Young Driver AMR travels into the unknown. After a long summer break, the GT1 World Championship continues with the eight round this weekend, which will be held at Ordos in Inner Mongolia in China. It’s the first time the GT1 World Championship, Young Driver AMR and the four drivers of the two Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9, Stefan Mücke (GER)/Darren Turner (GBR) and Alex Müller (GER)/ Tomas Enge (CZE) will visit the track in China.
In Ordos, the GT1 World Championship will race at the Ordos International Circuit, which opened last year. Young Driver AMR- drivers have been successful in China before. Like Mücke, who won his very first race in the FIA GT Championship in China and Enge, who claimed a victory in the A1 GP series. But nobody has raced at Ordos before. The fact that nobody really knows the track, puts in even more excitement to the third last round of the season. “It’s great to race in China, which in undoubtedly a growing market and a very important country for all of partners and it’s great that the GT1 World Championship makes this step. The track is new ground for everybody, but all four of our drivers are very experienced, so it will be no problem for them to learn the track”, Young Driver AMR-team principal Hardy Fischer says. “Judging the track by its layout, it’s probably not the best track for us. But we thought this on different tracks this season and once we arrived at the track, we were quick out of the box. So I better don’t make any predictions.”
The race in Ordos will be followed just one week later by a race at the Golden Port track in Chinas capital Beijing. However this race has still to be confirmed as ninth and penultimate round of the championship.
Young Driver AMR travels to China with one of the best results in team history under its belt. In the last round in France, Young Driver AMR finished second and third, which brought Young Driver AMR up to third place in the team championship, only 10 points behind the leaders with still three race to go. Mücke/Turner are fourth in the drivers championship, while Müller/Enge are fifth.
Driver quotes before the trip to China:
Alex Müller (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “Nobody has any experience on the two tracks in China, so it will be very exciting for everybody. From the layout, both track look like a Mickey-Mouse-track, that´s how we racing drivers call twisty and narrow tracks. But I have no worries to learn the track. If we can learn tracks like Spa in a couple of laps, it shouldn’t be a problem to learn this track. It will be a very difficult weekend for us, but we are fully motivated and will give maximum attack to save our chances in the championship.”
Tomáš Enge (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “Both tracks are quite unknown places for us. Everybody only knows the track from videos. But from what I saw so far, both tracks are not really well suited for us. We also have to consider that it will probably be very warm, which doesn’t help either and the fact we also have some success ballast in the car. But on the other hand, we were quick this year on tracks, on that we never expected to be quick. Like Zolder, were we took a podium. And the teams also worked a lot on the pit strategy during the summer break, which is crucial in this championship. For us it will be important to survive both race in China with a maximum of points and then attack in Argentina, were we have already been quick last year.”
Stefan Mücke (#8 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): China has been good to me in the past, I won my very first race in the FIA GT championship there on my first start. Now I’m really happy that the summer break is finally over and we are racing again. The races in China will be interesting and challenging. We studied the track layout, but don’t really know how the track will suit our car. The goal is to collect as many points as possible. Of course, our aim for the last third of the season is to win at least one race, but I don’t think that will happen in China, as we also have some success ballast onboard our Aston Martin after our successful weekend in France. We hope to collect some good points in China and to stay in contention for the Championship until the very last round.”
Darren Turner (#8 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “I did not race at China yet and I’m really looking forward to it. I think it will be very exciting. Ordos is a new track and new tracks are always fun to drive. After we had quite a long summer break, I can’t wait to be in the car again. I hope that we will have a good weekend and collect a good amount of points.
Source : Young Driver AMR