“We are tackling the hot days of the race week in stages,” says ABT Motorsport Director Martin Tomczyk. “The first goal is to get both cars into the Top Qualifying on Friday afternoon and then get a decent grid position.” During the preparations at two NLS races and the official 24h Qualifiers, ABT primarily focussed on ensuring that the drivers, engineers and team could familiarise themselves even better.
After the comeback on the Nordschleife in 2023, ABT will compete with two Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 cars for the first time. The dark blue Lamborghini in the Red Bull colours and with starting number 27 will line up on the grid as Red Bull Team ABT with drivers Mirko Bortolotti, Dani Juncadella and Jordan Pepper. The sister car, number 28, will have a black design and will start the race under the ABT Sportsline banner with Christian Engelhart, Luca Engstler and Marco Mapelli, which will once again be attended by well over 200,000 spectators along the track this year.
For 24-hour races in general and those on the Nordschleife in particular, experience shows that forecasts are difficult. “We've done our homework,” says Tomczyk, referring to the test runs and the intensive work in between and afterwards at home in Kempten. “Everyone has worked meticulously in their area so that we leave as little as possible to chance – this applies to the drivers as well as the mechanics, the strategists, the engineers and the tyre experts. We are prepared for everything and will throw everything into these race days here at the Nürburgring.” “The Adenauer Racing Day was the perfect start to race week – the atmosphere was fantastic,” says Mirko Bortolotti. The reigning DTM champion also competes in the DTM for ABT Sportsline and leads the line-up of car number 27. “It’s great that fans, teams and drivers can come together at this event to get in the mood for the days ahead at the Nürburgring. I’m now looking forward to an awesome race.”
“I’m really looking forward to the days together and especially to finally getting started – but you can’t really have any expectations before a 24-hour race,’ says Luca Engstler, who drives the black Lamborghini with the number 28. “The aim for us drivers has to be to do a great job and get through without making any mistakes. Then we will definitely have a chance of a good result with our package. A clean race, a quiet night, see where we stand on Sunday morning and then get the maximum out of it.”
This will be ABT’s twelfth appearance at the Nürburgring, while Lamborghini will be their third Volkswagen Group brand after Audi and Bentley. “2025 is our third year with the Huracán GT3 EVO2 and the first with two cars. We know the car, we know the Nürburgring and we have drivers on board who have a lot of experience in the Lambo. After our top five result last year, we obviously want to be among the front runners,” says Martin Tomczyk, for whom teamwork is the key to success: “Staying cool, not making any mistakes on and off the track, having a good strategy and driving both cars cleanly – that is the basic requirement to be successful at all at the high performance level of this race.”
The tight race week schedule includes two qualifying sessions on Thursday (1 to 3 PM and 8 to 11:30 PM), the top qualifying session on Friday (1:20 to 2:30 PM) and a third qualifying session (4:15 to 5:45 PM). After a warm-up on Saturday (12 to 12:40 PM), the race will then start at 4 PM and finish 24 hours later.
If you want to be close to Red Bull Team ABT, you can follow the onboard perspective of car number 27 live here from Thursday evening and throughout the race.