Emil Frey Racing to compete in five championships in 2024

It´s time to get the engines fired-up again: The season´s start for Emil Frey Racing is just around the corner. The Swiss team is taking off in its second season with the Ferrari. In addition to the DTM and the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, the team will compete in the ADAC GT Masters, the Ferrari Challenge and the Italian GT Championship.

Emil Frey Racing faced many challenges last year. For the first time in the team´s history, it participated in the highly competitive German touring car championship, the DTM. The team experienced many ups and downs with the new Ferrari 296 GT3 - but in the end, the team, led by Lorenz Frey-Hilti, looked back on the season with satisfaction with 7th place in the DTM team classification and 4th place in the Fanatec GT Word Challenge Europe Sprint Cup.

The team will once again compete in the DTM with two Ferrari 296 GT3 and the familiar faces of Jack Aitken (Great Britain) and Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands). The collaboration with Verstappen.com and Thierry Vermeulen, which got off to a successful start last year, will continue and build on the experience gained last season.

After a one-year break, the team returns to the ADAC GT Masters with one Ferrari. Emil Frey Racing celebrated its premiere in 2022 and finished as the overall team winner. Swiss Emil Frey Racing Academy youngster Jean-Luc D'Auria will contest in the ADAC GT Masters after a successful season in the Italian GT Championship, with the second driver to be announced later.

The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is also back in the racing program for this year. The season will start in Brands Hatch, England, on the first weekend in May and ends after five race weekends in Barcelona, Spain. Thierry Vermeulen and the Italian Giacomo Altoè will share the number 69 Ferrari for the first time as a new driver pairing, whilst the Finn Konsta Lappalainen and the English newcomer Ben Green will drive the number 14 car.

In cooperation with Emil Frey Sportivo, an additional five Ferraris will be entered in the Ferrari Challenge as part of a customer program.

In addition, Emil Frey Racing will continue its collaboration with AF Corse and will be represented with one car in the Italian GT. The Emil Frey Racing Driving Academy is an important component in promoting young talents, with Jasin Ferati joining Emil Frey Racing. The second driver will be announced at a later date.

One of the most difficult decisions was made at the beginning of the year: Albert Costa Balboa, a loyal companion of Emil Frey Racing for nine years, will no longer be part of the team this season due to other commitments and overlapping schedules. Emil Frey Racing would like to thank him for his cooperation and continued success.

The DTM and ADAC GT Masters season-opener will take place at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben from 26th to 28th April 2024.

TEAM QUOTES Emil Frey Racing

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal: "We were able to gain a lot of experience with the Ferrari throughout last year and are still very convinced and impressed by what a great racing-car Ferrari has developed. This year we are better prepared for the season, because last year the switch to Ferrari took place very late before the first race. The expectations from outside are very high, but we also have high expectations of ourselves. Our aim is to regularly finish in the Top-10, both in the DTM and in the Sprint Cup and the ADAC GT Masters. It is certainly a big challenge, and we obviously want to fight for victories, which is why we are on the race track in the first place. The Ferrari Challenge is completely new to us. We have no experience in the series and are entering five cars this year. We want to provide our customers with the best possible professional support and, of course, have a much larger program with the five cars. With Giacomo Altoè, we also have a professional racing driver at the start and we hope to be able to compete for victories there as well. We don't know the series yet and are racing against very established teams that have been doing this for many years, but we hope that we can quickly deliver a good performance thanks to our many years of experience in GT racing."

Jürg Flach, Technical Director: "Preparations have only officially started in Barcelona. There will be a few more tests this and the coming month. Overall, this year will be a big challenge as we are competing in five championships. DTM and ADAC GT Masters require two independent team structures on the same weekend! Our goals are to fight for the championship in the DTM and the Fanatec GT World Challenge this year. In the ADAC GT Masters, we want to gain experience with our young drivers and help them to establish themselves further."

DRIVER QUOTES

Ferrari 296 GT3 #14

Jack Aitken (Great Britain): "A second season of DTM is exciting. I loved last year's series for how competitive and aggressive the racing can be. Our expectations are to fight more consistently at the front and to take more wins and pole positions. ⁠I think we have a bit more of an understanding with the Ferrari now than we did at the start of last year, so we can expect to be even stronger.”

Ferrari 296 GT3 #69

Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands): "It's my second year in the DTM. First of all, I am very grateful to be coming back and a big thank you goes to Emil Frey Racing together with my partner Verstappen.com Racing. It's also a great opportunity for me to return to the same championship, with the same team and the same car. Last year was definitely not easy, but towards the end we laid a good foundation that we can build on at the start of this season. The DTM in particular is very competitive and you have to score points in every single race to be at the front. Last year I raced against Giacomo, this year he is my new teammate. We've always had a very good relationship within the team and we have the same goals in mind. Our goal in the Sprint Cup is to fight for the title!"

Giacomo Altoè (Italy): "For this season, I'm switching from the number 14 car to the number 69 car alongside Thierry. After a year of adapting to the new Ferrari with the whole team, we want to achieve some very good results this year and finish in the points as consistently as possible in order to position ourselves in the highest possible place at the end of the championship. The motivation is incredibly high, we have already completed some tests and the connection with the team and Thierry is great, we get on well together."

Ferrari 296 GT3 #14

Konsta Lappalainen (Finland): "In Ben I have a new team-mate for this year and I'm looking forward to working with him. We certainly need to get to know each other first, but I think we'll work well together. We will start where we left off last year. The team is working hard to fight for victories this year and we have a better chance of achieving this goal. Last year we learnt our lessons and this year we need to put them into practice on the track, make the most of the car and the driver pairing. We have a good combination for this year.

Ben Green (Great Britain): "Emil Frey Racing is a highly professional and successful team. I have raced against them in recent years and have noticed their commitment and strategy - they are one of the best European GT teams. As I also share these values and therefore it was an obvious choice to join forces with the team. I saw in the DTM last year that Emil Frey Racing was competitive on many different tracks due to the strengths of the Ferrari and the team itself. I'm particularly looking forward to my favourite track at Brands Hatch! I've raced there many times and had my first pole position there! I expect the competition to be tough, but I believe that with good preparation we will be fighting at the top of the championship."

Ferrari 296 GT3 #54

Jean-Luc D´Auria (Switzerland): "It's a huge leap for me, and, of course, it's a dream come true to be able to drive in the ACAD GT Masters after the Italian championship. Nevertheless, nothing changes in my work ethic. As a team, we will do everything we can to achieve the best results. This year, the championship has been renamed "Road to DTM" and the competition is extremely strong. For the drivers, this is obviously a good stepping stone towards the DTM. I'm looking forward the most to race at Spa, because it's my favourite track, even though I've never driven there in a GT3. Personally, I want to get the best out of myself and the championship title is the goal, and I will work hard to achieve that."

Ferrari 296 GT3

Jasin Ferati (Switzerland): "I'm really looking forward to the new challenge and can hardly wait to get behind the wheel of the Ferrari. It's a great opportunity to show what I can do. The conditions at Emil Frey Racing are great. I can train in the best simulator and benefit from a race engineer who observes and monitors everything. The fact that I can compete with the fastest drivers in the team during the test drives is another advantage. I will do everything I can to repay the trust placed in me with good performances.”