The Mercedes driver enters his first endurance race of the Blancpain series on the Italian Grand Prix track

Just three weeks after the season kick-off in Misano close to Rimini on the Adriatic coast, Fabian Schiller is travelling to Italy again. This time the Blancpain GT series is going to take place on the Grand Prix track of Monza, where the spectacular sports cars are going to drive a long race over three hours. This challenge is nothing special for the 19-year-old Troisdorf resident, who is celebrating his debut into the popular GT3-racing, because only last winter Schiller participated in the Asian Le Mans Series with an LMP2-prototype in endurance events, which lasted four hours.

The Stéfane Ratel Organization (SRO) is the organizer of the Blancpain GT series, which has been successfully promoting sports car races for more than 20 years. The Blancpain GT series, which is separated into five sprint- and five endurance-events in 2017, has continuously growing fields of participants. 53 vehicles have been registered for the kick-off to the long track series and the list of participants reads like a who is who of internationally successful sports car draftsmen: Aston Martin V12, Audi R8 LMS, Bentley Continental, BMW M6, Ferrari F488, Jaguar G3, Lamborghini Huracan, McLaren 650 S, Mercedes-AMG GT3, Nissan GT-R and Porsche 991 GT3-R. 

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was opened in 1922 and therefore belongs to the most traditional race tracks of Europe. Since 1950 the Grand Prix of Italy takes place on the 5,793km long track north of Milan. In addition to a lot of famous automobile races, the Motorcycle World Championship also often takes place here. Due to its long straight passages and the throttle ratio of up to 70% the track in the royal park of Monza is called the “last high-speed track of modern times” among the racing scene. 

Fabian Schiller is going to start well prepared on the North-Italian track next weekend, because he already participated here in the races of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2015 and therefore can make use of a good knowledge of the track as opposed to the recent event in Misano. The team HTP Motorsport from Altendiez, that deploys the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with start number 83, has also done its homework. “Norbert Brückner and his team thoroughly analyzed the vehicle data after the kick-off weekend”, the native of Bonn said confidently. “I think we’ve worked out a good basic setting for our car and are going to be competitive from the beginning. I already liked driving in Monza in the Formula 3-Monoposto. That won’t be any different with our GT3-Mercedes. Also, I have two great team mates: Dominik Baumann and Edward Sandström, both AMG drivers. I’m looking forward to an amazing race!”

The racing weekend of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, which is the event’s official name, is going to start for Fabian and his opponents on Saturday at 10:45 with 90 minutes of free training. In the afternoon at 16:05 the drivers are then going to start first qualifying, also 90 minutes, the so-called pre-qualifying session. The crucial second qualifying, that is going to determine the starting positions, is going to take place on Sunday from 9:50 – 10:50. Only about four hours later the 180minutes-race is going to start, in which the 19-year-old Mercedes driver and his two combatants are going to take turns at the wheel of the 6,3-liters-V8-bolide. Like all races of the Blancpain GT Series, the race in Monza is also going to be broadcast live on the website of the series as well as on a youtube-channel. A summary of the events on the track is going to be shown on Eurosport every Tuesday after racing weekends. 

Text: F. Wagner / Schiller Motorsport – Fotos: Blancpain GT Series