Car Collection “Didn’t Want to Change Completely” to Porsche

Car Collection Motorsport “didn’t want to change completely” from one manufacturer to another after electing to maintain its Audi stable alongside two new Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.

Team manager Denis Ferlemann explained that the recently-announced move to buy the Type-992 Porsches was driven by customer interest, while the team still has programs in the pipeline with Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs.

The situation creates a dual-manufacturer program for the German squad next year.

Car Collection hasn’t stated which series it will enter, after fielding Audis in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, ADAC GT Masters, the 24H Series and NLS.

“We didn’t want to change completely from Audi to Porsche,” Ferlemann told Sportscar365.

“What influenced us thinking about changing to another brand, was the situation with Audi Sport that it’s still not really decided if there is a new car after the R8.

“But we are still working well with Audi Sport. We have a good relationship and collaboration.

“The main point to put Porsche in our program was the customers.

“They were requesting the Porsche, so we started to speak to Porsche and try to work out a program together with them.

“We have open discussions with our customers about where they’re going to run. We are also supporting three [customer] Audis. The customer has to decide which series they will drive in.

“If one Audi customer and a Porsche customer decided to go into [GTWC Europe] Sprint, then we have to do both. At the moment, nothing is decided and everything is still open.”

Both new Porsches are owned by Car Collection, whereas some of the team’s Audis are customer-owned.

Car Collection started the 2022 season with a stable of eight Audis, however that has been gradually reduced to five – with three owned by customers and two by the team – as space is made for the incoming Porsches.

Like other Porsche teams including Dinamic Motorsport and Herberth Motorsport, Car Collection expects to receive its new cars in February ahead of the European season.

Ferlemann explained that there will be “no major changes” to Car Collection’s structure as it embarks on the dual-manufacturer program.

“We don’t have to change a lot of personnel,” he said.

“We already have some mechanics and engineers who worked with Porsches in the past.

“Maybe we will have one new engineer or mechanic, because we need more anyway depending on our programs. But it’s not on the list to do a planned structure change.

“Also Porsche will support us with a special workshop for the mechanics and engineers to get to know the car. So when we get the Porsches, we are quite sorted out already.

“You also get the support from Porsche during race weekends, with engineers [who] help you. So I don’t think this is a big issue or major change.”

Car Collection has prior experience running cars from two GT3 manufacturers.

During its first season with Audi in 2016, it also fielded a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in GT Masters before concentrating fully on Audis the following year.

GT3 teams usually only focus on one manufacturer at a time, but there have been other cases of dual commitments such as Falken Motorsport’s three-year Nürburgring 24 program with BMW and Porsche, and Emil Frey Racing’s Jaguar-Lexus operation.

“If we run both cars in the same series, we need completely separate crews,” Ferlemann suggested.

“Even the tire engineer can’t swap between the brands because there is a big risk to do any mistakes of running different tire pressures.

“This is the biggest task and challenge. But we are used to it because we did it in the past with Mercedes and Audi. And also when we did Carrera Cup Germany and GT Masters.

“We are used to having two teams on the same racetrack. So it’s not a big problem.”

Ferlemann added that Car Collection would consider running its Porsches in a Pro category next year, although nothing has been decided yet.

For its full-season GTWC Europe debut this year, it partnered with Tresor to run two Audis in the Pro class of the Sprint Cup, as well as one Pro car in Endurance.

“To be honest, it depends all on the budget side,” said Ferlemann.

“In Pro, with factory drivers you need support from the manufacturer. But they are not paying the full car, so you need a sponsor.

“If we find someone who wants to enter a Porsche or an Audi in the Pro class, we are open to it because we did it this year.

“But if not, if we don’t find someone or can’t find an agreement, then we are fine to do an Am or Pro-Am car like in the past.”