying format has been changed too: Q1, Q2, Q3 or even Q4 are DTM history... The motto is: ‘Keep it simple.’
A word from ... Timo Scheider
The Audi factory driver about new sporting challenges, the modified DTM format, his own race team – and personal news. The new DTM season will start in two months from now. How have you been using the winter break? I’m a person that constantly needs new challenges. That’s why I’ve set myself a particularly ambitious goal for the time until the DTM season starts. From March 15 to 22, I’ll be competing with the factory-backed team of the bike manufacturer Bulls in the Cape Epic in South Africa, which – as many say – is the world’s toughest mountain bike race. I’m facing 740 grueling kilometers and 16,000 meters of cumulative elevation gain that I’ve got to complete in eight days. I’m incredibly excited but also a little nervous. And as I’d obviously like to finish the race my training program is particularly focused on endurance at the moment. And losing a bit of weight would be good too. That’s why my diet these days is low-carb, with no sweets – that’s pretty difficult. And how hard will it be for you to adjust to the new DTM format? In the future, there’ll be two races per weekend. I see that in a very positive light. After all, I was one of the people who strongly supported this change. I’m a racer and would like to drive as much as possible. In addition, we can offer even more action to the DTM fans this way and have the chance to score points twice on a single weekend. From the perspective of the whole season, these 18 races will make it easier for us to compensate for a retirement by achieving a good result. This will make the championship even more thrilling. The newly formed Audi Sport TT Cup is adding further value to the season. You’re also personally committed to promoting young drivers and will be entering the new ADAC Formula 4, the successor series of the ADAC Formel Masters, with your own team in 2015. What’s the current state of this project?
Thorough WEC season preparation at Sebring
Audi has continued its pre-season preparations for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with a test on the track at Sebring, USA, during the first week of March. All nine LMP race drivers reeled off a total of more than 6,000 kilometers in a test version of the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro on five test days. On the unrelenting circuit in Florida, which due to its characteristics is regarded as an extremely tough test track, the main focus was placed on durability. In optimal weather conditions at Sebring, the squad of Audi Sport achieved the goals it had set for itself. “All the drivers were enthusiastic about the car,” said Chris Reinke, Head of LMP in summing up the tests. “Our Le Mans prototype for this year is an evolution. In spite of this, the drivers agreed that they felt improvements in so many areas that you could almost call this a new car. The new aerodynamics, for example, in combination with the excellent work of our tire partner Michelin, makes enhanced performance possible.” All manufacturers will meet for the first time at an official joint WEC test, the prologue, at Le Castellet (France), on March 28.
A word from ... Romolo Liebchen
The Head of Audi Sport customer racing about the new Audi R8 LMS. The Audi R8 LMS saw its world debut at the same time as the production model in early March. This weekend it was driven in public for the first time, at the Nürburgring. Are you proud of the latest racing model of quattro GmbH? Needless to say we were particularly pleased to see a new production sports car and the corresponding race car being simultaneously unveiled at Audi, and at as important an exhibition as the Geneva Motor Show at that. There were also many inquisitive looks and keen interest when we were on track with the new R8 LMS in the VLN Test and Set-up Session on the Nürburgring. The public attention is a nice reward for what has been achieved so far. But there is something else that your squad is currently focused on – a huge workload. Since the development began in 2013 we have already done a lot of valuable work, reeling off tens of thousands of test kilometers and many test bench runs. The first public run on the Nordschleife this weekend was important for our further preparation. We had previously been on the Nürburgring only once and the weather was bad at that time. We’ve now obtained further important findings for optimizing our a set-up. This should provide a good basis for the VLN Endurance Races on March 28 and April 25. With that, we should be among the first manufacturers to test their new models for 2016 in racing conditions. What other tasks are on your agenda? We’re aiming to have developed a fully matured car by the time of the Nürburgring 24 Hours on May 16 and 17 that fits the requirements of the Nordschleife well and will be competitive as soon as possible. In the intervening period there’s still an endurance test on our agenda as well. We’re going to contest further races during the course of the season. The resulting findings will – to the extent this may be