Abril Joins Black Falcon; Engel, Stolz Pairing Continues

Photo: Black Falcon

Vincent Abril will race for Black Falcon in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS this year, while the team’s long-standing pairing of Maro Engel and Luca Stolz continues for another year.

Abril will join Engel and Stolz in the German team’s lead Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for the five Endurance Cup races, while Engel and Stolz will race together in the Sprint races.

The French driver effectively replaces Yelmer Buurman in the lineup.

Abril drove for fellow Mercedes team AKKA ASP last year after leaving Bentley 12 months ago, and scored three Sprint wins alongside Raffaele Marciello.

Black Falcon’s second Mercedes will be a Silver Cup car, also entered for the full season but with different drivers for the Sprint and Endurance races.

Sergei Afanasiev, Patrick Assenheimer and Hubert Haupt will share the car at the long-distance races, while Finlay Hutchison will drive with a TBA teammate in the Sprint rounds.

It marks the first time that Black Falcon has entered the Silver Cup in GTWC Europe Sprint competition.

“I am very pleased about the expansion of our GT World Challenge program,” said team principal Sean Paul Breslin.

“s a team we would like to demonstrate our competence in both disciplines – Sprint and Endurance – once again this season. 

“With the necessary portion of racing luck we can once again fight for the championship in the disciplines and the overall standings and, for the first time, also challenge the overall standings in the Silver Cup.

“An exciting year with many challenges lies ahead of us – we are well prepared and are looking forward to the start of the season.”

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.