What the HRT team hopes to achieve by cooperating with the German kart team Sim-On and how the DTM team will benefit from it
The main racing team has announced that it is expanding its motorsport portfolio and will also be involved in karting in the future. The Nürburgring-based squad, which will switch from a Mercedes to a Ford Mustang in 2025 and will compete not only in the DTM but also at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, in the GT World Challenge Europe and in the ADAC GT Masters, has entered into a cooperation with the Sim-On kart team.
From now on, Simon Steffen’s team, founded in 2023, will participate in the German Kart Championship (DKM) and the IAME Euro Series under the license “Haupt Racing Team. What’s behind it? ‘This gives us the opportunity to discover and inspire ambitious talents at an early stage,’ explains HRT Managing Director Ulrich Fritz.
“We can develop young drivers in a targeted way and ideally support them for years. In line with the ADAC’s ‘Road to DTM’ initiative, we are offering a structured program from karting to the top class of DTM.”
Since HRT 2025 will also be competing in the ADAC GT Masters, which has been focusing on young talent since 2024, and in the GT3 top class DTM, the team will form the pyramid of advancement in Germany. “All in one team and all from one source – this is absolutely unique in German motorsport,” says Fritz, not without pride.
What will the cooperation with the kart team look like? The squad will have access to the HRT Race Base at the Nürburgring as a modern operations center for race preparation. In addition, the team will benefit from strategic support from HRT’s race engineers, detailed data analysis, and driver coaching from experienced motorsport professionals.
But the HRT team also benefits, because the Sim-On team principal is a simulator expert and will contribute his expertise to the DTM squad in the areas of driver development, training and race preparation.
Despite its youth, the Sim-On karting team has already attracted attention: in 2023, it provided the DKM OK Junior Champion in Germany, and in 2024, the DKM X30 Senior Champion. In the international IAME Euro Series, it took second place in the X30 Senior class at its home race in Wackersdorf.
