news

01

Feb 2018

Christodoulou within seconds of podium finish at Daytona 24

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / Daytona, Endurance, Race Update / Career, Daytona, news / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou, Britain’s only Mercedes AMG GT factory racing driver, took on America’s biggest sports car race, the intimidating Daytona 24 Hours and after a record-breaking lap distance was covered by the lead cars, he crossed the line in fourth place – a mere 2.7 seconds off the podium.

The 28-year old Brit was joined in the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Luca Stolz. Taking it in turns to circulate the 5.73-km long Daytona International Speedway, the team lead the race through many of the difficult night-time hours.
 
With strategy key in such a tight competition battle, the team needed a safety car period, which would usually be common in an endurance race. However, luck didn’t go their way this weekend and the team had to make one extra splash for fuel whilst fighting for the lead in the remaining 15 minutes of the race.

“We needed about 10 seconds of fuel, which is nothing!” said the AMG driver, who finished third at Daytona last year. “ last year there was over 15 saftey car periods, this year there was only four. If we had known it would be such a green race, with no interruptions, then we would have changed our strategy, but you can never predict that for six hours you’re going to have no cautions.”
 
Of course, no one ever wants to wish for a safety car so, instead, Christodoulou prayed for some rain to spice things up and, from the look of the team’s radar their luck could have changed.

“There was a chance of rain, but it didn’t come in time. I’ve never wanted it to rain so much in my life! Still, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”

With a good haul of points for the championship, the team was disappointed not to taste the Champagne but happy to start the season on the right foot. Although this was a one off event to join the team, Christodoulou was delighted to be able to support them in their championship bid.
 
“It’s always an incredible feat to finish a 24-hour race,” he concluded. “I wish the team all the luck for the rest of the season and would be delighted to join them again if they need an extra driver.”

Adam’s 2018 plans will be announced in the coming weeks. Follow him on social media for all of the updates.

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19

Oct 2017

Podium position for Christodoulou in Spa 12 hours

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / Endurance, News, Race Update / Career, news / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou marked his first competitive outing in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 last weekend with a podium finish, claiming second in class and sixth overall at the 12H Spa-Francorchamps.

Having assisted in the development of the new 4.0 litre V8-powered GT4,
Christodoulou was invited to join up with his regular Team Black Falcon outfit for a guest outing in the 24H Touring Car Endurance Series and was immediately on the pace, leading the 48-car field on three separate occasions before delays with an unscheduled stop costing five laps.
With plenty of running still to be conducted before it goes on sale at the end of the year,Christodoulou was delighted with the pace shown by the Mercedes-AMG GT4 during what was essentially a 12-hour test session under race conditions, and believes the car is well on course to be a success in in the ultra-competitive GT4 landscape.

“This weekend was all about putting mileage on the car to make sure we have plenty of data to understand more about it and all three cars made it to the end of the 12 Hours, which shows that the reliability is strong,” said Christodoulou.

“It was important to get feedback from drivers of all different experience levels because the GT4 is generally for those less experienced drivers coming up through the categories that are eventually going to be reaching GT3 or faster in the end. Some of them have been involved through AMG Customers Sports as customers already and we also had some new drivers in some of the other cars, but their feedback was very positive, which definitely bodes well for the future.”
In typically unseasonal October rain, the Briton would share driving duties of the No. 2 car with Saud Al Faisal and Spanish brothers Miguel and Alex Toril.

However, having four drivers would prove something of a disadvantage in qualifying, because series rules dictate that all drivers must complete at least two laps prior to the race in order to take part. But with just 60 minutes of track time split between a 40 minute practice session and 20 minutes of qualifying, so there wasn’t much time to waste.

Due to the foul conditions and Code 60s which extended each lap, Alex Toril only managed to complete his mandatory laps at the very end of qualifying, but his efforts were still enough for third on the grid.
“To do two flying laps around there means you actually have to do four laps, including the in and outlaps,” explained Christodoulou.

“Four laps in the wet takes around 12 minutes, so it wasn’t going to be possible to do the four drivers in the 40 minutes of practice anyway. But we also had two Code 60s during the practice as well, and a Code 60 means it takes seven minutes to do a lap, so Alex didn’t get in until the end of qualifying. He didn’t get a chance to really push, but lots of people were in the same boat.”

