Sky Tempesta Racing’s season kicked off for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (GTWC) at Imola this past weekend. The 3-hour endurance was a challenging one for Hong Kong driver Jonathan Hui, and his teammates Chris Froggatt and Eddie Cheever III. Making the switch over from Ferrari, it was the first race for the trio in their brand new #93 Mercedes-AMG GT3, which required the drivers to adapt and learn how to extract performance from the car during a race weekend. For Hui, it was the first time driving the new car, having missed out on all of pre-season testing due to travel quarantine issues making the weekend all the more difficult. Despite starting in P10, and falling a lap behind during the race, the team came away with a brilliant recovery P6 finish in the Gold Cup class.
Weekend Recap
The weekend at Imola started strongly for Jonathan Hui, despite only having a brief experience in the Mercedes-AMG in 2020, he was the fastest of the Gold Cup drivers in the Bronze test and P2 overall, showing strong pace immediately in the #93. Hui stated that his primary goal was to learn the car and to work with the new technical team to understand the behaviour of the car along with the new Pirelli compound tires. He showed a promising pace and was up to the task in his very first session.
The qualifying session was where the challenge of new tires really hindered the team’s progress. The track temperatures dropped very low and the team struggled to get their tires up to the optimal operating temperature, hence struggling with grip and not being able to deliver a strong lap time. This was further compounded by the 52 cars on the track, which made it nearly impossible to squeeze in a clean lap. Hui and his team ultimately only managed to qualify a disappointing P10 in class.
During the race, the team kept a positive mindset adapting to a new strategy by assigning Hui with the race start to kick off the 3-hour endurance. Hui got away cleanly but faced the same issue with tire temperatures and struggled to find grip until his tires eventually warmed up after 3 laps. The Hong Kong driver eventually got into a rhythm and started to deliver competitive lap times, consistently being the fastest Bronze driver on the track. He showcased great determination and made up important positions before handing the car to Froggatt in P6.
Sky Tempesta Racing had a small issue in the pit stop, losing about 5 seconds extra, which proved to be critical as Froggatt became held up in traffic for most of his stint. An ill-timed Safety Car came out just as the overall Pro class leader passed Froggatt which relegated the #93 a lap down from other Gold Cup cars just ahead. Froggatt held his ground completing his stint and handed the car to Cheever in P7 for the final hour. From there it was a matter of pushing hard and trying to chase the leading pack. Despite strong lap times, Sky Tempesta Racing finished P6 in class at the season opener at Imola.
The team ultimately scored 8 points, which is clearly less than the target, but it was an important learning experience to understand the new aspects of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and be better prepared for the upcoming races. Hui will next compete at Paul Ricard 1,000km race which is held from the 3rd to the 5th of June.
I took the start of the race from P10 in Gold Cup, the first few laps on extremely cold tires was almost like driving on ice, so it was a matter of surviving and then building up a strong rhythm. I had some great battles on track and gained several positions during the hour before handing over the car in P6. All-in-all, a positive start to the season and I expect a stronger showing at Paul Ricard as we get to know the car better.”