Three years ago, David Pittard showed up to the Nürburgring with a privateer SP9 Pro effort, took on the factory cars, and emerged victorious with a new distance record aboard the Frikadelli Racing Team Ferrari 296 GT3.
This weekend, the 34-year-old intends to do something similar, as part of KCMG’s #47 Mercedes-AMG GT3 crew. The Hong Kong-based outfit has returned to the top class this year, as it continues its quest to add further 24-hour race success to its 2015 Le Mans LMP2 triumph.
“What I always saw outside looking in with KCMG is they are a private team, but effectively operate like a factory team,” Pittard tells DSC.
“When [team principal] Matt Howson got in touch, I knew that I was stepping into, effectively, another factory operation, but privately managed and run, and all of that has lived up to my expectations so far, which has been really cool. I have zero doubts in all of the staff involved, that I’m working with some of the best guys in the field, which is fantastic.”
It’s clear that the Briton, who now lives locally to the Nürburgring, has settled in well at KCMG, with the underdog status that comes with a customer racing programme suiting him.
“I feel less pressure this year,” he states. “I don’t know why. I think I’ve been very fortunate in the past few years to have a shot. I feel like I’m in that Frikadelli mindset again. We’re a private team, but we’ve got an opportunity, and I feel much more relaxed as a result of that.”
KCMG has prepared for this year’s race by contesting four Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie events, which were headlined by pole position and a fourth-place finish in NLS3.
While Pittard and 2025 Nürburgring 24 winner Jesse Krohn have been ever-present in the team, they’ve been joined by a rotating cast of co-drivers, the majority of whom have been new to racing in GT3 at the ‘Ring. For the 24 Hours, they line up with Japanese duo Nirei Fukuzumi and Naoya Gamou.
For the 34-year-old, the role of driver coach is far from unfamiliar, meaning he has been in his element helping support a roster that has included the likes of Kamui Kobayashi and Sho Tsuboi getup to speed.
“A lot of my career has been based around driver coaching,” he explains. “I’ve found a lot of opportunities helping others, and I think that’s what KCMG recognised in me. I don’t see very many other factory drivers that are as active in coaching as I am, and the Nordschleife is now my home. There’s probably no-one better, I believe, to bring these guys up to speed effectively.”
This focus on bringing through new drivers has potentially come at a compromise to the team’s NLS results, with two drivers, as opposed to the four that KCMG has utilised, generally seen as ideal for the four-hour events.
“It has been tricky turning up to an NLS race with four drivers, it’s certainly not the optimal way to do things, purely because of track time per driver,” Pittard continues.
“You have to be on it very quickly, but that’s why we have Jesse on board as well. You know that you’ll give us one lap, and then we’ll be pretty much on it the next lap, and that’s what’s happened.
“But it’s also very interesting, because you get to work with a different culture, which is really cool. I experienced that a little bit when I did some tyre development for Yokohama back in the day. It’s nice just to see how they work and what they bring from Japan.”
Although a privateer, KCMG is benefitting from support from Mercedes-AMG, as the marque targets a third Nürburgring 24 Hours victory.
“AMG has looked after us very well, given good support, and kind of embraced us,” acknowledges Pittard. “We’ve been in many of the meetings that the Winward drivers have been in, for example.”
“We had our pre-Top Qualifying meeting, and I was actually asking Max Verstappen for tips; I asked him to walk me through the balance change from the qualifying race, what he thought, how green the track was, and so on. It was quite a surreal feeling.”
“AMG has really taken us under their wing. Having that factory support, but also that independence, I’m in a very good place. I’m very happy to be here and very excited for Saturday.”
Pittard was given the opportunity to qualify the #47 in Top Qualifying 3, and placed the car 10th on the grid. This was no mean feat given that the team was the only one not to have been on track before the pole shootout, having pre-qualified for Top Qualifying 3 and elected not to run in Top Qualifying 1.
“The trickiest bit about that session was actually the amount of mud and dust on the track. From the previous night, there was a lot of corner-cutting going on, so that brings the mud on,” he explains.
“I had a couple of moments through Hatzenbach earlier on in my session, and I think that affected my confidence a little bit later on. Some of the sectors, I’m really up there, but there’s some other sectors where people clearly took a bit more risk than me, which I’m happy to give away, because the car came back with four corners on it.”
And keeping a clean car is one of the keys to this race, which retains a high attrition rate despite the remarkable reliability of modern GT3 machinery. “It’s brutal,” says the 34-year-old, who has yet to finish the event since his 2023 triumph.
“There’s zero room for error. There are places at Spa you can make an error and get away with it, whereas this place takes no prisoners. You’ve just got to have a cool, calm head for 24 hours.”
Keeping calm is going to be extra-important this year, with a record GT3 contingent part of the largest field in 12 years. “I think with the way the weather is going to be, and 41 GT3 cars, it’s going to be a war in those first few stints,” Pittard predicts.
“It’ll be like SRO [racing], and who can make the most of that? Who can survive that the best? Starting P10, we’re ahead of most of that, so we’ve just got to go with the pack. We know we’ve got a good race car, and then we’ll see what the weather brings. We’ve got the experience for that, and we’ve just got to pick our moments.”
Images courtesy of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport and Frozenspeed