Christodoulou took the start on Saturday afternoon and immediately dispatched the leading TCR class entry to begin a nip-and-tuck battle with the identical HTP Motorsport test car driven by AMG legend Bernd Schneider, with whom Christodoulou won the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in 2016. After taking the lead from Schneider’s Mercedes-AMG at La Source, both cars were passed by Erik Janis in the RTR Projects KTM, which came on strong as the track dried.
But a well-timed switch to slick tyres during a Code 60 period – during which time he was lapping 15 seconds faster than anybody else – cycled Christodoulou back to the head of the pack after two hours, when he handed over to Saud. After three hours, the cars were placed into parc ferme for the overnight halt, with the Black Falcon Mercedes just under two minutes behind.

The field was neutralised in time for the remaining nine hours on Sunday morning, although the absence of the KTM through mechanical dramas meant Christodoulouwould have a clear run into the lead. With around half an hour of fuel in the tank, the Briton continued out front for another double stint before handing over to Miguel, who had suffered from a virus for much of the weekend.

After Toril’s single-stint in the worsening rain was complete, his brother Alex took the car over, but with four hours to go, an incident involving a slower car forced the team to relinquish their two lap lead and go to the garage for repairs to the left-front corner. Re-joining three laps down, fought hard to gain the time back but ran out of time to catch the class-leading Mercedes-AMG GT4 from the Uwe Alzen Motorsport stable and settled for second in class.
Although the end result didn’t live up to its earlier promise, Christodoulou believes the weekend met all objectives from a development standpoint.

“We definitely proved how good the car can be once it goes on sale for customers,” he concluded.
“We’re not allowed to use tyre warmers, which isn’t so much of a problem in Dubai as it is at Spa when its 7 degrees in the wet – but everyone seemed to love the car in the wet conditions, they all felt very comfortable with it.

“It’s proved to be very quick and we were very happy with the performance. It’s a shame we didn’t get many dry laps but I’ve really enjoyed being back behind the wheel after the 30 hour test that we did earlier in the year and seeing how it’s improved since then.”

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04

Aug 2017

Christodoulou takes determined top 10 finish in Spa 24 Hours

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / AMG, Blancpain, Endurance / Career, Mercedes, news / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou banished the painful memories of his late DNF from the 2016 Total 24 Hours of Spa by taking a top 10 finish on his return to the Belgian endurance classic with Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon.

Joined by regular team-mates Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz for the pinnacle of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, the 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hour winner starred in the changeable conditions of the early morning to put the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 into podium contention, but eventually came home eighth after cutting a tyre on debris which forced the team into making an unscheduled stop.
Nevertheless, 28-year-old Christodoulou was pleased to equal his best result in the world’s oldest endurance event, first held at Spa-Francorchamps in 1924, and register points in the world’s toughest GT3 series for just the second time this season.

“After last year where we managed all but the final 26 minutes, to finish the 24 hours is an achievement in itself and to finish eighth is a great achievement as well,” saidChristodoulou.

“It equals my highest finish in the 24 hours from 2013, but the championship has grown a lot since then and the competition is three or four times harder.

“With around eight hours to go, it looked like we have had a shot at getting to the podium, but it just slipped through our fingers with safety cars that didn’t play into our hands, and we had a puncture as well which dropped us down a lap. But in the end there were only 35 cars that finished, which shows just how hard it was.”
Christodoulou focused on race setup in Qualifying on Thursday, but despite this only narrowly missed out on a place in the Superpole, as a record 36 cars were separated by less than a second. However, a productive warmup on Friday evening suggested the Mercedes-AMG GT3 would be a force to be reckoned with over the longer runs and meant he was high on confidence heading into the race.

From 22nd on the grid, Buurmann had gained 11 places by the end of the first hour and handed over to Stolz on the fringes of the top ten. Stolz, who celebrated his 22nd birthday on Saturday, kept the team on the lead lap before Christodoulou climbed in for his first of four double stints approaching nightfall.

More consistent, mistake-free driving from his team-mates lifted the Mercedes-AMG to seventh by Christodoulou’s next stint in the early hours, which proved the most difficult of the entire race as the heavens opened in the Ardennes.
The Briton was one of only three drivers who elected not to come in for wet tyres in the worsening conditions, but his instincts proved to be correct as the track soon dried, saving the team an extra pitstop and raising the possibility that a podium could be on the cards.

“It was awesome fun to be out on slicks in the wet,” Christodoulou reflected.

“I knew from previous experience that Spa is quite grippy when it does rain and it tends to dry quickly as well. In GT4 a few years ago I started a wet race on slicks and at the end of the half-hour race, we were the quickest car on track.

“It was about weighing up risk – every pitstop will cost you almost a full lap at Spa, so it’s weighing up whether coming in to put on the rain tyres gains you that lap back. We took the gamble to stay on slicks and we also used the opportunity to do our mandatory technical stop during that period while everyone was circulating at a reduced pace, which was definitely the right strategy at that time.”
Although the puncture had thwarted any hope of a podium by sunrise, Christodoulou was proud of Team Black Falcon’s effort and application at the finish, with one round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup remaining at Barcelona on October 1.

