Hockenheim Weekend Notebook

***This weekend marks the first Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round at Hockenheim. The 37-time German Grand Prix venue is the 10th different circuit to host an Endurance Cup round. GTWC Europe organizer SRO Motorsports Group made a pilot visit last year with the Fanatec GT2 European Series.

***Barwell Motorsport’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo has switched classes from Gold Cup to Silver for the rest of the Endurance Cup season. Sam De Haan, who drove for the team at the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, and Patrick Kujala have joined full-timer Alex MacDowall this weekend. Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell is no longer part of the crew due to his Gold driver rating.

***FIA World Endurance Championship racer Charlie Fagg will sub for Kujala at the Barcelona season finale, due to the Finnish driver’s commitments racing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and IMSA Prototype Challenge rounds at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Fagg tested the Barwell Lamborghini at Spa-Francorchamps earlier this year.

***Alessio Picariello will remain in the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R for the Endurance Cup season finale at Barcelona, a senior team source has confirmed to Sportscar365. Picariello has replaced defending series champion Come Ledogar. Dinamic has not issued a reason for the driver switch.

***Dinamic Motorsport’s second lineup change for Hockenheim sees WEC GTE-Am driver Mikkel O. Pedersen replace Mauro Calamia in the No. 56 Silver Cup Porsche.

***Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour winner Martin Konrad has been drafted in for Jonathan Hui as the designated Bronze-rated driver for Sky-Tempesta Racing. Hui is taking part in a charity concert in his native Hong Kong.

***Over at Garage 59, Dean MacDonald is subbing for Ethan Simioni who has tested positive for COVID-19. MacDonald, who is the Sprint Cup Pro-Am points leader alongside Miguel Ramos, jumps into the British squad’s Silver-class No. 159 McLaren 720S GT3.

***Allied-Racing’s Ayhancan Guven and Alex Malykhin are participating in this weekend’s race as a pairing. They form the first two-driver combination of the season.

***The minimum refueling time during ‘mandatory’ full-service pit stops for all cars at Hockenheim is 37 seconds.

***A paid test session was held on Thursday, with all 49 cars taking to the track as teams sought to gain mileage on a circuit that is new to many. Dries Vanthoor set the fastest lap time of 1:37.435 in the No. 32 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. Results

***Friday’s track action consisted of a Bronze driver test that was led by Cesar Gazeau in Sainteloc Junior Team’s No. 26 Audi. The Frenchman, who is Silver-rated but was permitted to take part in the Bronze test along with seven other competing Silvers who are Hockenheim rookies, posted a time of 1:38.176, beating Ralf Bohn in the No. 991 Herberth Motorsport Porsche by just 0.088 seconds. Results

***The No. 12 Tresor by Car Collection Audi joined Friday afternoon’s Bronze test for the purpose of carrying out an ‘Additional Performance Test’ for Balance of Performance data-gathering purposes. SRO’s designated BoP driver Nico Verdonck was at the wheel.

***SRO classifies Hockenheim as a ‘category B’ circuit, which is the same as Spa. The main BoP change since Spa is a 20 kg weight break for the McLaren 720S GT3. The Porsche 911 GT3 R has received a 10 kg reduction, while there are 5 kg reductions for the Audi and the BMW M4 GT3.

***Beechdean AMR’s No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 is on display at the Salon Prive motoring event in the U.K. this weekend, along with three other Beechdean Astons as part of a display for the cars’ maker Prodrive. The No. 97 car also known as chassis No. 22, which has withdrawn from the rest of the Endurance Cup season, sits alongside the DBR9 chassis No. X1, Vantage GTE chassis No. X2 and Vantage GT3 chassis No. X3.

***This weekend marks the first GTWC Europe Endurance Cup race without an Aston Martin on the grid since the 2013 season finale at the Nürburgring, nine years ago.

***Madpanda Motorsport will make its GTWC Europe Sprint Cup return at the Valencia season finale, and will miss the ADAC GT Masters round at the Sachsenring as a result. The team, which is racing in Endurance Cup this weekend, is also pondering whether it will contest the GT Masters finale at Hockenheim, although it stressed in a statement that “no doors are closed” to its participation in the German championship next season. Maxpanda shifted its Sprint Cup program over to GT Masters this year.

***Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello reconvened at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, where their TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa-winning Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo has been placed on display next to the 2013-winning Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and the 1971 ‘Red Pig’ 300 SEL.

***Michelle Gatting has had the 24 Hours of Spa logo, and the Latin phrase ‘veni vidi vici’ (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’), tattooed onto her left arm following her recent Gold Cup class victory in the race as a member of the Iron Dames Ferrari crew.

***Valentino Rossi is ready for the antepenultimate round of his GTWC Europe program with Team WRT: “We tested [at Hockenheim] for one day during the winter, with bad weather, but it still allowed checking that the car goes well there,” he said. “It is a difficult track, narrow and with hard-braking zones.” Rossi has strongly indicated that he plans to remain in the series next year.

***British squad JOTA recently tested at Silverstone to prepare for the trip to Hockenheim with its McLaren 720S GT3.

***Due to Hockenheim being absent from the Assetto Corsa Competizione simulator game, this weekend’s Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series round will be held on a digital version of Suzuka, in the paddock-based Fanatec Arena. The entry list includes the likes of Maro Engel (GetSpeed Performance), Kelvin van der Linde (WRT), Daniel Juncadella (Akkodis ASP), Dennis Lind (JP Motorsport) and Nicklas Nielsen (Iron Lynx).

***In the Pro category, Nielsen will run with 15 kg of success ballast, while Tresor by Car Collection’s Luca Ghiotto has 10 kg added on. The 15 kg ballast in Silver Cup goes to Attempto Racing’s Alex Aka, with Tresor by Car Collection driver Lorenzo Patrese on 10 kg extra. View the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series standings here.

***Fanatec has been named as the official hardware provider for the FIA Motorsport Games next month. The sim racing element of the international multi-discipline event will feature GT3 cars on the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform. Gran Turismo was used for the first Motorsport Games in 2019.

***The two Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos are in identical liveries for the first time this season. The French outfit’s Silver Cup machine is in the same yellow and dark blue livery that the sister No. 88 Pro car has worn at all rounds except the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, where it had a one-off Puma design.

***After winning the 24 Hours of Spa, Akkodis ASP drivers Marciello, Juncadella and Gounon lead the Endurance Cup standings by 11 points over the Iron Lynx Ferrari trio of Daniel Serra, Antonio Fuoco and Davide Rigon. Serra is not racing at Hockenheim due to his clashing commitments in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro series, which is racing at Velo Citta.

***Those two crews are the protagonists in the Endurance Cup title battle, with the next-closest drivers being a further 31 points away from second place. There is currently a tie for third between GetSpeed Performance’s Luca Stolz and Steijn Schothorst, and Iron Lynx’s James Calado, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.