Mercedes-AMG has been a constant at the sharp end of the Spa 24 Hours for most of the GT3 era, but so far, it has only two victories to its name – in 2013 with the old SLS AMG run by HTP and more recently in 2022 with the Akkodis ASP-entered AMG GT.
The current car is now one of the oldest on the grid, with even its most recent evolution debuting as far back as 2020, but the marque’s works drivers declare themselves still satisfied with what is undoubtedly a proven package.
Four Mercedes-AMGs will take the start in the race’s Pro category on Saturday afternoon, with works-backed entries from Boutsen VDS (#9), Team GetSpeed (#17) and Team MANN-FILTER (#48) joined by the Japanese Goodsmile Racing outfit, running here with operational support from the Landgraf DTM squad.
Andorra-based Frenchman Jules Gounon is keeping busy in 2025, undertaking GT World Challenge and DTM programmes for AMG alongside his Alpine Hypercar duties in the WEC. He forms a third of the driving squad of the #17 car, alongside Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller.
“We’ll probably only see the full picture emerge once the race is underway,” said Gounon (above) when asked how the formbook is looking, “as the temperature on Friday is 22 to 24 degrees, compared to 30 degrees projected for Sunday. That means track temp will probably be 45, so I think maybe even during the race, we will see some brands struggling at the beginning, maybe others struggling at the end. It’ll be an interesting one.
“With the Mercedes, in the past we had quite a narrow tyre window, but I think this year’s Pirelli is more on the upper range than before. At Monza, the track temp was 55 and the tyre was the best I’ve ever felt it. So I don’t think we’re going to see massive issues on Sunday with that.
“Wet or dry, every year this race is flat out,” he continued. “I remember arriving here as a 21-year-old, doing my first safety-car start at night and thinking, who the hell are these guys, is everyone crazy? I think this is the toughest of all the 24-hour races; you’ve got most of the guys from Hypercar, most of the factory drivers, but sometimes it feels underrated when you speak to people. It’s one of the hardest to win, definitely.”
“With 75 cars on the grid, I think that translates to one car every 70 metres. And even with blue flags, a good Silver or Gold-rated driver can match your pace, so it’s very hard to pass.
Gounon and his teammates’ strong pace in the previous GT World Challenge rounds hasn’t translated to stellar results, so full focus this weekend is on winning Spa, with no thought given to banking points.
“I think our championship chance is gone now, but to be honest, I prefer the situation we had at Monza, where we were dominant but had a reliability glitch late in the race, to just navigating around the top 10 with no pace and struggling to understand the issue,” he explained. “So we’re going to try to win this one. It’ll put us at an advantage, as we’re not bothered about banking points at six and 12 hours, so we won’t compromise our strategy for that.”
Turning to DTM, having done little single-seater racing early in his career due to a lack of budget, Gounon is relishing the focused and detail-oriented nature of the one-driver-per-car series. “You’re very close to your engineer and your three or four mechanics, it’s a very strong team feeling,” he said.
“You’re fine-tuning every single detail to extract performance; I’m a perfectionist, and you can’t have the same level of perfectionism in endurance events as you can in DTM. It’s a nice combination to do both, but I need to make sure my mentality switches back to being the ‘nice team-mate’ with no ego when I come here!”
Driving the #9 Boutsen VDS car (above) with Maxi Goetz and French-Canadian Mikael Grenier, Belgium’s Maxime Martin was a very late addition to Mercedes-AMG’s factory roster for 2025, but declares himself happy with how the move has panned out so far.
“Okay, it has been difficult in terms of results, but I’m really happy to be here; it’s not a question mark, we’ll just look forward and try to have a better second half of the season,” he said.
This will be Martin’s 19th total – and 18th straight – Spa 24 Hours, but the son of four-time race winner Jean-Michel Martin hasn’t stood on the top step of the podium here for almost a decade, last triumphing in a ROWE BMW in 2016.
“I definitely know this race well, I’ve been close many times, and obviously I want to win more. I have to match my Dad at least!” He said. “
I guess you could say our car is old compared to the competition, but at the end of the day, it remains competitive. It’s a strong base; it’s not the outright best in any one area, but it’s good everywhere: high-speed corners, low-speed corners, under braking.
“With the number of cars we have here, I expect we’ll still have plenty of safety cars and FCYs, even if it does stay warm and dry. I think the heat itself will be a challenge; this is already such a physical race with no break around the lap. But the heat will be good for Mercedes, as it’s difficult for us to get the tyres into a good window when it’s cooler.”
Maro Engel (seen above at Macau in 2024) is also no stranger to the Spa 24 Hours, and certainly no stranger to Mercedes-AMG, having been on the books since 2008, making for one of the longest driver-manufacturer relationships in the paddock.
“It’s my motorsport family and I’m still as motivated as ever,” he said. “I feel really comfortable here and appreciate all the trust placed in me.”
Spa 24 victory remains a box for Engel to tick, having previously won the Nurburgring and Daytona round-the-clock classics. “Yeah, it’s never come good for me here. It’s ultra-competitive; all you can do is put all your eggs in one basket and give yourself the best chance to be successful.”
Engel is sharing the Team MANN-FILTER car with fellow factory driver Lucas Auer, the Austrian nephew of F1’s Gerhard Berger, as well as Italian Mateo Cairoli – not an AMG factory driver for now, but expected to join the ranks before very long on the strength of his recent form. Like Martin, Engel is confident they have the tools they need to win.
“I think we have to look back and appreciate the job Mercedes-AMG did,” he said. “This is one of the oldest cars on the grid, even our Evo is from 2020, and it’s still the benchmark in terms of handling, giving the driver confidence to push. Cornering is certainly our strength, especially medium and lower speed.
“High speed corners are probably not as big an advantage, and we’re not as strong in a straight line, just with how the BoP works. And that makes it tougher for us to overtake, because it’s always easier to overtake in a straight line, so that puts a bit more on our shoulders as drivers.”
Images courtesy of SRO
