Emil Frey Racing endures a difficult weekend at theGTWC Sprint Cup in Magny-Cours

Fast Facts – The Press Bulletin 
On the Swiss National Day, 1st August, the weekend in Magny-Cours gave the team from Safenwil little reason to celebrate. Emil Frey Racing struggled with balance issues and a lack of pace throughout the third round of the GT World Challenge Sprint Cup at the Circuit de Nevers, problems that emerged in qualifying and could not be corrected across the entire weekend. The #69 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Thierry Vermeulen and Ben Green salvaged a 15th place finish in the first race but had to be withdrawn after a collision in the second. The #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Matteo Cairoli and Konsta Lappalainen brought home a 17th place in the second race.

Press Release
The Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours hosted the third round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Sprint Cup this weekend, and on the Swiss National Day of all days, it proved to be a weekend to forget for Emil Frey Racing. From the very beginning, the team battled with balance issues and a lack of pace that, despite various setup adjustments, could never be fully resolved. Another difficult weekend in a row, which the team will now analyse thoroughly.

Race 1 – Saturday, 1st August 2026
It became clear already in qualifying that Emil Frey Racing would struggle for outright speed at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. The #69 Ferrari started from 29th place, the #14 Ferrari from position 37 for the evening race.

Both drivers immediately gained positions at the start: Thierry Vermeulen worked his way up to 27th position in the #69 Ferrari, while Konsta Lappalainen showed a similar response in the #14 Ferrari. After the pitstops, in which Thierry Vermeulen handed over to Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen to Matteo Cairoli, a four-car accident in the closing stages caused a further setback. Matteo Cairoli was able to avoid the debris, but lost valuable positions in the process. To make matters worse, the race officials decided to go straight back to green following the Full Course Yellow, leaving the drivers to contend with cooling tyres in track temperatures of just 27 degrees after sunset.

In a race clearly dominated by Mercedes-AMG, the Ferrari could not match the pace of the competition. The two Emil Frey Racing cars crossed the line in 15th (#69) and 28th (#14) place.

Race 2 – Sunday, 2nd August 2026
Sunday's qualifying went better than the day before, but starting positions of 17th (#14 Ferrari) and 19th (#69 Ferrari) still fell short of expectations.

After a solid start from both drivers, Konsta Lappalainen in the #14 Ferrari came under early pressure and had to give way to the #6 Mercedes and the #21 Aston Martin. Ben Green in the #69 Ferrari had it even worse: approaching the final chicane, he was tagged and spun by an overambitious #32 BMW. The Ferrari was able to continue but dropped as far back as 35th place.

Around 90 seconds before the pitstop window opened, a serious accident brought out the red flag. After approximately 30 minutes of interruption, during which debris was cleared and barriers repaired, the race was restarted behind the Safety Car, with the pitstops then completed immediately afterwards.

Given the difficult situation and the earlier contact with the BMW, the team decided to leave the #69 Ferrari in the garage and retire the car. That left everything to the #14: after a quick pitstop and a strong stint from Matteo Cairoli, the #14 Ferrari brought home a 17th place finish.

For further information, please visit www.emilfreyracing.com. 

TEAM QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal 
"This was a very frustrating weekend. We went in the wrong direction with the setup and were unable to recover during the weekend. Since we were not competitive in qualifying, we had no room to make big moves from our positions, and could only gain places thanks to the good pitstops. We now need to analyse what went wrong, because two poor race weekends in a row is not acceptable and should not happen to us."

Jürg Flach, Technical Director 
"This weekend was very sobering and uncharacteristic of us. We had balance problems from the very beginning, were never truly competitive and could not correct this despite various setup changes. We now need to analyse the data carefully and draw the right conclusions."

DRIVER QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Matteo Cairoli (Italy)
"A weekend to forget, probably one of the worst we have had so far. Unfortunately, we have not been able to identify where the problem lies for several races now, and we really need to find a solution, otherwise we risk falling even further back. As a driver, I am fully motivated to do whatever it takes to get back to the front, and I am convinced that we will get there."

Konsta Lappalainen (Finland)
"Unfortunately we simply did not have enough speed compared to the others. We are all working very hard together and we just hope to find our way back to where we were, because our current performance does not reflect what this team is capable of."

Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands)
"We had problems with the car from the very first free practice session and struggled with a lot of oversteer throughout. Of course we are very frustrated, but I want to say a big thank you to the mechanics, who are away many weekends and put in an enormous amount of work. Unfortunately, we are not able to give them the good results they deserve. Now it is time to make the next weekends better."

Ben Green (Great Britain) 
"We fell completely short of our expectations this weekend. Despite difficult qualifying sessions, we were at least able to gain positions on Saturday. Sunday was a very different story, as we had constant contact with other cars and the spin following the incident with the BMW set everything back significantly. This is not the level we are aiming for, and we now have time to reflect on everything and make sure we are as well prepared as possible for Zandvoort."

ABOUT EMIL FREY RACING
Emil Frey Racing is a storied Swiss motorsport team based in Safenwil. Founded in the 1960s on the foundations of the Emil Frey Group, the team can look back on decades of motorsport experience, ranging from single-seater and rally racing to long-distance GT series. Today, Emil Frey Racing competes internationally, currently in both the DTM and the GT World Challenge with the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

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