Vitaphone Racing Team

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The Vitaphone Racing Team is a German motorsport team that comes from Herborn . The main sponsor is Vitaphone GmbH.

The team currently consists of 32 employees. In the 2009 FIA GT Championship , team principal Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini , Miguel Ramos and Alex Müller are also permanently in action. Additional drivers will be brought in for the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race .

history

In 2004 the name Vitaphone Racing Team was created. The Saleen S7-R , which ran under this name, was used by Konrad Motorsport . At the end of the year, the team consisting of Michael Bartels and Uwe Alzen finished fifth in the team classification of the FIA GT Championship .

Maserati MC12 from Vitaphone

For the 2005 season Michael Bartels separated from Franz Konrad and the Saleen S7-R and relied on the Maserati MC12 , which made its debut in the championship at the end of the previous season. The technical management of the operations of two Maserati was now coordinated by Schnabl Engineering from Butzbach . The regular driver duo this season was Michael Bartels and Timo Scheider , who finished second in the drivers' championship. With the help of Eric van de Poele as the third driver, Vitaphone Racing was also able to win the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race. The constructors' championship also went to the team.

For the 2006 season Vitaphone Racing was able to win the Pirelli factory driver Andrea Bertolini for the team after Scheider was looking for his way back to the DTM . Bartels and Bertolini won three championship races and the drivers' championship in the GT1 category. Together with Eric van de Poele, the driver trio again won the 24-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps and the team also won the constructors' title.

Before the 2007 season , the Vitaphone Racing Team moved into its own team headquarters in Herborn , from where all operations were managed by one hand. In terms of sport, they no longer rely on Pirelli tires this year, but on Michelin tires. Thus, the team lost Andrea Bertolini as a partner of Michael Bartels and internally transferred Thomas Biagi from the second vehicle to the first. He won the driver's title in the FIA ​​GT Championship, which went to the Italian alone, as Bartels was unable to contest the first races for health reasons. For the third year in a row Vitaphone Racing was also able to win the constructors' title. At the 24-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps, the Bartels-Biagi team, with the help of Eric van de Poele and Pedro Lamy , finished second overall.

Since Andrea Bertolini lost his factory driver status at Pirelli before the 2008 season , he returned to Vitaphone. With just two race wins, but consistently good individual results, the driver and constructor titles were defended again. In addition to the 24-hour race in Spa, where they won again with Eric van de Poele and Stéphane Sarrazin , the team also went to the 24-hour race at Le Mans . Since the Maserati MC12 was not allowed to start here, the entry was given to the Strakka Racing Team , which fielded an Aston Martin DBR9 . Thus the operation with drivers from the British partner also ran.

In 2009 Vitaphone Racing initially fielded two Maserati MC12s in the FIA ​​GT Championship. From the 24-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps, a third car was registered as Vitaphone Racing Team DHL , which was initially only planned for the race in Belgium. After the finale in Zolder, main competitor Peka Racing protested, among other things, against the non-permitted stall order for the third vehicle. This and two other protests were rejected and the team again champions.

With the changes to the GT1 group regulations for the 2010 season, it was initially unclear whether the Maserati MC12 could continue to be used. However, after negotiations between the team, the FIA and the organizer SRO , the vehicle was re-registered in the championship following adjustment to the 2010 regulations.

Web links

Commons : Vitaphone Racing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.schnabl-engineering.de/unternehmen.html
  2. ↑ http://www.gt-eins.at/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2788&Itemid=28
  3. ↑ http://www.speedweek.de/news/6205/Voller-Einsatz-von-Vitaphone-Racing.html
  4. ↑ a b http://www.speedweek.de/news/8901/BartelsBertolini-als-FIA-GT-Champions-bestaetigt.html
  5. ↑ http://www.gt-eins.at/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4272&Itemid=2