“Consistency in Everything” Key to Mercedes-AMG’s Strong 2022

Mercedes-AMG’s head of Customer Racing believes that “consistency in everything” enabled the German manufacturer to have a standout campaign in GT3 racing last year.

Mercedes-AMG won several major accolades with its customer teams and factory drivers including the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup and ADAC GT Masters.

It also claimed a fourth consecutive global GTWC manufacturers’ title which factored in results from its teams racing in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia, where travel restrictions in China prompted Mercedes-AMG to develop remote support methods.

Reflecting on the season, Wendl told Sportscar365 he has “personally thought a lot about” the factors that enabled Mercedes-AMG to have such a strong year in the competitive GT3 arena.

“We did not do so many things differently to previous years,” Wendl said. “For me, the key factor for success is consistency in everything.

“We have the full commitment of Mercedes-AMG and are working with the same teams together over a few years. We didn’t have changes in our performance team lineups.

“Our structure and our collaboration with HWA for performance and technical support were established in 2016 and then, year by year, we changed some staff due to the DTM commitments, but since three years the staff on this side has been consistent.”

According to Wendl, HWA’s engineers are “well-connected” with Mercedes-AMG’s customer teams and that strong communication link results in more efficient race planning and execution.

“I felt this year that the whole working environment was connected to each other,” Wendl suggested.

“Every staff [understands] their role. There was no competition in between. Every engineer delivered what he was supposed to.

“And together with consistent drivers who are on eye-line and can discuss solutions without big egos involved. For sure there are drivers who would like to see it a little bit differently. The driver lineup what we saw in the final IGTC race [was] team play, but still competition.”

Wendl added that experience has played a role, considering the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo entered its third season of competition last year.

“It’s well known,” he said. “You have stuff going around from team to team, mechanics and engineers.

“And we have our Performance support where we share data, at single events at least.

“Due to this, the whole group of cars gets stronger and stronger and equalizes their performance levels. This leads to results like what we saw at Spa.”

The race at Spa resulted in Mercedes-AMG’s first overall victory at the Belgian 24-hour classic in nine years as the factory driver trio of Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella delivered for first-time winning team Akkodis ASP.

Wendl described that event as the “role model” race of Mercedes-AMG’s season.

“In the past three years I think we had a car which should be able to go for the victory on pure pace,” he said.

“But it was always one car. For a few years it was Black Falcon, then HRT and then ASP. We finished the races but missed the strategy a few times. Being unlucky and losing a lap in the race, which is very difficult to recover. Stories every other team can also tell.

“In the last two years, we missed the race with the fastest car due to broken things, contact or hard curbing. This season, we have been able to have three cars competing on the same level, very close together, and continuously throughout the 24 hours.

“There was a unique situation of a six-hours green flag. Our strategy split six hours before the end, which was an overhead discussion with the teams.

“Finally, we found an agreement that each team found a spot. We’ve been able, for the last six hours, to drive with three cars a very controlled race, except for 10 minutes of an hour when a Ferrari and BMW got in front.

“On all other occasions, one of the AMGs would have been in front, even if a Full Course Yellow had been deployed. This was very confident. It felt good.”

The Spa win teed up Akkodis ASP’s GTWC Europe Endurance Cup title run and Mercedes-AMG’s IGTC manufacturers’ championship.

“In the SRO series, we haven’t been able to have the big punch on victories for the last three years,” Wendl concluded. “Now, everything came together.

“Even after [winning] Bathurst, I thought we would have a tough rest of the year. But even at Spa, we were able to bring it through in the race.”