Mathias Lauda is an Austrian racing driver notable for winning the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship for Aston Martin Racing in the LMGTE Am category. He is the son of the late three-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda and his first wife, Marlene Knaus. He has a brother, Lukas, who was his manager during his racing career.
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
Stéphane Ortelli is a Monégasque professional racing driver with three world championship titles. He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1998 with Allan McNish and Laurent Aïello and the Spa 24 Hours in 2003 with Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb. He's also won the GT1 Class at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2005 with David Brabham and Darren Turner. Currently, he is an Emil Frey Racing driver competing and developing the Jaguar and Lexus GT racing cars in the Blancpain Endurance Series and the VLN series.
Vitaphone Racing, or Vita4One, was a German racing team who participate in the FIA GT Championship. The team was actually Bartels Motor & Sport GmbH, but operated under the title of its main sponsor, Vitaphone GmbH. They have successfully raced the Maserati MC12 GT1 since 2005, becoming one of the most successful GT teams in the series with five FIA GT1 Teams' Championship and four FIA GT1 Drivers' Championship. Their chief drivers are Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini.
Christopher James Buncombe is a British racing driver who made his last appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours was in 2011. He joined Aston Martin Racing at the end of the 2009 season when he drove in the Le Mans Series scoring a podium finish on his debut with the team at Nürburgring driving the 008 Aston Martin LMP1 car. Chris won the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class driving for Binnie Motorsports in their Lola B05/40-Zytek.
Christopher Haase is a German professional racing driver. He currently competes in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with Audi customer team Tresor Attempto Racing. Among his most notable successes are winning the 2007 ADAC GT Masters title, triumphing alongside Christopher Mies in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship, and taking home the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2012 and 2014. He also won the 24 Hours of Spa in 2017.
Nicholas Leventis is a retired British racing driver and founder of Strakka Racing. One of his most memorable successes was winning the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category with Danny Watts and Jonny Kane, breaking five records in the process.
Maxime Martin is a Belgian professional racing driver and son of four-time Spa 24 Hours winner Jean-Michel Martin. He currently is a BMW factory driver mainly competing in the GT World Challenge Europe driving for Team WRT. Martin had previously been a BMW factory driver between 2013 and 2017, racing full-time in the American Le Mans Series for BMW Team RLL in 2013, as well as acting as BMW's DTM test and reserve driver. In late 2013 at BMW Motorsport's yearly review, Martin was confirmed as a full-time BMW DTM driver for the 2014 season. In 2018 Martin joined Aston Martin Racing for which he competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship between 2018 and 2020.
W Racing Team is a Belgian auto racing team founded in 2009 by engineer and former head of Volkswagen Motorsport René Verbist, racing driver Vincent Vosse, and entrepreneur Yves Weerts. Between 2010 and 2022 the team campaigned Audi R8 LMSs in several international sports car series. In 2010 the team won the Belcar Drivers' and Teams' Championships, while in 2011 they won the Spa 24 Hours. After winning multiple titles in various GT championships, WRT is considered to be one of the best teams worldwide in GT racing. In 2019 and 2020 WRT ran two Audi RS5 Turbo DTMs in the highly competitive DTM championship. In 2021 WRT added a full time LMP2 program, by entering an Oreca 07 in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series, and won the LMP2 class of the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. From 2023 on WRT switched their partnership in GT racing from Audi to BMW and will run the BMW M4 GT3. The team will also run two factory backed BMW M Hybrid V8s in the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar category from 2024.
The 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship was the third and final season of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars. The 2012 championship, which opened to GT3 Series Grand Touring cars, featured two titles awarded to the highest scoring competitors over the course of the season: the GT1 World Championship for Drivers and the GT1 World Championship for Teams. The series underwent regulation changes in 2012 with GT3 cars replacing the GT1 category vehicles used in the previous two seasons of the World Championship. Hexis AMR, now under the title Hexis Racing, returned as the defending Teams' World Champions, while German drivers Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr didn't return to the series to defend their Drivers' World Championships.
The 2012 Easter Cup is a motor race that will be the first of ten rounds in the 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship season. It will take place at the Circuit Paul Armagnac in France on 8 April 2012. The race will be the first time the opening race of the GT1 World Championship season has not taken place at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Eighteen cars representing nine manufacturers will take part in the race, including six new manufacturers and seven new teams. The event will also be the first round of the 2012 FIA GT3 European Championship season.
Enzo Ide is a Belgian racing driver.
Grégoire Demoustier is a French-Belgian racing driver, who competes in the World Touring Car Championship for Sébastien Loeb Racing.
The 2012 FIA GT1 Algarve round was an auto racing event held on 7–8 July 2012 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal. It was the fifth round of the 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship season for grand tourer racing cars complying with GT1 and GT3 regulations. The event consisted of two races, the Qualifying Race and the Championship Race, each of which lasted one hour. The Qualifying Race took place on 7 June and was won by the All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport pairing of Markus Winkelhock and Marc Basseng. The Championship race was held the following day and saw Thomas Jäger and Nicky Pastorelli take victory, also driving for All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport.
The 2013 FIA GT Series was the first season following on from the demise of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars. The series underwent changes in 2013, retaining GT3 cars as the mainstay, but creating sub-classes for Pro, Pro-Am and Gentleman driver line-ups. All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport did not return to defend their Teams' World Champions, instead moving to the World Touring Car Championship with one of the Drivers' World Champions Marc Basseng beside René Münnich, team director of All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport, and defending 2012 WTCC champion Rob Huff.
Patrice Goueslard is a French racing driver. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans each year from 1999 until 2010, having initially made his debut at the event in 1994. His best finish in the event came in 2006, when he and Larbre Compétition drivers Luc Alphand and Jérôme Policand took seventh overall, and third in the GT1 category. In addition to this, he has won the French GT Championship and the GT1 category of the Le Mans Series on three occasions each, as well as the Gentleman Trophy category of the Blancpain Endurance Series on one occasion.
The 2015 GT Sprint Series was the third season following on from the demise of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the second with the designation of Blancpain Sprint Series.
HTP Winward Motorsport also known as HTP Motorsport and Winward Racing is a German-American-based auto racing team. The team mainly competes in GT3 based series such as the GT World Challenge Europe. The team was founded after HTP Investment BV took over Heico Motorsport.
Maximilian Buhk is a retired German racing driver. He experienced considerable success racing for Mercedes-AMG in the GT3 scene, winning the 2012 FIA GT3 European Championship and 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series, before taking the 2015 Blancpain GT Sprint Series title as part of the Bentley factory lineup.
Gottfried Grasser GmbH racing as GRT Grasser Racing Team is an Austrian racing team. The team, based only 10 kilometers away from the Red Bull Ring, has raced in various Group GT3 based racing series with support from Lamborghini since 2015, including DTM, ADAC GT Masters, GT World Challenge Europe or the GTD category of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Austrian