How defending champion Mirko Bortolotti assesses the current situation at Abt and who is surprisingly providing expertise after Lamborghini’s difficult start
The Abt team is still in a difficult situation after switching from Audi to Lamborghini. “As you can see, we’re having a few difficulties – we’re not where we want to be,” said reigning champion Mirko Bortolotti in Nuremberg, looking back on the start of the season with Abt, where he has so far only managed a sixth place at the Lausitzring.
Defending the title is now a distant prospect for the Italian, who is considered Lamborghini’s best GT3 driver, as he is only tenth in the championship at the halfway point. “We will try to learn from every session and hopefully be competitive towards the end of the year,” said the 35-year-old, describing the new approach.
The traditional team from Kempten, which is struggling against its rivals from Grasser this year, received help in Nuremberg from a member of the former Lamborghini championship-winning team SSR Performance.
Surprise visit from SSR man Schmidt to Abt
It was a big surprise when Marcel Schmidt showed up at the Abt pit on Friday: The engineer served as Nicki Thiim’s DTM race engineer in 2024 and therefore has knowledge of the Huracan GT3 Evo2. This is an area in which the Grasser team is known to have an advantage, as it has been using the car for ten years.
“We worked together at SSR last year, and I always got on very well with him,” said Bortolotti about Schmidt. “I hope he can help the team a little bit. He knows the car well, which is an advantage.”
But how did Schmidt come to support the Abt team in Nuremberg? “The opportunity arose at short notice to strengthen our engineering team in the DTM with Marcel Schmidt. We didn’t want to miss this chance,” “We have known and appreciated Marcel for many years and are very happy to have him on the team.”
What role does Schmidt play at Abt?
Schmidt worked for BMW Team Schubert in 2022 and 2023 as race engineer for Sheldon van der Linde, as chief engineer and as team manager, leading the South African to the DTM championship title in 2022. His brother Kelvin van der Linde drove for Abt in the DTM from 2021 to 2024, which apparently brought him into contact with Schmidt.
He was still working for SSR Performance until recently – and did not appear in Abt team clothing in Nuremberg, but with headphones on. According to the team, Schmidt is not replacing any of the engineers nominated before the start of the season, but is only supporting Abt with his expertise in Nuremberg for the time being. It will be interesting to see whether he will also be involved at the Nürburgring.
Bortolotti: “Not competitive, especially on the straights”
It was puzzling, however, that Bortolotti failed to get up to speed at the Norisring, unlike his teammate Nicki Thiim, who set the Abt highlight of the weekend with second place on the grid on Saturday. “Mirko had a bit of trouble finding his feet all weekend and also finding the right combination with the car on the track,” explained Abt’s sporting director Martin Tomczyk.
Bortolotti himself still believes Abt is at a disadvantage compared to its brand colleagues. “We weren’t competitive, especially on the straights – even in direct comparison with other Lamborghinis,” said the 35-year-old, who says he is not giving up despite the circumstances.
