Black Falcon abandons the “GT3 Pro”, HRT takes over

One of the dominant forces of recent years in GT3, both in GT World Challenge Europe and at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, the Team Black Falcon will reorient its activity.

As announced this Thursday, the German team led by Sean Paul Breslin and notably titled in Endurance Cup in 2018, will not take part in the GT World Challenge Europe, as well as in the NES races (ex-VLN) and the 24 Hours of Nürburgring with its Mercedes-AMG GT3.

L’écurie poursuivra en revanche bien son activité compétition, notamment en 24H Series (avec la Mercedes-AMG GT3 et GT4), la Porsche Carrera Cup Allemagne ou le Ferrari Challenge from 2021 and will focus its commitment around customer support, both in competition and for sports car owners.

“Due to increasing professionalization, financing these programs is a big challenge for a private team financed solely by racing, indicates the stable. Before the coronavirus crisis, this challenge was well supported by sponsorship income, the Customer program and company initiatives.

However, given the sharp deterioration in motorsport due to travel restrictions, the cancellation of major events and the banning of spectators and guests at circuits, most of this revenue will be lost for a long time.

For Black Falcon, the decision to withdraw from factory-supported programs was therefore the inevitable reaction to the economic consequences of the pandemic. »

“The last three months have been by far the most difficult in the team's 15-year history, admits Alexander Böhm, director of Black Falcon. The cancellation of events affects almost all of our business areas and is currently causing losses of more than 90%.

We have therefore decided to withdraw from professional GT3 sport at least until the end of 2021."

HRT takes over

This “GT3 Pro” activity will be taken over by the Haupt Racing Team, Hubert Haupt, regular with the Black Falcon team, having taken over the competition division and thus maintaining the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint and Endurance programs and around the Nürburgring events.

In GT World Challenge Europe, Vincent Abril, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, announced at Black Falcon in the Endurance Cup, will be there, and will receive support from AMG at the 24 Hours of Spa (October 22-25), just like AKKA -ASP, the French team fielding Timur Boguslavskiy, Felipe Fraga and Raffaele Marciello in Endurance.

The Rabastens (Tarn) team plans to enter three cars in Sprint and Endurance.

In terms of the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, the Haupt Racing Team will be able to count on Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger, Luca Stolz, Nico Bastian, Yelmer Buurman, Hubert Haupt, Patrick Assenheimer, Dominik Baumann and Dirk Müller for the three cars which are expected to start the double round of the clock on September 26 and 27.

GetSpeed ​​will also be supported by AMG with Maximilian Buhk, Maximilian Götz, Raffaele Marciello and Fabian Schiller as the top crew.