GT4 Winter Series competitors ready for action in Estoril

After a compelling opening event at Portimão, the GT4 Winter Series moves on to the Circuito Estoril for its second round.

Historically, some of the most fierce and fascinating battles in the GT4 Winter Series have come at the historic home of Portuguese motorsport. This will doubtless be echoed once again this season, following a thrilling and unpredictable opener at Portimão.

For 2025 vice-champions SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm, the agenda for the second round of the season will be race victories. After an engine failure in testing at Portimão, Joel Mesch and Enrico Förderer were forced to switch to a back-up car. At times, the pair did not look to have the Mercedes-AMG GT4’s balance where they wanted it, and the weekend only yielded a single podium. Förderer and Mesch will look to correct course this time around.

Joining the PRO class for this weekend, and for the remainder of the season, is CV Performance X JP Motorsport. The collaboration between the two teams is one that looks to funnel young talent through the GT racing ladder from karting. As such, it is no surprise to see a new face at the wheel, champion kart racer Tom Papenburg. After a 2025 with extensive GT4 and Porsche Cup testing, the Dutchman will now look to hit the ground running in the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson scored three overall podiums at the season opener, and are not only the PRO-AM championship leaders, but also the first of the full-season crews in the overall title fight. The L’Espace Bienvenue pairing will be looking to challenge for a first overall victory of the season, in their BMW M4 GT4 Evo.

Tim Horrell and Frederik Zebis of W&S Motorsport will look to follow-up on their own overall victory in the 60-minute pitstop race at Portimão. However, after failing to score points in the first two races of the weekend, the pair in the Porsche Cayman will also be keen to finish both competitively and consistently.

Also in PRO-AM, Cedric Fuchs and Willi Kühne (#111 SR Motorsport Mercedes) will hope to bounce back from a challenging weekend in the Algarve, while Pavel and Troy Sovička will be keen to continue extracting strong performances from the Blue Garage Racing Lotus Emira GT4.

Another pair of Porsche entries are split across the AM and Cayman Trophy classes. Joachim Bölting is often referred to as a wet weather specialist, and the predicted conditions for this weekend suggest the German may be in his element aboard the #32 W&S Porsche. Meanwhile, Speedworxx Automotive brings a Clubsport-spec Porsche Cayman to the grid for the first time this year, entering the familiar pairing of Arne Hoffmeister and Franz Linden into the Cayman Trophy class.

At Portimão, the victories in the Club class were split across three driver pairings, all of whom return for Estoril. This coming weekend, Zome Racing’s pair of McLaren 570S GT4s will once again be driven by the young pairing of Rafael Rajani and Luis Aguiar, and long-time Caterham racers Breno Arruda and Antonio Duarte. Meanwhile, Mattis Pluschkell and Thilo Goos will once again share the BWT Mücke Motorsport Aston Martin V8 Vantage affectionately known as ‘James 4.0’.

The GT4 Winter Series will be joined by the GT Winter Series once again at Estoril, as well as the first event of the Formula Winter Series season. The racing will be streamed live all weekend long on the GEDLICH Racing YouTube channel, while tickets are still available on the Spectators section of the official series website.