FIA GT – Fratricidal struggle at Belgian Audi Club Team WRT

If the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT failed to retain its Blancpain crowns Endurance Series, the team of Vincent Vosse and René Verbist intends to add its name to the FIA ​​GT Series prize list. And with two rounds to go, all the lights are green. In the Pro Teams ranking, the Belgian team is 36 points ahead of Sébastien Loeb Racing. Among the drivers, it's even better, since the three crews monopolize the top three. With 94 points, the Stéphane Ortelli-Laurens Vanthoor pair are respectively 19 and 31 points ahead of the Edward Sandström-Frank Stippler and René Rast-Niki Mayr-Melnhof duos. However, René Rast being retained in ADAC GT Masters, he will be replaced by the Briton Oliver Jarvis, who defended the interests of the team last year.

Going into this event, Team Principal Vincent Vosse shows obvious confidence. “It is a route which has regularly been included in the competition calendars organized by SRO and we have excelled there in the past, He says. We are in a good position in both championships at the moment. And the goal is for it to last! From then on, we will try to maintain and, if possible, strengthen our advantage before the final which will be held in Baku. As this last meeting will take place on a city circuit and the track will be new for most of the participants, it would obviously be safer to go to Azerbaijan with a sufficient lead. The advantage we currently have does not mean at all that it will be easy in Spain. The level is very high and we will still have to deal with an unfavorable Balance of Performance for the Audi. But I don't always want to sing the same song? We will run the cars in their 2013 configuration in Spain, to show that we are not looking for confrontation. I think we demonstrated our point sufficiently in Slovakia at the last event and there is no need to run in 2012 specification again. »

But will it be easy for the bosses to manage the internal struggle between their three cars, with all the drivers present this weekend (except of course the freelancer Oliver Jarvis) dreaming of a title? ?It?s always interesting to have a family business like this, recognizes Pierre Dieudonné, the sports director. But we clearly decide not to intervene at all, for the good of the sport. We are counting on the professionalism and fair play of our drivers, who are all big boys, and they will be able to play their card on one condition: not to go against the interests of the team. » Leader of the general, Laurens Vanthoor admits however that ?fighting with a car from the same team is very difficult, but as long as we continue to respect each other like we have done so far, it should just be fun! » And the latter is right to be a little worried, because his temporary successor Frank Stippler has every intention of not making his task easy. “We would like to close the gap and we intend to get started this weekend, assures the German. We need to score big points in Spain. »
 
This promises to be a great show…