Haupt Racing Team’s first title with the Mustang GT3 in ADAC GT Masters this year is “only the beginning” of the German team’s partnership with Ford Racing, according to its CEO Ulrich Fritz.
HRT made the bold switch from Mercedes-AMG to Ford for 2025, and from day one with the Blue Oval’s flagship customer GT car, the team’s programme has been building, scoring victories across multiple series and a historic first title for the car. Leaving the Mercedes-AMG family to join Ford’s upstart GT3 project wasn’t an easy one to make, but in hindsight, Fritz told DSC without hesitation that he feels it was the correct one.
“We knew making the transition would be a challenge, because we aren’t the smallest team,” he explained. “If we had one or two cars, it would be relatively easy, but if you change manufacturer after five years and you’re running eight cars, it’s a big operation.
“It’s been about growing together. But when you look back at how big the task was, the process was quite smooth. We had a good relationship with Mercedes as one of their most successful teams We have since grown as a team, put together a new infrastructure and engineering structure, and it’s important that we make decisions not based on gut feeling.
“Mercedes has a lot of teams, and it’s great that they treat everyone equally. When you’re a team like ours that wants to do more – continuing to expand and grow our engineering department in the process –there’s a point where you hit a brick wall. Rather than being the 10th or 15th Mercedes team in Europe, we are one of the few teams representing Ford Racing on this continent which is a feeling of pride. It helps us with partners, sponsors and media.
“We wanted a challenge, we wanted to develop something and learn and absolutely do not regret the decision. Our collaboration with Ford Racing was the right thing for us to do.”
Throughout 2025, HRT has competed in ADAC GT Masters, DTM, NLS and at the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring with the American OEM. And as Ford Racing’s customer programme has matured in the Mustang GT3’s second season of competition, the results started to follow.
The ADAC GT Masters effort saw HRT’s pair of Ford junior drivers, 19-year-old Finn Wiebelhaus and 20-year-old Salman Owega, clinch the Drivers’ championship and HRT its third Teams’ title in a row on the final weekend of the season at Hockenheim, with three wins and a further four podiums across the campaign.
Winning in ADAC GT Masters, HRT feels, holds real weight, not just for the team but for Ford Racing and its Junior driver programme too. As DTM transitioned from Class One to GT3 rules, ADAC GT Masters has become a Silver-rated Pro/Am-focused series that offers a spot on the DTM grid as a prize for the best young driver via the ‘Road To DTM’ initiative. GT Masters has remained a key pillar of the ADAC’s GT racing portfolio because of this.
“We’ve put an emphasis on developing young drivers rather than working with gentleman drivers,” Fritz said. “It’s working. We have a platform which we can use to educate young talent, so ADAC GT Masters makes sense because it takes place in the framework of DTM, and you have Silver drivers that can fight for overall wins. It also generates a lot of attention with a good TV package and works well with the media.”
In addition to HRT’s title success in ADAC GT – the Mustang GT3’s first globally – the team also claimed a first overall victory on the Nordschleife for the Mustang GT3 in NLS 8. Under the HRT Ford Performance banner, the team and Ford Racing, together, earned an SP9 Pro/Am class win in the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring in June.
As a team based in the vicinity of the fabled circuit, HRT was always going to be an ideal partner to help give Ford a strong presence on the grid at the Green Hell. And throughout the season, Fritz was impressed by the Mustang’s adaptability on the most challenging circuit GT3 cars compete on.
“At the 24 Hours, if you had asked me that we could have had a result like that, I’d have signed it off for sure!” He said. “We worked tirelessly as a group. It wasn’t perfect, and there were elements that we were disappointed by because an even better result, an overall podium, would have been possible. It was special though, we are located at the circuit, so it’s one of the most important programmes for us.
“Then to win an NLS race, to complement strong results in DTM and ADAC GT Masters during the weekend, was well-deserved.. It was a milestone, but for us it was business as usual afterwards. We want more, we want to push more.”
In DTM, the two-car HRT Ford Performance effort finished ninth in the Teams’ Championship, and Ford ended up sixth in the Manufacturers’ standings as a result. Across the season, the best results came at the Norisring and the Red Bull Ring, where Arjun Maini finished fifth in the second race at both events. There’s room for improvement.
However, Fritz feels that, along with Ford, HRT has outlined where the Mustang requires attention to take the next step in a sprint format, and he is confident that the team’s DTM form will improve next year. This is in large part because of Ford’s push to develop an Evo kit for the Mustang GT3 in year three of the car, with details of this new package being made public soon.
“Sprint racing is where I think the evo will help a lot,” Fritz continued. “I’m hopeful, in the third year of the Mustang GT3, that the car will be continually placed within all the series’ performance windows of its competitors. It will create a competitive balance within each of their frameworks and, all around, promote great racing throughout the year.”
“This is all part of our journey. It was never a question if we wanted to do DTM with Ford – it’s our DNA. If you want to show how good you are and how successful you can be with a product, you need to go there. I don’t know a single championship that’s more competitive in GT3 racing. ”When we took on the programme with Ford, the Mustang GT3 had never really done sprint races. So, we’ve learned a lot together.”
HRT, with a team of 50 full-time employees and freelancers, operated eight Mustangs in 2025. Next year, HRT’s programme is likely to sport a similar look, though Fritz says the team is looking for further opportunities to expand its operations to take the Mustang GT3 to new places.
“We will have an open discussion with Ford,” he concluded. “We want to grow together, and that’s only possible with communication. There are programmes we decide on alone, and others where we make joint decisions.
“One day, we would like to do something in IGTC, because we’ve only done the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and Spa. And if there’s an option in the future for LMGT3 in ELMS or WEC, why not? But that’s a decision from Ford.
“This partnership is why we stopped the project we had in Ferrari Challenge. We want to focus on Ford, GT3 and learn about the car. This year, we raced almost every weekend, and it was about right in terms of the number of events and races we took on.
“In 2026, what we would like to do on top of what we did in 2025 is run a few events in the GT Winter Series, and a few races with Creventic. It’s all up for discussion.”
GT Masters images courtesy of Gruppe C/ADAC
