Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website AMG Customer Sports season review: Mercedes-AMG celebrates an outstanding Customer Sports season 2016
dicembre 12, 2016 - Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport

AMG Customer Sports season review: Mercedes-AMG celebrates an outstanding Customer Sports season 2016

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

  • Successful debut season for the #mercedesamg GT3
  • Historic quadruple success in the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race
  • Drivers’ and teams’ titles in the Blancpain GT Series
  • Kenneth Heyer (PRO DRIVER), Jean-Luc Beaubelique (DRIVER) and AKKA ASP TEAM win AMG Customer Sports Championship 2016

Affalterbach (GER). The #mercedesamg GT3 completed its first full season in competition with success: in 2016, the international Customer Sports and Performance Teams scored a total of 18 overall wins and another 32 podium finishes with the car from Affalterbach – including the historic quadruple success in the 44th ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen. During its end-of-season party, #mercedesamg awarded the best drivers and teams from the brand’s internal AMG Customer Sports Championship.

The #mercedesamg GT3 already showed a great performance in the season opener. After victory in the ADAC qualification race 24h-Rennen, the new GT3 race car went on to score the biggest success since the AMG Customer Sports programme was founded in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring at the end of May: outright win, pole position, fastest race lap and positions two, three, four and six feature in the motorsport history books. The clean sweep of the podium in the world’s biggest car race saw AMG-Team BLACK FALCON (p1), AMG-Team HTP Motorsport (p2) and the HARIBO #racing Team-AMG (p3) share the honours.

The debut of the #mercedesamg GT3 followed after an intense test and development phase, thanks to which the ‘newcomer’ proved to be competitive right away in further events and series as well. Another proof is the title win in the Blancpain GT Series: after a thrilling finale, Dominik Baumann (AUT) and Maximilian Buhk (GER) secured themselves the drivers’ title in the hotly-contested GT3 race series. The AMG-Team HTP Motorsport crowned the performance by winning the teams’ title. The SLS AMG GT3 showed that it is also still competitive with the drivers’ and teams’ title in the Creventic 24H Series by AMG Customer Sports Team Hofor #racing.

The #mercedesamg GT3 was able to score further overall wins around the globe: in the Australian GT, the #mercedesamg GT3 claimed its maiden race win in March 2016 and went on to score another four outright victories. Three victories in the Blancpain Sprint Series, one first place in the Blancpain Endurance Series and another pair of wins in the Blancpain GT Sports Club are also on the achievements list. In the German ADAC GT Masters series, the #mercedesamg GT3 won two races and there was one victory in the Japanese Super GT Series. The VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft at the Nürburgring brought two overall wins to celebrate. There was also a podium finish in the 24-hour race at Spa, where the #mercedesamg GT3 came second overall. At Spa, the car designs by Californian rock band, Linkin Park, also caught the attention.

Expansion of the #mercedesamg Customer Sports programme
With almost 70 #mercedesamg GT3 delivered, expectations for the debut season were clearly exceeded. Customer teams and drivers appreciate the high safety level and the further development based on the experience from the SLS AMG GT3, aimed at longer service intervals, handling and, of course, performance. Strengthened by the successful debut season of the #mercedesamg GT3, the continuing great demand and the increasing popularity of GT #racing, #mercedesamg confirmed the development of a GT4 race car. It is the goal to address an even larger target group of amateur and professional drivers and teams.

Moreover, #mercedesamg is envisaging another milestone in the expansion of its Customer Sports programme and will be entering the #mercedesamg GT3 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Pirelli World Challenge, the two leading North American sports car series, from 2017. At the same time, the support in the US will be extended with a dedicated technical and logistics centre in Mooresville, North Carolina, to ensure fast and reliable service and supply for the AMG Customer Sport Teams in North America.

During the 2017 season, #mercedesamg will again be participating in various motorsport highlights all over the world: in January already, two 24-hour races are scheduled with the events in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Daytona (USA). The twelve-hour races of Bathurst (Australia) and Sebring (USA) are to follow in February and March, with the German season highlight, the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, on the calendar for the end of May, followed by the Ardennes classic at Spa (Belgium) in July. With additional participations in national and international race series, among others in the newly-introduced Blancpain GT Series Asia, #mercedesamg will again be competing all over the world in 2017.

A festive end-of-season party 2016
At the occasion of the #mercedesamg end-of-season party that took place on 3 December, teams and drivers looked back upon the GT3 motor #racing season once again. During the #event, the winners of the 2016 AMG Customer Sports Championship* were honoured as well: Kenneth Heyer (GER) scored the most points in the PRO DRIVER standings from Christiaan Frankenhout (NED) and Morgan Moullin Traffort (FRA) in second and third place respectively. Top honours in the DRIVER class go to Frenchman Jean-Luc Beaubelique from Chantal and Michael Kroll (both SUI). The new TEAM champion is the AKKA ASP TEAM from France, with HTP Motorsport (GER) and BLACK FALCON (GER) following in second and third place.

Tobias Moers, Chairman of the Management Board of #mercedesamg GmbH: “The GT3 motorsport year 2016 was a big success story for #mercedesamg. Our expectations in the debut season of the new #mercedesamg GT3 were exceeded in every aspect, both in sales figures and with the sensational achievements in #racing. For us, Customer Sports ranks very highly: next to Formula 1 and the DTM, it is one of the three pillars of Mercedes-AMG’s involvement in motorsport. Therefore, and because of the globally increasing interest and popularity of the GT segment, we will continuously expand our Customer Sports activities. With the new presence in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the US, the development of the GT4 race car and the festivities for the 50th anniversary of #mercedesamg, there will be many highlights in 2017 as well.”

