After the first race meeting on the Nordschleife, the Bentley Team ABT heads straight to the official test days of the ADAC GT Masters at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. These are strenuous times for the racing squad from the Allgäu – but the team tackles the challenges with zeal, as team boss Christian Abt reveals in this interview.
In contrast to the ADAC GT Masters, Bentley Team ABT has already contested the first race on the Nordschleife. Your assessment?
Very positive. We finished in the top 10 with both cars and marked the second-fasted race lap. In qualifying, we took second place. We’re on the right track for the 24-hour race, but still have a lot of work to do.
What was the fans’ response to the Bentley?
Very, very positive. But we must admit that the Continental GT3 in the field with the many flat mid-engine race cars is a striking sight. Truly impressive. The amazing part about it is that while the car may really look enormous, it is a top GT3 race car without any compromises. Our times on the Nordschleife proved that.
How far have you progressed in planning the driver line-up for the 24-hour race?
The seven drivers from the season opener (Chris Brück/Crister Jöns/Steven Kane and Fabian Hamprecht/Marco Holzer/Christian Menzel/Guy Smith) did a superb job, so I’m pretty relaxed in that respect. I think we’ll be able to announce the final squad in a few days from now.
What did you learn about this season’s competition during the ADAC GT Masters test days?
During some sessions, the 15 fastest were often all within one second. This would suggest that the competition in this year’s ADAC GT Masters will be very close. But we’ll only determine how strong the opposition really is after the first two or three race weekends. Sure, you keep glancing at the lap times on the monitor, but it’s much more important to work through the programme you’ve set for yourself. Of course, this is particularly relevant for us, because the car we’re campaigning this year is completely different to what we’ve raced previously. But we were able to work through everything we’d planned and we clocked up many valuable kilometres. It also helps that we have Guy Smith, a driver who knows the Bentley Continental GT like the back of his hand.
Which competitor do you think will the toughest in the ADAC GT Masters?
The sheer quantity of the field with almost 30 cars is impressive. This means that we must perform well in qualifying. If you make a mistake and have to start from the back it’ll be difficult to fight your way through such a packed field. As far as the quality of the grid lineup is concerned, the standard will undoubtedly be at least as high as in the last years. I expect the two Audi pairings, Connor De Phillippi/Christopher Mies as well as Florian Stoll/Laurens Vanthoor, to be particularly strong.
The Bentley Team ABT is the only squad to field three cars at every round of this year’s ADAC GT Masters. Is that an advantage?
First and foremost it’s a lot of work. But we have very good people in our team who can manage this. We proved that last year. It helps, of course, to have three irons in the fire at each race weekend. Firstly, to collate data for the set-up work, but also to be able to offset any retirements in the race. This is particularly important in the battle for the team title.
But the team title is not the only thing you’ve set your sights on ...
With Daniel Abt/Christer Jöns and Fabian Hamprecht/Guy Smith we have two pairings with whom we think we can fight for overall victory and the driver’s title. Andreas Weishaupt joins forces with Jordan Pepper and is determined to defend his title in the Gentlemen class, which is called Trophy this year. Plus, we have two young hotshots, Fabian Hamprecht and Jordan Pepper, who are chasing the new junior title. As the team boss I’m really happy to have such drivers in the team.