Young Driver AMR: Hoping for success in China

After a long summer break, the GT1 World Championship continues with
the eight round this weekend, whichwill 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.