Mercedes client Haupt Racing Team has denied rumours of a possible withdrawal from the DTM in 2025, saying it is working profitably for now.
There has been quite a lot of speculation on the track in regards to the way forward for HRT, with many suggesting the team could withdraw from the championship at the tip of the season.
A growing variety of HRT employees have reportedly applied for jobs at other teams, and there are also rumours that HRT managing director Ulrich Fritz is being considered for a management position on the newly established Affalterbach Racing GmbH division, which is able to handle Mercedes customer racing in the longer term.
All of this is said to the financing of the team, as its owner, Hubert Haupt, has been involved in real estate for 30 years, which is currently experiencing a crisis.
HRT’s potential exit could be a significant blow to the DTM, with the series already seeing its entries drop to twenty cars this 12 months. HRT was also a key a part of the series’ GT3 era, winning the 2021 championship with Mercedes driver Maximilian Götz.
However, Haupt made it clear that the rumours questioning HRT's future are unfounded and warranted that his team will remain within the DTM in 2025.
“We have a DTM contract that is expiring, but we will 99% be racing in DTM next year,” he told Motorsport.com, a sister title of Motorsport-Total.com.
“We will stay within the DTM. We will certainly stay within the ADAC GT Masters, we will certainly stay on the Nurburgring [Endurance Series].”
Asked what stops him from being 100% certain of continuous within the DTM, he said: “If, for example, AMG says you're way too expensive and someone else offers us three million more, then we won't drive in the DTM with AMG anymore. Then we'll have to look for someone else.”
However, he stresses that he’ll “definitely” stick with the Stuttgart brand in 2025 “if Mercedes-AMG treats us well and offers us a good contract.”
Haupt also revealed that the HRT team is financially independent from him and would even turn a profit in 2023. This was his goal when he founded the team in 2020 after taking up the GT3 operations from Black Falcon.
“There are very few racing teams that make money,” he said. “Most of them really put quite a lot of money into it or have patrons who put money into it.
“We managed to achieve a good profit last year, by motorsport standards. This year's profit will be even better than last year. That is also the goal: the company must be able to live independently of me.”
Luca Stolz, Mercedes-AMG HRT Team Mercedes-AMG GT3
Photo: Alexander Trienitz
Haupt is believed to have recently sold a part of his wealth, including a villa in Munich, a non-public jet, a yacht and a part of his private collection, including a Formula One automobile, to maneuver to a brand new residence in Monaco.
His HRT team also moved to a brand recent facility in Drees, near the Nurburgring, over a 12 months ago. Much of the property was recently sold, which also led to rumours that the team was trying to eliminate its well-equipped workshop.
Haupt, nevertheless, rejected these claims, saying the sale only concerned underdeveloped parts of the world.
“The HRT building has not been sold. It will remain in our portfolio for the long term and is financed long term to counter any rumours,” he said. “We made money on the property development because we bought it really cheaply at the time.”
Haupt admitted that indeed quite a lot of employees have left the team, but believes that this isn’t enough reason to attract any conclusions in regards to the team's future.
“There are always those who leave,” he said. “There are always employees who are unhappy and say, ‘I imagined things would be so different.’ We have that every year.”
However, he ruled out the potential of managing director and former HRT boss Fritz leaving the team to hitch Mercedes' recent Affalterbach Racing division, saying: “Uli Fritz will stay with us 100%. I believe he has a good future and good prospects here.”
