Hans-Peter Naundorf: “Taking the next step”

Si Porsche had regained victory in the Blancpain GT Series last April, the German brand owed this return to the top step of the podium to Dinamic Motorsport and the No. 911 3 GT54 R of the Bachler – Ashkanani – Rizzoli trio.

A surprise in Dantesque conditions, because it is rather the ROWE Racing who were expected at the forefront of the Porsche clan with its official crews Jaminet – Dumas – Müller and Olsen – Werner – Campbell. The first mentioned, despite a catastrophic qualification at Silverstone a month later, impressed in the race by coming up from the back of the grid to fail at the foot of the British podium.

Performances in line with those achieved by the new version of the GT3 from Weissach which appeared at the end of the 2018 campaign in various events, and which is taking on the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with the real hope of restoring an image, “tarnished” by a lack of results in recent years.

It still remains to be realized for ROWE Racing and the official drivers of the German firm, why not this weekend at Paul Ricard for the 1000 km, a big rehearsal before one of the objectives of the year: the 24 Hours of Spa . Especially since the team led by Hans-Peter Naundorf will be able to count on the experience of the winter tests held in the Var.

“We are still in a phase where each lap provides us with more experience and more information about our cars to help us understand them better, specifies the Team Principal. We want to make the most of that at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Historically, we have seen that we do better in races that last longer. We will start the race with real expectations. After being so close to the podium at Monza and Silverstone, we now want to take the next step. »

Last year, Frédéric Makowiecki, Romain Dumas and Dirk Werner took 10th place on the Var track but could have achieved a much better result, without a drive-through at the end of the race for an infraction under Full Course Yellow. The Paul Ricard 1000 km will begin tomorrow at 18 p.m., with qualifying scheduled for the morning.