Goetz Unlikely to Join Glickenhaus at Spa, Le Mans

Maximilian Goetz is unlikely to join Glickenhaus Racing for the 6 Hours of Spa and the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to a lack of a sponsorship agreement according to team owner Jim Glickenhaus.

The 2021 DTM champion was understood to be in the picture for a race seat with the American team, having joined Glickenhaus as a guest at the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring.

The lineup for the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo had one vacant driver slot on the most recent entry list for the Spa round, with only Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla confirmed.

Glickenhaus told Sportscar365 that he is doubtful the German driver will join the team at both events, despite both parties previously expressing a willingness to work together.

“It’s unlikely it’ll be Maxi, but it very likely may be some other drivers who bring sponsorship,” Glickenhaus said.

“Unless Maxi brings sponsorship, he’s not joining. It was based on him bringing sponsorship.

“If that happens, yes. I mean, there’s no reason we would switch from Franck [Mailleux] and the other guys we’ve used.”

It is understood that Goetz would likely bring backing from Austrian water treatment company BWT, but Glickenhaus clarified that no agreement between the two parties has been reached.

“As of today, we have no firm sponsorship offer with BWT and unless that happens it would not involve Maxi,” he explained.

Glickenhaus added that he has no concern about finding drivers to fill the team’s two-car Le Mans lineup, despite the departure from the likes of Pipo Derani and Richard Westbrook to Cadillac’s factory LMDh program.

“There are a lot of very talented drivers who are available and want to race,” he said.

“Finding great drivers is not an issue. There are a lot of them and Le Mans, to be honest with you, you need very good drivers.

“But it’s not a sprint race. We’ll have good drivers and they’ll perform well.

“The make or break at Le Mans will be, does the car run steadily? Does it not break down? Do we not make any stupid mistakes?”

Glickenhaus further stated that the team’s presence beyond the current stretch of European events remains unclear and dependent on securing further sponsorship.

The team sat out the two flyaway events at Fuji and Bahrain last year.

“You wake up and every day is a new day. We just don’t know,” said Glickenhaus.

“I’m not saying we’re pessimistic or optimistic. It’s just we have a lot of balls in the air and hopefully some of them will land.”

Glickenhaus Aiming for “Better Weekend” at Portimao

The No. 708 Glickenhaus arrives at Portimao — the venue where the team made its WEC debut in 2021 — off the back of a retirement caused by an ignition switch issue in the first race of the season.

The team hopes to have a better showing than the Sebring opener, although Glickenhaus underlined that the nature of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve will still throw up some challenges.

“We’ve made some improvements to the car,” he said.

“We think we’ll have a better weekend. Portimao is a high downforce track, so it’s not particularly good for us.

“But I think Spa will be good and I think Le Mans [too]. That’s where we’re concentrating on.

“The changes have been evolutionary. It’s mostly trying to set the car up for the new tires and to learn that and to get them up to temperature sooner.

“But we’ve done some good work. We feel good about it.

“The car is where it should have been in Sebring, but now it’s okay. So we’re looking forward to that.”