RAM Racing celebrated a podium for its new GT4 Mercedes-AMG and battled to a top-seven finish in GT3 in the British GT Championship season opener at Oulton Park over Easter Weekend (30 March/1 April).
With the team expanding to field twin entries in the British GT Championship this year, RAM’s efforts against the odds at Oulton Park were rewarded with a third place in class for Harry George and Luca Hopkinson aboard the Mercedes-AMG GT4, while John Ferguson and Raffaele Marciello were forced to battle through to score points in the team’s new BMW M4 GT3.
After rain disrupted much of testing leading up to the opening weekend, the team’s Pro-Am duo of Ferguson and reigning Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe champion Marciello – now a BMW M Motorsport factory driver – took to the circuit under sunny skies on Saturday morning to bed the new machine in during Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying.
However it soon became clear that the BMW would be up against it, with a power deficit to the other brands, which meant the car lagged along Oulton’s straights and up the hills, where power is king.
Both Ferguson and Marciello put in solid qualifying laps, but each was only good enough for 12th on the grid for Monday’s twin sprint races. The RAM car was at least the fastest BMW thanks to Marciello, but the M4s were battling against early balance of performance calculations.
In GT4 it was much tighter, as both George and Hopkinson fought their way to seventh place in their respective sessions, the latter grabbing second place in the Silver class with a strong effort.
The weather took a dramatic turn on Monday, however. Organisers also tweaked the BMW’s settings to restore some of its lost grunt, but the cars would still be up against it, mired in the midfield in tricky conditions as rain deluged the track for much of the day.
Ferguson took the wheel of the BMW with wet tyres for the start of the first contest, with George starting the #17 Mercedes in GT4. Settling into 11th place overall, Ferguson held onto his position well before handing over to Marciello for the second half. The latter then battled to find a way around the Aston Martin of Jonny Adam in the final stages of the contest, but was eased wide at Lodge corner and bumped down to 12th at the chequered flag – finishing 10th in Pro-Am.
In GT4, George impressed on his first outing as a RAM Racing driver by moving up into the top four in class, handing over to Hopkinson for the second half of the race to maintain fourth in GT4 Silver and eighth overall after a lengthy full course yellow period.
Race two meant a start for Pro driver Marciello in the M4 GT3, and he charged forward from 11th on the grid to ninth place, later cutting inside the McLaren of Marcus Clutton heading into Old Hall. By the time he handed the car over to Ferguson in eighth, the track was now dry enough for slick tyres throughout the field.
A further pass on Mike Price’s Mercedes-AMG meant Ferguson and Marciello came home a much-improved seventh overall at the flag, sixth in Pro-Am. In GT4, Hopkinson and George maintained a grip on the podium places throughout. Hopkinson enjoyed a great opening stint, handing over the Mercedes to George for the second half running third in the Silver class. George then brought it home to secure the class podium and fifth place overall in GT4 after a final stint which was heavily disrupted by a lengthy full course yellow interruption to repair barrier damage and recover a stranded McLaren.
The silverware was a bright spot on an otherwise difficult opening weekend, and the team will now refocus ahead of round two at Silverstone later this month.
John Ferguson said: “I love the car, I think the car feels great for me. I think it’s been a difficult weekend for all the BMWs, but hopefully the balance of performance will be a bit better for us at Silverstone and the championship will close up again. The changes overnight definitely helped, but it’s a long way to go and a long championship, so we’ll take the points and move on.”
Raffaelle Marciello said: “It has not been the start that we would have wanted, but we definitely tried our best this weekend and scored good points of course. For sure, it was not quite what we came for. In race two we looked a lot better, but to get closer to the guys in front we hope it will be a better Silverstone. Last year BMW won the race there, so we will see!”
Harry George said: “It’s been a really good weekend to be fair. Obviously, I’d acclimatised myself to the Mercedes from last year, so it’s nice to hit the ground running. I’m looking forward to now just having one decent shot at it this year, and to start with two decent results we’ve had a good weekend. I was a bit worried of the changeover point in race two but luckily it dried up quickly enough for it to work out on slicks. I can’t fault the team. It’s all one big family already.”
Luca Hopkinson said: “It’s been good. A busy weekend! It’s been alright for my debut – a lot of getting used to with the Mercedes-AMG coming from Ginettas. I think I was expecting more in terms of pace, but with the balance of performance we’ve got at the moment we couldn’t do much more and we’re happy with where we are. It’ll be a full-blown push for every round now!”
RAM Racing is next in action in the Silverstone 500 when the British GT Championship visits the Home of British Motorsport over the weekend of 27/28 April.
