With victories in the drivers' and team championships in the ADAC GT Masters and its first title in karting, HRT's young talent program can look back on a successful year. The young talents from HRT also secured class victory at the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring. Ulrich Fritz, Chief Executive Officer of Haupt Racing Team, analyzes the debut year with the Ford Mustang GT3 in the junior program and the first season of karting involvement.
Uli, congratulations again on winning the title last weekend. How do you view this success?
We are very proud and happy to have won the ADAC GT Masters team championship title for the third time in a row. However, the crowning glory of this success is that we have finally been able to bring the drivers' championship to Drees with Finn Wiebelhaus and Salman Owega. With the change of brand to Ford at the beginning of the year, this was not a foregone conclusion. But the entire team and our drivers had a steep learning curve, which they implemented with meticulous work. Everyone improved throughout the season and ultimately achieved a well-deserved success. This achievement cannot be overestimated.
The ADAC GT Masters is part of HRT's junior program...
That's right – among other things. Finn already drove for us as a rookie in the ADAC GT Masters last season and finished fourth right away. Salman joined us last season as the youngest champion in the history of the ADAC GT Masters, but drove a different car and finished ahead of Finn in the championship. This season, we put both of them in one car. That decision was absolutely right. The two complemented each other well and deservedly won the championship. Salman is now also the youngest two-time champion in this series, and Finn won the “Road to DTM” classification. In addition, our youngster car with Dennis Fetzer, Jusuf Owega, Salman Owega, and David Schumacher won the Pro-Am class and finished fourth overall in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring.
Our debut year in karting was also successful. In the German Kart Championship, Lars Ramaer won the title in the X30 Senior class. Our other young talents also delivered a good performance in karting. These results show that we are on the right track with our strategy of promoting young talent. In Manuel Reuter, our young drivers have an excellent mentor at their side who brings his wealth of experience to bear.
What are the plans for promoting young talent next season?
The goal is, of course, to continue developing young talent and preparing them for higher tasks. Therefore, we are planning a similar youth program to this year. We also want to use the synergies for top series such as the DTM or the GT World Challenge Europe to further develop ourselves. We have made a lot of progress and see a very positive trend. But we have not yet fully exploited our potential. It is sure to be an exciting and hopefully successful year. The announced Evo version of the Ford Mustang GT3 will certainly contribute to this.
