Bird, Ferrari to Team With Auer at Gulf 12 Hours

Frank Bird and Lorenzo Ferrari will team up with Lucas Auer at GruppeM Racing for the Gulf 12 Hours after coming out on top in Mercedes-AMG’s Young Driver Test in Valencia.

Bird and Ferrari came out on top from a pool of 22 drivers in the 17-25 age bracket, which all hold a Gold or Silver driver classification from the FIA.

The drivers were coached by a team of Mercedes-AMG factory drivers and all piloted GT3 machinery matched for weight and fitted with identical Pirelli tires.

Bird, who drove with Haupt Racing Team and Ferrari, who was partnered with Winward Racing, were selected and will pilot a GruppeM-entered Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli finale.

They will be partnered up with DTM driver Auer, who formed part of the coaching team at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

“The AMG Young Driver Test in Valencia was a great event and the quality of the participants was extremely high,” Auer said.

“Lorenzo Ferrari and Frank Bird did a really excellent job. I already knew the track from personal experience, but on arrival, I familiarised myself once again with the current conditions and was able to pass on my strategy to Lorenzo, who was in my team.

“He followed my instructions to the letter and was competitive right from the word go.

“Now I’m really looking forward to competing with the two of them in Abu Dhabi, and I hope that we acquit ourselves well as a team.”

Bird, 24, competed in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup with HRT this season, sweeping the weekend at the Zandvoort finale to help co-driver Jordan Love win the title.

He missed out on the championship himself after missing the Hockenheim and Valencia rounds for personal reasons.

Ferrari, meanwhile, is a former European Le Mans Series GTE champion and competed in Endurance Cup alongside Maximilian Goetz and Thomas Drouet.