Mercedes-AMG Facing “Worst-Case Weekend” With Clashes

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Mercedes-AMG is facing the “worst-case weekend” in terms of clashing races according to its head of customer racing Stefan Wendl, whose team has had to stretch its resources between five different events.

The German manufacturer, which is in a tight points battle with Porsche for the Intercontinental GT Challenge championship lead, has had to divide its factory drivers between not only the Suzuka 1000km, but also the penultimate round of the DTM season at the Sachsenring, the European Le Mans Series at Silverstone, International GT Open at Hockenheim, as well as double four-hour Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie races.

“This is the worst-case weekend,” Wendl told Sportscar365. “It’s IGTC, it’s DTM, it’s ELMS, it’s GT Open. NLS is also going.

“We’ve went the last two weeks through all of our drivers and tried to move them around.

“All are active this weekend. Everything’s really busy and it was not easy to bring all the drivers to all the needs.”

The direct consequence is that IGTC championship leader Maro Engel, who won the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour and Nürburgring 24 and finished runner-up in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, is unable to contest the remainder of SRO Motorsports Group’s globe-trotting GT3 series due to consecutive DTM clashes.

All three of Porsche’s highest-placed drivers in the IGTC points standings are also on DTM duty, which should put Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin, who make up two-thirds of the lineup in the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG in Suzuka this weekend, as the new title favorites.

Stolz enters the weekend 17 points behind Engel, with Martin just one further point back, and 12 points clear of the nearest driver contesting the Japanese race, BMW’s Max Hesse, who will be in a Bronze Cup class entry.

Martin had to relinquish his full season ELMS duties with Iron Lynx to Ralf Aron this weekend, while other compromises have been made for Mercedes-AMG to be in action on five different race tracks, plus one test track this weekend.

“The result of it is potentially why we only have three entries compared to six entires last year here,” said Wendl.

“It’s not easy. We moved [drivers] around quite a bit to bring Ralf [Aron] into ELMS, joining the cockpit for Maxime, as Maxime gave priority on IGTC as he’s running for the championship too.

“Maro is probably sitting home and is hopefully running for the DTM championship but can not only do more than wish his colleagues good luck.

“But I see our competitors are not so much better.

“We take it as it is. It’s still an interesting race. We’re trying to score as much points as possible.

“We have strong competitors here, even if the drivers mix around.

“Maybe this is quite good for the drivers’ championship but there’s also a close battle for the manufacturers’ championship ongoing, at least between Porsche and us.”

Mercedes-AMG’s other Pro class car this weekend in Suzuka is the 75 Express entry of Philip Ellis, Mikael Grenier and FIA Bronze-rated team owner/driver Kenny Habul, who is making his first start of the year since Bathurst.

Wendl said the U.S.-based Australian, who has regularly run in the Pro class at Mount Panorama, didn’t need much convincing to step up to fight for the overall win to help fill the gap.

“He likes to do it, so it was not so difficult,” said Wendl. “It was a short talk.

“We just brought in the idea. He recognized that we potentially only had one single entry in Pro. Then he was immediately in.

“He likes it. He likes to be in the car with two pro drivers and have the challenge for the first stint and then to let the guys push.”

The third Mercedes-AMG on the Suzuka 1000km grid this weekend is a Pro-Am class Craft-Bamboo entry for Joao Paulo de Oliveira, Kevin Tse and Daisuke Yamawaki.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John