Mercedes superteam for GT

Auto Sport Promotion boss Jerome Policand has billed it as a “dream line-up”, and it’s difficult to argue. The French Mercedes squad is heading into the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with a Mercedes-amg GT3 to be driven by a trio of factory drivers in Raffaele Marciello,

Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella.

Gounon and Juncadella, who have been added to the Merc GT3 pool for the new season, have returned to a team for which they both drove in 2017 to join Marciello for the five enduros. Gounon and Marciello will also contest the Sprint Cup segment of the series as ASP defends the overall GTWCE crown won by Timur Boguslavskiy in 2020.

“I don’t think I could have better drivers unless I signed Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen,” said Policand, whose team also won the Sprint Cup last year with Boguslavskiy. “I’ve broken the bank to do it, but the Endurance Cup is so competitive now, especially the Spa 24 Hours [the double-points, blue-riband round]. It wouldn’t make sense to have a young driver in the car for the rest of the championship and then change the line-up for Spa.”

Marciello will continue his relationship with Boguslavskiy in the Sprint Cup after contesting the full championship with him in 2020 bar one race, when he was on duty with Merc in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Gounon, meanwhile, will race alongside Romanian Petru Razvan Umbrarescu, who made his debut in the GTWCE at Spa last year with the CMR Bentley squad.

Boguslavskiy is scheduled to also drive for ASP in the GTWCE enduros. Policand is working on putting together an entry for the Silver Cup class that would include the Russian and Formula 3 Euro Series race winner Jim Pla in the line-up.