Emil Frey Racing starts strongly in the German GT Championship. ADAC GT Masters is the ideal platform for the Swiss team. Top five in all competitions in team’s rookie season.

The Emil Frey Racing team announced its arrival in the ADAC GT Masters in spectacular fashion, with a brace of victories in Zandvoort. The rookie team fields three Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo in the German GT Championship and leads the Team competition after three rounds. The Swiss outfit is also promisingly placed in the Driver and Junior classifications, in fourth and second place respectively. This success in the team’s first season is not down to luck. Emil Frey Racing can look back on a long tradition in motorsport. Team principal Lorenz Frey-Hilti explains the company history: “My grandfather used to race motorcycles back in 1926, my father set up the racing department in the 1960s and then won multiple titles with Toyota. From 1990, it went quiet on the racing front. You could say that I resurrected the team in its third generation in 2011, when we started to line up as today’s Emil Frey Racing. Among other things, we won the Silver Cup in the Blancpain GT Series with a Jaguar GT3 that we developed ourselves. That is something we are very proud of. We have been working with Lamborghini since 2019, and finished first and second in the International GT Open at the first attempt. We also won the Team competition. Since 2020, we have been racing in the GT World Challenge Europe.”

The ADAC GT Masters has been on the wish list of the Swiss team for a long time. Lorenz Frey-Hilti himself gained experience in the series as a guest starter, which allowed him to discover for himself the high standard. “You have to be very well prepared to cut it in the ADAC GT Masters, as it is one of the very best GT series. After discussions with Lamborghini, the desire to race in this captivating series became ever stronger. I am very happy that we took this step, especially as the ADAC GT Masters enjoys a lot of coverage in Germany and is a huge advertising platform. Due partly to the great live coverage on TV,” says the 31-year-old.

Once the decision had been taken, it was time to find the driver pairings for the three Lamborghini. As well as driving ability, another important aspect was the ability to fit into the team as people. Lorenz Frey-Hilti: “We not only place an emphasis on speed, but also reliability. Furthermore, some drivers cope better than others with certain properties, like over and understeer. That also had to be taken into account. We now have an impressive, six-man driver line-up, consisting of young people and works drivers, who bring a lot of experience and are also active in other series. We have already worked with some of them, which made the cooperation easier.”

The first ADAC GT Masters outing in Oschersleben was very promising for Emil Frey Racing, with pole position and second place in the opening race. They finished in the points again at the Red Bull Ring, before the breakthrough with two victories in Zandvoort. “As expected, the standard is incredibly high in the ADAC GT Masters. In qualifying, it comes down to hundredths of a second. Make a mistake and you soon find yourself on the back rows of the grid. At first, we had to get used to the tyres not being preheated. Thanks to the experience of Franck Perera, we have got to grips with that. We had really fast qualifying times at the Red Bull Ring, which were unfortunately scratched because we exceeded the track limits. Furthermore, there was a penalty against Mick Wishofer, which in my opinion was questionable. The wins in Zandvoort, a circuit that suits the Lamborghini, were very important, in order to stay in touch at the top. On the whole, it has exceeded our expectations, and not just with regard to the racing – the ADAC does a huge amount for its fans at every circuit. The many activities before and after the races make a motorsport weekend in the German GT Championship an awesome experience for our guests,” says the team principal of Emil Frey Racing.

However, there is still potential for improvement. We have not yet found the ideal set-up for the tyres. The team has room for improvement here. “We are getting the peak performance out of the tyres, but need a little longer than our opponents to be able to put together a flying lap in qualifying. We are working hard on that,” says Lorenz Frey-Hilti. The team does not have a lot of time, as it lines up at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps from 28th to 31st July, before heading to the Nürburgring the following weekend (5th to 7th August) for the ADAC GT Masters. No sooner is one race done, then the next begins for Emil Frey Racing. “After weekend outings, we almost completely dismantle the cars. If there have been crashes or contact, the respective parts are X-rayed and examined for cracks, as we have a strict quality control procedure. It is important to stick to this procedure when the schedule is so busy. However, our 21-strong team has grown together for years, it is very experienced and ready to meet this challenge,” says the 31-year-old confidently.

The outlook for the rest of the ADAC GT Masters season is a positive one for the principal of the Swiss team. “After the coronavirus years, with empty stands, it is a joy for me to appear in front of packed grandstands in the German GT Championship. From a sporting perspective, we are going up against the best GT3 cars and drivers, and want to be in contention right through to the end of the season. At the moment, there are a lot of changes in motorsport, and electrification is a big issue. With this in mind, the new sustainable fuel, which has been used in the ADAC GT Masters since the start of this season, is another positive sign for this great series and is all about the continued development of motor racing.”

The German GT Championship heads to the Nürburgring in the Eifel Mountains from 5th to 7th August for round four of this season’s German GT Championship. All ADAC GT Masters races start at 13:00. International viewers can watch the qualifying and the races live on adac.de/motorsport, the new ADAC Motorsports YouTube channel youtube.com/ADACMotorsports and motorsport.tv.