Let’s go: Emil Frey Racing is keen for season to start

There is only one week to go until the International GT Open's season opener with its eagerly awaited debut for Emil Frey Racing with its Lamborghini. The Swiss team competes once again in the GT3 Championship following a successful season back in 2017. Next week, the team will start into the first of seven race meetings. After good tests at three different race tracks, the team is ready for the new big challenge. Both Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO were delivered to the workshop in Safenwil only in February. Despite missing the first official test days at Paul Ricard, the team showed fast lap times with the Lamborghini at Barcelona at the second tests. Two further tests followed at Monza and Spa-Francorchamps, which could also be concluded well. The International GT Open promises to be an exciting one this year with an entry list of more than 24 cars. The Championship gained more and more high-branded teams and drivers over the past years. Emil Frey Racing with its two Lamborghini will face competition from brands such as Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Audi, Aston Martin and many more. In 2017, the Swiss team around Lorenz Frey-Hilti fought for the championship title right down to the last race and finished the year in third place overall eventually. The first race meeting will start with two test sessions on Thursday to be followed by two free practice sessions on Friday. The first decider will take place on Saturday, 27 April 2019, with the first qualifying at 10:30 am and the first race at 03:30 pm. On Sunday, 28 April 2019, the second qualifying (10:30 am) and the second race (03:00 pm) will round-up the weekend. All qualifying sessions and races will be broadcast live by GT Open: https://www.youtube.com/user/GTOPENseries Team Quotes Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal Emil Frey Racing “The Lamborghini is a totally new race car for us. The time we had to prepare was very limited and we certainly have potential to optimize. The car reacts very sensitively when making adjustments and only small changes to the Set-up result in a big reaction in terms of the handling. Something that is very positive with the Lamborghini is that when the engineers work into one direction, quite often it goes the way you hope for. We certainly need more time to get the maximum out of the car on one fast lap. We have done both Quali-runs and simulations, but they have not been perfect. The Long-runs have been very good, and the most important thing is that the car is very reliable. We are well-prepared for Paul Ricard and excited for the start.” Jürg Flach, Technical Director Emil Frey Racing “At the moment, we do not know where we are compared to our competitors, however, you can expect that the competition is very strong. We will use the two test sessions and use our knowledge so far for the track at Paul Ricard. We must stay focused for both trainings and qualifying to ensure a good result and a good starting point for the races – to achieve a podium finish would be an amazing result considering the short amount of time we had to prepare for the season.” Driver Quotes Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO #63 Albert Costa Balboa (ESP) “I am very motivated to start with a new year in the GT Open this year. I work especially hard on myself, because this year counts, and we must show the potential of both the car and the team. My personal goal is to compete for the championship and I will do everything to achieve that. I am very happy for the season to start.” Giacomo Altoé (ITA) “I drove at Paul Ricard last year and I like the track. I don't really want to rate our chances ahead of the weekend, but I am sure we will give our best and then we will see where we stand at the end. We know our goals and are working on it and push to run at the front.” Driver Quotes Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO #14 Norbert Siedler (AUT) “I think, we have a good chance to compete at the front at Paul Ricard. The track at Le Castellet suits our Lamborghini – so we should not have any excuses.” Mikael Grenier (CAN) “I am looking forward to the first race at Paul Ricard. It is always difficult to know ahead of the first race where you are. We have to continue to improve, but during the winter tests we worked a lot and we will give our maximum to achieve the best possible result at Paul Ricard. Our goal is to win races.”