Finally, the first victory is recorded: Tim Zimmermann has stood at the top of the podium for the first time in his third year in the ADAC GT Masters
“If someone’s ears popped at the scream on the radio, I can understand that.” – Tim Zimmermann has finally reached the finish line. In his third year in the ADAC GT Masters, he finally managed his first victory. A long wait comes to an end.
For the soon-to-be 26-year-old (his birthday is coming up on 6 September), it was perhaps the most important victory of his career. In 2020, he entered the ADAC GT Masters with GRT Grasser and he provided some highlights in his debut season with a third place at Hockenheim and pole position at the Red Bull Ring together with Steijn Schothorst.
That the switch to the ADAC GT Masters was not difficult for him at the time, as he had already gained a lot of experience in various cars. Including in the Porsche Carrera Cup, in which the cars have no electronic driving aids: “That’s the most difficult car, plus I’ve driven LMP3 and also GT3 in Asia.”
Another ingredient for his early successes was the good cooperation with his Dutch team-mate: “We got on very well,” said the 25-year-old. “Steijn and I are still good friends today, but have less contact now than back then. It harmonised and worked very well back then. “
Tough year 2021
After that, however, he fell into a hole from which he had to struggle to extricate himself. 2021 did not go according to plan at all, as Schothorst left early. With ever-changing teammates, he only finished in the top 10 once (eighth place on Saturday in Hockenheim).
“That was semi-optimal at the time,” says Zimmermann about the constantly changing teammates. However, his former teammate does not want to say anything about why Schothorst already pulled out after only one race. “It was simply a season that was not good,” he explains. “I raced in America and on the Nordschleife, but there was a lot of bad luck involved.”
He switched to the Land team for the reigning champion. The start of the season was difficult. From Zandvoort on things went better, but the results didn’t come. Until now. Zimmermann has officially won a race in the German GT Championship. A victory that no one can take away from him anymore.
The thanks also go to his new team, with whom he feels “brutally comfortable”. He says: “They do an insanely great job. I have great engineers and [Christopher] Mies is also a lot of fun to work with. There’s always a pretty positive vibe in the team, no matter what the result is. They are always motivated and I can imagine continuing to work with them in the future. “
Competitive from Zandvoort onwards
“It means an awful lot to me,” he said after the race. “I’m over the moon. It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been working hard all year already. We had the potential not just this weekend, but now the knot has finally broken.”
Mies confirms this: from Zandvoort onwards, the 1 was competitive: “It was long overdue. We struggled at the beginning on the first two weekends. Then at Zandvoort the car was already really fast.”
“We already had a car that should have won a race on the last two weekends. We didn’t manage to get on the podium for various reasons. Sometimes it was technical, sometimes it was driving. “