Safenwil – Switzerland, 4th September 2023
Emil Frey Racing has a busy month, with one race weekend following the next. The sixth round of the DTM championship now follows at the Sachsenring after the weekend in the Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Sprint Cup at the Hockenheimring. After a successful test day and the motivation of the first DTM victory in their luggage, the Swiss team is looking forward to the following two DTM races.
Emil Frey Racing only knew the Sachsenring with last year’s car, the Lamborghini Huracán GT3. Since the Sachsenring has a special track layout, the team went there for one test day with the new Ferrari 296 GT3 last week. In good conditions, the team collected representative data and covered many kilometres – and is now well prepared to fight for a podium place again next weekend.
The Sachsenring has been an integral part of the racing calendar for many years and is best known for its exciting MotoGP races. But GT3 racing also finds its joy on the 3671-metre-long circuit, which poses many challenges to both man and machine with a gradient of up to almost 13 per cent and a 10 per cent incline. The longest straight is the Start-Finish straight with 780 metres, but there are also good overtaking opportunities down to the Sachsenkurve or back to the pit-straight.
Emil Frey Racing is currently in 7th place in the championship standings after its DTM victory at the Lausitzring. With only 17 points behind the Top-5, the chances of achieving a good position in the DTM’s debut year are good.
The sixth DTM round of the season will take place at the Sachsenring from 8th to 10th September 2023. The weekend will kick-off with two free practice sessions on Friday at 11:10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. for 45 minutes each. An early qualifying session on Saturday at 9.05 a.m. will determine the starting grid for the race on the same day, which will start at 1.30 p.m. On Sunday, qualifying will also occur at 09.05am, with the race again following at 13.30 am.
Team Quotes Emil Frey Racing
Jürg Flach, Technical Director: “The test day last week went absolutely smoothly and was very productive despite changing conditions. We worked on the basic Set-up, as we had never driven the Ferrari at the Sachsenring before. At the Sachsenring you have to deal with very high tyre wear due to the asphalt conditions, so it is important to find a Set-up for the races in particular that aims at little tyre degradation and enables consistent lap- times. Since the track does not offer many overtaking opportunities, it is also essential to be among the front runners in qualifying. Accordingly, we also ran various Set-ups and qualifying simulations.”
Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal: “We are coming to the Sachsenring directly from the Sprint Cup at the Hockenheimring. We showed a very strong pace in Hockenheim, and we certainly could have done better. We’ll build on that! With the knowledge we gained from testing, I am confident that we will be able to achieve further good results. However, it isn’t easy to assess how strong our competitors will be effectively. Mercedes has traditionally always been powerful at the Sachsenring. We must wait until Saturday’s qualifying to see where we ultimately stand.”
Driver Quote Ferrari 296 GT3 #14
Jack Aitken (Great Britain): “I like the track at the Sachsenring. It’s a track we don’t often race on, but it should also suit the car. I am really looking forward to it. We had a successful test there for one day, so we’re hoping for a good chance to win a race again.”
Driver Quote Ferrari 296 GT3 #69
Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands): “I’m really looking forward to the weekend at the Sachsenring. We have one of the strongest downforce packages in the field and on a high-speed track like the Sachsenring that should help us. We had a positive test with changing conditions, so if it rains next weekend, we already have some benchmarks. The track is one of the old types with high curbs. We have done our homework and will work with the engineers on the final tuning during the free practice sessions on Friday. We definitely want to ge