“All the guys in Black Falcon and AMG did an awesome job, Yelmer and Luca were on fire all weekend and did a perfect performance,” he said.

“The same goes for the crew, every pitstop was executed perfectly. You can really see where everyone has been fine-tuning and working hard to get the best out of every opportunity.”
Christodoulou reserved special praise for the Pro-Am winning No. 16 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Oliver Morley, Miguel Toril, Marvin Kirchhoefer and Maxi Goetz.

“I’d also like to give a huge congratulate to Oliver, Miguel, Marvin and Maxi on their Pro-Am win, it’s a really special achievement,” he added.

“I’ve worked with Oliver the last few years doing bits of coaching, we’ve been here to Spa a few times and it’s great to see all the hard work pay off for them boys, well deserved.”

There’s no rest for Adam Christodoulou as this weekend is the next round of the British GT at Brands hatch 5th – 6th August.

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26

Jun 2017

Strong Performance Ends in Heartbreak for Christodoulou in Paul Ricard 1000km

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / AMG, Blancpain, Endurance / Blancpain, Career, news / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou missed out on his best-ever finish in the Blancpain GT Series when mechanical problems struck his No. 4 AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG with 30 minutes remaining in the Paul Ricard 1000km.

Together with Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman, who qualified the car on pole,Christodoulou was running third in the six-hour prelude to the Spa 24 Hours when he lost drive and was forced to retire the car, costing him a first outright Blancpain GT podium.
“It’s just heart-breaking really to come so close to a result, only to see it slip through our fingers,” said the 28-year-old.

“I just feel sorry for the crew and everyone involved because it looked like we were going to be celebrating last night, but it wasn’t to be.”

Proving his pace in qualifying was no fluke, Buurman built a 1.5 second lead over the 58-strong field by the end of lap one and had increased his margin to 3.5 seconds before the race was neutralised by the safety car on lap eight.
After a brief return to green-flag running, a Full Course Yellow prompted the majority of the field to make an early pitstop, but AMG Team Black Falcon elected to stick with their original plan and stay out until the end of the 65-minute allotted driver time.

Buurman led a pack of four into the pits at the end of their window, with Stolz assuming the controls in 44th position. However another Safety Car meant his deficit to the leaders, due in for their second stops shortly afterwards, was drastically reduced and helped bring the team back into play.

By the end of his 29-lap stint, Stolz had cycled back through to second, beforeChristodoulou climbed aboard for his first stint in 21st position.

The Briton continued the car’s progress through the field as the sun set and executed a fine pass on the No. 2 Audi, which had been stubbornly defending its position for several laps, to get himself into some clear air and chip away the gap to the leading No. 99 BMW, running a similar divergent strategy.
From over 30 seconds, Christodoulou had reduced the margin to 10 seconds when the BMW was forced out of the race, allowing him to lead at half-distance.

“It was a confusing race to follow, which I think was due to us being offset against everyone else,” Christodoulou said.

“There was a lot of discussions trying to figure out whether it would be the right thing to do or not, but we made the decision and stuck with it. I think at one point we ended up on the third page of the timing screens, but as people started to pit we made our way back into the lead.

“It was tough out there in the traffic because we were really strong in the tight and twisty third sector, but it was a little tough to overtake. We weren’t sure where we were going to end up until the final stops were completed, so all we could do was push as hard as we could.”
After pitting on lap 89, Buurman returned to the car inside the top 10 and again cycled through to the lead before handing back to Stolz, now in full darkness, on lap 121.

Stolz resumed in fifth and kept the car in contention as track temperatures dropped before giving the reigns to Christodoulou for the final run to the flag.

Running third and closing on the second-placed No. 72 Ferrari, Christodoulou was feeling positive when the car suddenly lost power at turn 12 and coasted back to the pits into retirement.
“It’s a real shame because we were in third position and things were looking pretty good,”Christodoulou continued.

“It’s extremely unusual because the AMG is known for its durability and being bullet-proof, it’s the first time this has happened.

“We’ve been working extremely hard at Black Falcon and AMG to iron out any problems and optimise our package, but although we didn’t get the result in the end, it was nice to put on an extremely strong performance and it looked like we were going to be the top AMG as well.

“We had a mega qualifying, all of us were quick and at the start of the race we were definitely in control. Everyone knows we were one of the main cars to beat, so it’s definitely given us a good confidence boost heading to Spa and hopefully we can carry the momentum into the 24 Hours.”

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