Jochen Bitzer, head of AMG Customer Sports: “ The impressive achievements in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring or the drivers’ and teams’ titles in the Blancpain GT Series show that the #mercedesamg GT3 is another considerable step ahead in terms of precision and performance compared to its predecessor, the SLS AMG GT3. Nevertheless, the gullwing is anything but an oldie yet: the SLS AMG GT3 is still competitive and racked up numerous victories in international races, including the 24H Series drivers’ and teams’ titles with AMG Customer Sports Team Hofor #racing. My thanks go out to all the drivers, teams and employees who have turned the 2016 season into a very special year of success with their effort, their ambition and their passion.”

Facts and figures of the 2016 season:

  • Mercedes-AMG GT3: 115 races. 152 top 10 results. 50 podium finishes, including 18 overall wins.
  • SLS AMG GT3: 146 races. 102 top 10 results. 34 podium finishes, including 13 overall wins.
  • 51 teams and 201 drivers raced in GT3 competition with a #mercedesamg.
  • At ‘working temperature’ after 3,375 kilometres: during the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, the winning car (Mercedes-AMG GT3 4 / AMG-Team BLACK FALCON) posted the fastest race lap time (8m19.002s) on the penultimate lap (lap 133).
  • Around the world in 24 hours: during the 24-hour race at Spa, all eight #mercedesamg GT3 together racked up 29,319 kilometres. That equals once around the world at the latitude of Frankfurt (approx. 25,770 km).
  • 29 switches and buttons have been built into the #mercedesamg GT3, nine of them on the steering wheel. The shift pedals are used most frequently, followed by the high beam flash.
  • Jet setters: The #mercedesamg GT3 and the SLS AMG GT3 raced in 23 countries at 51 race tracks.

Overall wins 2016 #mercedesamg GT3:

Date

Series / race

Team

Driver(s)

03/ 2016

Australian GT / Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit

Scott Taylor Motorsport

Craig Baird

03/ 2016

Australian GT / Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit

Eggleston Motorsport

Matthew Solomon

04/ 2016

Super GT / Okayama International Circuit

LEON RACING

Naoya Gamou, Haruki Kurosawa

04/ 2016

ADAC GT Masters / Oschersleben

AMG-Team ZAKSPEED

Sebastian Asch, Luca Ludwig

04/ 2016

ADAC Qualifikationsrennen 24h-Rennen

AMG-Team HTP Motorsport

Dominik Baumann, Maximilian Buhk, Thomas Jäger, Christian Vietoris

04/ 2016

ADAC GT Masters / Sachsenring

AMG-Team ZAKSPEED

Sebastian Asch, Luca Ludwig

05/ 2016

Australian GT /

Barbagallo Raceway

Scott Taylor Motorsport

Craig Baird, Scott Taylor

05/ 2016

Blancpain Sprint Series / Brands Hatch

HTP Motorsport

Bernd Schneider, Jules Szymkowiak

05/ 2016

Blancpain Endurance Series / Silverstone Circuit

HTP Motorsport

Dominik Baumann, Maximilian Buhk, Jazeman Jaafar

05/ 2016

ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen Nürburgring

AMG-Team BLACK FALCON

Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger, Bernd Schneider

06/ 2016

Blancpain GT Sports Club / Paul Ricard race 1

AKKA ASP TEAM

Daniele Perfetti

06/ 2016

Blancpain GT Sports Club / Paul Ricard race 2

AKKA ASP TEAM

Daniele Perfetti

08/ 2016

VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft

HARIBO #racing Team-AMG

Uwe Alzen, Lance David Arnold, Jan Seyffarth

08/ 2016

Blancpain Sprint Series / Hungaroring

AMG-Team HTP Motorsport

Dominik Baumann, Maximilian Buhk

09/ 2016

VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft

HARIBO #racing Team-AMG

Uwe Alzen, Lance David Arnold

10/ 2016

Blancpain Sprint Series / Circuit de Catalunya

AKKA ASP TEAM

Felix Rosenqvist, Tristan Vautier

11/ 2016

Australian GT /

Highlands Motorsport Park

Scott Taylor Motorsport

Michael Almond, Craig Baird

11/ 2016

Australian GT /

Highlands Motorsport Park

Scott Taylor Motorsport

Michael Almond, Craig Baird

 

Championships 2016:

Race series

Title

Team / driver(s)

Car

Blancpain GT Series

Drivers Champion

Dominik Baumann, Maximilian Buhk

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Blancpain GT Series

Team Champion

AMG-Team HTP Motorsport

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Creventic 24H Series

Drivers Champion

Christiaan Frankenhout, Kenneth Heyer, Chantal Kroll, Michael Kroll

SLS AMG GT3

Creventic 24H Series

Ladies Cup Champion

Chantal Kroll

SLS AMG GT3

Creventic 24H Series

Team Champion

Hofor Racing

SLS AMG GT3

International GT Open

Drivers Champion

António Manuel da Costa Coimbra, Luís Miguel Sardinha Silva

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Pan Delta #racing Festival Series

Drivers & Team Champion

D2 #racing SPORT /

Kuo Kuo Hsin

SLS AMG GT3

 * In the AMG Customer Sports Championship, all GT3 drivers #racing a #mercedesamg in the various race series around the world are up against each other. Only AMG Performance Teams aren’t eligible to take part in the TEAM competition. Drivers of the teams with extended factory support and drivers who are contracted to #mercedesamg or Daimler AG aren’t eligible to score points for the drivers’ standings.  

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