LONG NIGHTS, STEEP CURVES IN LUSAIL

IRON LYNX FACES CHALLENGING QATAR 1812KM RACE

Iron Lynx faced a challenging opening race as the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship kicked off with the Qatar 1812KM at Lusail International Circuit. The Italian squad lined up for the first time with its new Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 racecars as the brand made its return in World Endurance.

After focusing on climbing the learning curve in practice and qualifying, both cars had a solid start with Bronze drivers Claudio Schiavoni (on the #60) and Christian Ried (on the #61), although a couple of penalties hampered the yellow number 60.

Platinum drivers Matteo Cairoli and Maxime Martin put up great stints, but a technical issue soon caused Ried to spin and slowly come back to the pits. 

Unfortunately, it was not possible to repair the problem, and the car was later retired. A tough sight for the team’s newest driver, Lin Hodenius, who could not take the track and is now setting his sights on the next round at Imola.

At the same time, another technical issue slowed the #60 car exiting the pit stops and then forced the team to bring it back to the garage. After 3 hours of repairs, Matteo Cressoni went back to the circuit as the team focused on gaining insight into the car’s systems and optimization.

The #60 car eventually took the checkered but did not complete the required 70% of the overall distance required to be classified.

Everyone at Iron Lynx is now looking to take all the learnings and data collected to restart preparations ahead of the next round of the season, the 6 Hours of Imola, which will be held at the team’s home track not far from the Cesena headquarters.

First race of the season, and first FIA WEC race for Mercedes-AMG here in Qatar. It was big learning curve, and not the easiest weekend, but we had a lot of testing that allowed us to try different things. Unfortunately, we had to retire the #61 car for a technical issue. Still, we have a lot of improvements coming and I cannot wait to be back in the car to be in a better shape at Imola.

Maxime Martin – Driver, #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3:

We knew it was going to be a hard challenge, but we were hoping for something better. Still, we used the second part of the race as a test, and we made some positive steps. We must consider that not only was it our first time with Mercedes-AMG in FIA WEC, but it was also the first time we had the chance to collaborate on-site, spending 10 days together to improve the operation and technical aspects. We will now be taking all the learnings and improvements into the next round of the year.

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO: