Just one hour north of Florence lies the beautiful Mugello racetrack. With a length of 5.245 km, 15 challenging corners, and a 1.141 km long straight, it is one of the fastest and most picturesque tracks in Italy – and no surprise, it belongs to Ferrari.

Tuscany is famous for its excellent wine, which requires plenty of sun and moisture – and that’s exactly what the weather was like during race weekend: A mix of rain and dry spells posed a real challenge, as the conditions were often hard to predict. However, this changeable weather offered a great opportunity to further develop one’s skills

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Similar to Portimão, we once again had issues with the left rear tire. After just 100 km, the tire already looked very worn out, which naturally doesn’t inspire much confidence in the driver, especially since this was already the 7th tire that ended up like this…

 

After two intense days of practice, race day greeted us with bright sunshine. The track wasn’t quite as fast as last year, but I still managed to secure second place in qualifying with a time of 1:54.789 – once again behind Tomas Guedes. Although I hit the targeted performance window, I couldn’t quite put together my fastest qualifying lap this time. My direct competitor, Patrick Schetty, was just 0.2 seconds behind me in qualifying, adding extra pressure.

At the start of the first race, I got off the line well, even managing to briefly get ahead of Guedes, but I was too cautious into Turn 1 and had to slot in behind him. Schetty was right on my tail, making it clear that this race would not be easy. Midway through the race, I was able to create a small buffer, allowing me to focus on moving forward. However, my GT4 became harder to handle, with frequent oversteer, and two laps before the end, disaster struck: a left rear tire failure – a déjà vu of Portimão – forced me to retire the car.

Due to the rear tire replacement, I was penalized for the second race and had to start from P6, making a potential win seem out of reach. At the start, I managed to gain two positions, partly thanks to the fairness of my competitors. In the first two laps, I fought my way up to P3, but the leaders, Guedes and Schetty, were still within sight yet too far ahead. The combination of old tires in the front, new tires in the rear, and a shock absorber swap without proper setup adjustments made the car difficult to drive, so I had to settle for P3 – at least a podium finish.

At this point, I would like to extend a big thank you to the AMAG First Racing Team as well as Jan-Philipp Springob for their efforts. We were close, but it just wasn’t meant to be this time.

Video to the event and qualifying: Mugello 2024