Of course, the penalty against the “big mamba” of Raffaele Marcielo and Maro Engel at the ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring was the big topic of conversation in the paddock. But in the shadow of the outshining Marciello, the junior vehicle of the Landgraf team developed more and more.
At the Nürburgring, Frank Bird and Elias Seppänen, only 20 years old on average, managed to score points in both races for the first time. The points account, which was completely empty until after the first run in Zandvoort, has meanwhile increased to 30 points.
“We have made great progress, which is clear to see,” said Frank Bird in an interview with “Motorsport-Total.com”. “In Oschersleben we still had problems and big mistakes. We were at the end of the field. Now we’re in the front runners and fighting for podium places.”
Bird only joined the team at the last second and knew neither the team nor the Mercedes-AMG GT3. Consequently, he built an accident in Oschersleben in qualifying and the vehicle could not take part in the race – the low point of the season.
In qualifying only two tenths away from Marciello
From then on things went uphill, which is impressively underlined by the qualifying figures. Compared to Raffaele Marciello, the constant on the #48, Bird and Seppänen came closer and closer in qualifying. While Oschersleben was still 0.717 seconds short, at the Nürburgring it was 0.182 seconds. And Marciello is considered the undisputed benchmark in the Mercedes-AMG camp.
“Obviously it’s great to have Lello as a teammate, to see his data and compare it to my own in the same car under the same conditions,” said 22-year-old Bird. “The same goes for Maro, of course [Engel].”
In the second race, the #84 “Mamba” was even on course for a podium finish, but a penalty lap for a pit stop that was carried out too quickly threw Bird/Seppänen back into fourth place.
“Of course we’re a bit disappointed. It’s one of those mistakes that can happen quickly. But overall I’m very happy with the race; I was even side by side with Jules and we touched slightly. After that, Christopher Mies im Audi put a lot of pressure on me. It was good to be able to keep him behind me.”
As good as it has been so far, things can go backwards very quickly in the ADAC GT Masters. The Lausitzring is new territory for Bird. That’s why he doesn’t want to announce any goals: “Let’s see where we are at the end.” After all: Seppänen already knows the track from Formula 4 times. In 2020 he won the third race at the first meeting in Lausitz.