Joy and sorrow at WINWARD Racing
A class win and a later retirement for the two WWR cars at the opening round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS in southern France.
The WINWARD Racing team left Le Castellet on Sunday evening with slightly mixed feelings. In the first race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup powered by AWS at Circuit Paul Ricard, Lucas Auer (29, Kufstein/Austria), Maro Engel (38, Monaco) and Daniel Morad (33, Markham/Canada) had long fought for the top-10 positions. But a few minutes before the end of the three-hour race, Morad parked the number 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3, entered by Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER, in the pits because of a broken front splitter.
The Thai-Dutch trio of Tanart Sathienthirakul (31, Bangkok), Daan Arrow (20, Amsterdam) and Colin Caresani (20, Aerdenhout), on the other hand, had reason to celebrate. They brought the number 57 sister car home 19th overall in the impressive field of 54 GT3 cars from nine different brands, securing the opening class win in the Silver Cup.
Qualifying on the 5.8-kilometre Grand Prix circuit near Marseille on the Côte d’Azur had not gone entirely to plan for the German-Texan team. On the average of their best times, Auer, Engel and Morad put their “MANN-FILTER Mamba” 14th on the grid. Their team-mates qualified as the second-best Silver Cup car on the 13th row.
The first third of the race was a little sticky for both WWR cars. In the scramble, both Auer and Sathienthirakul initially lost a few positions, but then found their rhythm and made up ground again. After about an hour, Auer handed the yellow-green car over to Engel in 18th place. Engel then pushed hard and drove the “Mamba” up to ninth in his middle stint of just over an hour. However, the charge did not come without damage. In contact with a rival, the front splitter of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was cracked, which increasingly hurt performance. In the final stint, Morad fought with ever blunter weapons and defended with all his might, but first lost three positions and then had to park the roughly 550 hp customer racing car from Affalterbach about five minutes before the end.
Meanwhile, the WWR juniors delivered a flawless race. Around half-distance Arrow took the class lead for the first time, and he and compatriot Caresani steadily extended it to the finish. The win in the strongly contested Silver Cup with ten GT3 cars sparked great celebrations in the WINWARD pit.
“Big compliments to Tanart, Daan and Colin. The boys did a great job,” said WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel. “I’m sorry for Luggi, Maro and Daniel. After a mixed qualifying they were quick in the race and would have deserved a top-10 finish. But that’s how it is in this hard-fought field: where wood is chopped, chips will fly. We certainly have one or two things to analyse and optimise to get the maximum out of our package. But on the whole I’m happy with the team’s performance.”
The second round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup is also the absolute highlight of the season: on 29/30 June, the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps will see the field race twice round the clock on the 7.004-kilometre rollercoaster track in the Belgian Ardennes. Before that, Auer and Engel contest the two Sprint Cup events at Brands Hatch, England (4/5 May) and Misano, Italy (18/19 May).