Sportscar365’s Manufacturer of the Year

Sportscar365 is selecting its top competitors and moments from 2022. Next up is the Manufacturer of the Year, as selected by website staff.

Manufacturer of the Year – Mercedes-AMG

Mercedes-AMG was the envy of the GT3 brands this year as its customer teams scooped an impressive spread of silverware in championships and major endurance races.

The headline-grabbing achievement was Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon’s overall win at the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, which led a one-two result for AMG and plugged a nine-year gap since its last victory at the Belgian event.

That success formed the backbone of a title-winning season for Akkodis ASP in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup, while Marciello won the combined drivers’ championship plus ADAC GT Masters with the Landgraf team.

Despite significant international freight difficulties, Mercedes-AMG committed factory drivers and other support to the full Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli.

That no doubt expensive commitment, even for events with small grids, paid off as AMG won four out of five races held this year and claimed the 2022 title with a round to spare.

Its international success in the IGTC and the global Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS stands as a testament to the widespread strength of a customer racing program that serves a huge number of GT3 and GT4 cars in different corners of the world.

There were some gaps missing in the honor roll: Mercedes-AMG fell short at the Nürburgring 24 again, lost its DTM crown to Audi and didn’t win any of the IMSA enduros.

However, those cases shouldn’t cloud what has otherwise been an outstanding campaign, particularly in the GT3 arena where the different cars are so closely matched.

Honorable Mentions

***With a fifth consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans victory, Toyota moved up to sixth in the all-time manufacturer wins table. Considering the lack of other factory teams of comparable size, anything other than five wins on the trot would have been judged as a huge failure, but the Japanese marque’s Cologne-based LMH program beat the opposition it faced with an expertly-organized outfit. Under Hypercar’s Balance of Performance, Toyota’s experience will count for a lot in the battle with new constructors.

***It was a tumultuous period away from the track for Audi Sport as the German brand’s LMDh program was canceled in favor of a Formula 1 entry, which in turn caused Team WRT’s switch to rival brand BMW. However, at the races, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II had a strong debut season headlined by Phoenix Racing’s Nürburgring 24 success and four NLS victories. WRT won the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup title and the Hankook 24H Dubai, while different teams chipped in for the DTM manufacturers’ crown.

***Since the end of its factory sports car racing team in 2020, Aston Martin has focused on building a global customer racing program. That approach bore fruit this year as TF Sport won the WEC and Le Mans double in GTE-Am, ahead of NorthWest AMR. The Heart of Racing then struck gold in IMSA’s GTD class, giving Aston its first WeatherTech Championship title.

***Over in Japan, Nissan claimed a prestigious title double in Super GT. The Yokohama-based manufacturer introduced the new Z GT500 to the top class and blew away the competition from Toyota and Honda. Kondo Racing then secured the GT300 crown with a Nissan GT-R GT3 Nismo, while Helm Motorsport earned more domestic bragging rights by winning Super Taikyu.