The Porsche Geyer & Weinig EDC-Unternehmensberatung/Schütz Motorsport Team was one of the biggest surprises at the season opener of the ADAC GT Masters at the Oschersleben Motorsport Arena. At practice on Friday, the newcomers under team boss Christian Schütz in the yellow and black Porsche 911 GT-R driven by Christian Engelhart and Nick Tandy were the team with the longest name in the field. On Sunday afternoon however, the Porsche team from near Mannheim were the talk of the paddock and only one of three teams to have managed to win on their debut weekend in the "League of Super Sports Cars".
Before the first win, there was a lot of work to be done by team boss Christian Schütz and his team, who are expanding their motorsport programme this year from the Porsche Sports Cup to include the ADAC GT Masters. "We wanted to further develop our programme in addition the Porsche Sports Cup. However, it wasn't easy to convince our partners of the project. I am glad that we were able to win the sponsorship of EDV-Unternehmensberatung Geyer & Weinig for the ADAC GT Masters", said team boss Christian Schütz.
Setting up his team in Autumn 2010 after spending many years as a freelance engineer, Schütz set his sights on Carrera Cup Champion Tandy and Supercup driver Engelhart as the two Porsche aces for his driver line-up. "We are relying on the driver pairing to fully attack. It was clear for us to not want to compromise with our driver choice and start with two strong drivers. It isn't possible to race at the front in the ADAC GT Masters with just one fast driver. The driver pairing was only finalised late on, mainly because there was a lot of movement in the driver's market before the start of the season. Nick and Christian are a great pairing and are carrying a lot of momentum from their successes last year. Not only are they both fast, but they are also mentally strong. This makes it even more important to have both of them in the team."
The first win in the ADAC GT Masters was primarily the result of hard work and long nights. "At Oschersleben, we were burning the candle at both ends from Thursday, and we worked hard to get the perfect set-up. But it has paid off. Here, we have not only benefitted from the motorsport enthusiasm of our partner Geyer & Weinig from the IT industry, but also from specific support for the analysis of telemetry. We have found many parallels with IT - the experience of our partner in measuring and improving IT stability also helps us in racing", said Schütz on the unexpected effects of the collaboration.
For Christian Schütz, his positive impressions from the first weekend of the ADAC GT Masters were not based solely on victory in the first round. "I think the organisers have done a good job, and this includes the often talked about Balance of Performance in the cars. Of course, it's easy to say that as the boss of the winning car. But if you look at the racing speeds of different cars, we can conclude that the regulation is quite successful. It is not an easy task to bring so many different vehicle concepts together under one roof.
Schütz provided a good report of the new and exclusive ADAC GT Masters tyre partner, Yokohama: "Yokohama have built a very balanced tyre that works well and was very consistent."
With victory at the season opener behind them, Schütz and his team are looking forward to the next race at Zandvoort. "After the success in Oschersleben we are travelling to the Netherlands feeling extra motivated. But it won't be easy for us, as we have to start at Zandvoort with success ballast because of the win. And after the first weekend in Oschersleben, we realised something: it is a damn hard season this year and consistency will win the title in the end - with a bit of luck, we can do this."