All new in the ADAC GT Masters: Markus Winkelhock, Rutronik team boss Fabian Plentz and ADAC head of sport Thomas Voss on the 2022 German GT Championship
This weekend, the wait is over: the season opener for the 2022 ADAC GT Masters will take place at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The field is hardly recognisable compared to last year, there are numerous new driver/team combinations and new favourites. Reason enough to take a look at the 2022 German GT Championship before the start of the season.
Guests are Markus Winkelhock, driver at Car Collection Motorsport in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, Fabian Plentz, team boss of Rutronik Racing, the 2019 champion team, and ADAC sports chief Thomas Voss.
“I’m sure that current Formula 1 drivers, if you put them in a GT3, won’t be on the front rows of the grid.” Markus Winkelhock should know, after all, he has been active in Formula racing himself for years and has scored victories and podium finishes.
He achieved world-wide fame at the “Miracle of the Nürburgring” when he led the 2007 European Grand Prix for several laps in the slowest car of the Formula 1 field. He also discusses this story during the interview.
Today, he is a permanent fixture in the ADAC GT Masters. He has been a permanent fixture in the paddock since 2011 – with interruptions in 2012 and 2015.
However, 2022 will also be a change for him. That’s because the German GT Championship has changed its face dramatically. The DTM has siphoned off several teams from the top, some teams have withdrawn for other reasons. In their place, several new teams and new drivers have joined the fray.
Fabian Plentz warns against underestimating the newcomers: “Many of them are not novices. When I look at the new team around Jörg an Ommen and Philipp Zakowski [ZVO Racing] – they are not new, they have plenty of experience. They know the product, they know the series and they have strong drivers on the car.”
“And then, of course, there are brand new teams that aren’t even on your radar yet. It was no different for us back then [in 2019]. We were relatively unknown, but we prepared very well and had the drivers.” He doesn’t want to rule out the possibility of another team achieving the coup this year that he himself managed in 2019 – taking the title straight away when he started out.
