Its driver Karol Basz set the fastest time across the two Test Days at the atmospheric former Formula 1 venue.
In fact, the Polish team had two reasons to feel buoyant ahead of the opening round of the championship’s fifth edition. Olimp’s second entry might be a Ferrari 488 GT3 thanks to a parts supply issue with its 296 GT3, but that car emerged from the Test Days with the third-fastest time thanks to Krystian Korzeniowski’s lap on Friday.
Team owners Marcin and Stanislaw Jedlinski will share with Basz and Korzeniowski over the weekend, which offers the GT Winter Series runners two 30-minute sprints and one 55-minute encounter.
The lone 296 in the field, run by Rinaldi Racing, emerged from the Test Days as the meat in the Olimp sandwich. But the man showing the car’s pace in Friday’s final session was the team’s driver coach, Felipe Fernandez Laser, known among other things for his work with Michael Fassbender as the Hollywood actor achieved his dream of competing at Le Mans. Gentleman racers Pierre Ehret and Christian Hook will share the Rinaldi Ferrari for the racing this weekend.
The GT Winter Series is already an established ‘off-season’ challenge for Europe’s top teams. Now Gedlich Racing has added two new championships to its bill – and they’ll race for the first time this weekend. The GT4 Winter Series and Prototype Winter Series crews were thus equally hard at work during the Test Days. And they’re already providing their share of stories too.
Rinaldi showed its versatility by also running a fast couple of cars in the prototype field. 2013 ADAC GT Masters Champion Daniel Keilwitz took the wheel of its Ligier JSP320 to set the fastest Prototype Winter Series lap across the Test Days. He’ll share with Steve Parrow on the weekend, which sees the open-top machines take to the undulating, historic track for two 50-minute races.
But testing is always a much thicker plot than just lap times. Take Mühlner Motorsport, for example. The team based at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium has been using the Gedlich Racing winter schedule as an opportunity to run a ‘shootout’ as it hunts for a talented young driver for the all-expenses-paid seat it’s offering in the 2024 Prototype Cup Germany. This week was no exception – but now the focus is entirely on sharpening its race skills and achieving results over the weekend. It’s a good example of a team getting full value from its week in Iberia!
In the other all-new championship, the GT4 Winter Series, Forsetti Motorsport was quickest across the Test Days with its Aston Martin Vantage GT4. British squad Elite Motorsport was next up with its McLaren Artura GT4, followed by the Mercedes AMG GT4 of Schnitzelalm Racing.
But it was probably the latter team that had the most drama to contend with. Joel Mesch might have been around to clock that lap time, but the man he was supposed to be sharing the Merc with got nowhere near Lisbon in time for the Test Days. Marcel Marchewicz was still stuck in Oslo on Friday, after his planned flight from Sweden to Portugal went decidedly awry. All of which means Jay Mo Härtling, who already had the big task of making his debut in the car’s GT3 sister in the GT Winter Series races, will sub for Marchewicz in the GT4 Mercedes as well.
The GT4 Winter Series will run a similar race format to the GT Winter Series over the weekend, with two 30-minute clashes plus an hour-long race.
