Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Press Release
The FIA GT Series
is about to live an exceptional closing to the 2013 season, as teams and
drivers head to make history at the Baku World Challenge.
This will be the
first-ever round of a FIA Championship to take place in Azerbaijan, one of the
booming nations in the Caucasus, and the Azeri hosts are preparing a stellar
event to be remembered. There is great excitement and anxiety among the FIA GT
Series community to discover the urban track in the streets of the “City of
Lights”, on the shore of the Caspian Sea. For the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT,
the event promises to be even more memorable, as this year’s Driver title can’t
escape one of the Team WRT pilots and the squad is only 6 points away from
mathematically securing the Teams’ crown. Needless to say, a street circuit
unknown to everybody, and the presence of many additional participants of top
level that will join for this special event, are key factors to be taken into
consideration. To mark this special occasion, the team is entering and
additional car, entrusted to Filipe Albuquerque and Grégoire Demoustier.
“We are all
delighted and very excited to go to Baku”, reckons
Team WRT Principal Vincent Vosse, “To
end the season with such a great new event is fantastic and can only bring a
lot to the Championship. I have been following the preparations and I am
confident that the organizers, which include a lot of Belgians thanks to
Jean-François Chaumont and his team, will put together a great event. It will
certainly be an atypical weekend, which means some extra pressure but also some
extra pleasure, and we really would like to add such a prestigious race to our
collection of wins. It won’t be easy because the Balance of Performance is what
it is and there will be many additional good contenders. Although they will be
‘transparent’, in that they will not score nor block points, I hope they will
not interfere negatively in the fight for the title. Given the nature of the
track, we can certainly anticipate very tactical races, and an active role of
the Safety-car! The first objective, for us, will be to secure the Teams’ title
and have a nice family fight among our drivers for the Drivers’ crown. I have
absolutely no preference: all our drivers have done a great job, they are all
great guys, and whoever wins will make me happy!”
Sporting Director Pierre Dieudonné seems not
worried about the many unusual variables of this race. “It’s a new track, unknown to everyone”, he
admits, “but that
is true for everybody. There are no data on the circuit, we have just seen the
topography of it but all the rest will have to be discovered on site,
especially the surface. But we do know our car, so I am confident that we will
be able to find quickly the best set-ups. Regarding the fight for the Drivers’
title, we have decided to leave our drivers free to defend their chances and
not have team orders whatsoever. The starting point being that they are all
intelligent and grown-up boys, they will be free to fight, the only boundaries
being not to hurt the team’s interest and to respect each other and the cars. I
think being as clear as possible is always the best way to handle this kind of
situations.”
The championship standings say that Laurens
Vanthoor and Stéphane Ortelli lead with 101 points. The young Belgian driver
seems quite cool at the eve of a weekend that could bring him a first
international GT title. “I have
spent the last few days in Germany with my girlfriend and fine-tuning my
physical preparation with my trainer”, says Laurens, “I also have been devoting some time to my
latest hobby, photography, something that has always fascinated me. I wanted to
take some distance from motorsports and avoid thinking too much about this
decisive race. I’m not worried about urban tracks, I like them and did well at
Macau and Norisring in the past. I’ve seen the Baku circuit on a simulator but
just to check the basics, it is clear that we won’t have any serious
information until we are there. The last race wasn’t too good for us, so we are
in a less comfortable position in the championship but still leading. I think
Stéphane and I have a little advantage in terms of performance, therefore our
strategy will be quite straight-forward: avoid mistakes and stay ahead of our
team mates. At WRT we are used to always work together, sharing all data and
information, it will be interesting to see how we do things in the context of a
family title fight.”
Only five points behind are Edward Sandström and
Frank Stippler, who closed the gap at the last race in Navarra. The German
driver is certainly happy to go to Baku: “I
really look forward to this new experience”, says
Frank “and I think Baku can
become the equivalent of Monaco or Macau in other championship. I simply hope
that the additional contenders that are coming attracted by the event and the
prize money will show respect for those fighting for a title and not do crazy
things. To have a family fight for the title is good news when you are in a
team like WRT: you know your team mates and you know the fight is going to be
fair. Whatever the result, it is going to be very good for the team, after a
successful season of hard work!”
The third in contention, and a ‘lone runner’, is
Niki Mayr-Melnhof, who will have a tougher job, as he has a 26-point
disadvantage, but “you
never know, especially on a street circuit. Sometimes, the outsider is the
lucky one”, as says with a relaxed tone the Austrian driver,
who will be again associated with his usual partner, René Rast.
On the fourth car, Grégoire Demoustier, the young
French who is already an established driver in the GT élite, will make his
debut with Team WRT. He will be partnered by Portuguese star Filipe
Albuquerque, a man well-known in the team and who has been driving with Yves
Weerts one of the Team WRT’s Audis R8 LMS ultra at the International GT Open’s
finale in Barcelona two weeks ago. “I’m
always very happy to race with WRT”, says the Audi
driver, “we know
each other well and I really look forward to this opportunity. A new circuit
means that everybody will be on the same foot, and an urban track means that
the driver will make the difference. The driver’s feeling and confidence really
are the key factors on a track like this. Grip will be an issue because the
surface is new, but it will improve throughout the sessions, and it will be
crucial to evolve along the track, going fast but keeping cool to avoid contact
with the walls. I hope we can be able to fight for a podium position.”
The weekend will
have a compact format, with free practice and qualifying on Saturday and the
two races on Sunday. Given the time difference (Baku is three hours ahead with
respect to Central Europe), races will be quite early for most European fans,
with the Qualifying one starting at 6:15 and the Main one kicking off at 10:00.
FIA GT Series -
Round 6
Baku, Azerbaijan
23-24 November 2013
Timetable (Local time: CET +3)
Saturday 23rd
November 2013
09:00-10:20 Free Practice 1
11:55-13:15 Free Practice 2
16:15-17:15 Qualifying
Sunday 24th
November 2013
08:00-08:20 Warm-Up
09:15-10:15 Qualifying Race
13:00-14:00 Main Race
Belgian Audi Club
Team WRT
#11 Stéphane Ortelli (MC) - Laurens Vanthoor
(BE) (Pro)
#12 Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof (AT) – René Rast
(DE) (Pro)
#13 Edward Sandström (SE) - Frank Stippler
(DE) (Pro)
#17 Filipe Albuquerque (PT) – Grégoire Demoustier
(FR) (Pro)
Drivers’ (Pro)
Championship Standings after Race 10 of 12
1.
Vanthoor-Ortelli 101 points
2.
Sandström-Stippler 96
3. Mayr-Melnhof
75
4. Day
63
Loeb-Parente
Rast
17. Jarvis
12
Teams’ (Pro)
Championship Standings after Race 10 of 12
1. Belgian Audi
Club Team WRT 145 points
2. Loeb Racing
117
3. BMW Team Brazil
94
4. HTP Gravity Charouz
77
Photo credit: W Racing Team
