Successful Season Opener for ZF Motorsports

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In the 2018 season, ZF will be on the track again, as an equipment supplier and technical partner in many racing series on all continents. The first race weekend has already brought many successes for ZF.

Moritz Nöding, June 13, 2018

Moritz Nöding spends much of his time at international race tracks. He is working as Press Officer for motorsports at ZF and is in charge of internal and external motorsport communications for the company.

Austrian Philipp Eng started in the DTM this season, and has been competing as a rookie in the ZF Samsung BMW M4 DTM. Eng has already had his first successes after a surprisingly short acclimatization period, due in no small part to his extensive experience in various Porsche spec racing cups. In the races at the Lausitzring and in Budapest, he was able to take to the podium twice with two bronze wins and is currently 7th in the drivers’ ranking, the best rookie in the German Touring Car Masters.

In the fourth season of the FIA Formula E, the German racer Maro Engel and his teammate Edoardo Mortara (Italy) have already established leading scores in the points for ZF partner Venturi nine times. Venturi started this season with a newly developed transmission from ZF and is currently in 7th place in the team ranking. The coming season, which is to start in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the end of the year, holds even more excitement in store. Venturi landed a real coup in the driver’s seat with the commitment of Formula 1 star Felipe Massa (Brazil). In the new season, Massa will be entering the race with an electric driveline developed entirely by ZF, which, in addition to the transmission, also includes an electric motor, an inverter and power electronics.

Edoardo Mortara (Italy) could not quite continue his strong season opener in Formula E

Another former Formula 1 star is taking the wheel for ZF in Japan: Jenson Button (GB), 2008 F1 World Champion with the Brawn GP team, is racing for ZF’s new partner, the Honda Team Kunimitsu, in the Super GT Japanese touring car racing series. ZF has been an official partner of the Super GT series since 2013 and equips most of the top GT 500 vehicles with clutches. After three races in the season, Button has already won two silvers with his Honda NSX-GT and currently leads the drivers’ ranking for the Super GT series.

Jenson Button from England starts this year for the first time in the Japanese Super GT

Christian Engelhart, the German driver who has been supported by ZF in his participation in various Porsche spec racing cups in recent years, is driving a Lamborghini Huracan as a works driver in the ADAC GT Masters and in both of the BlancPain racing series this year. In the ADAC GT Masters, Engelhart has already secured second place in the race in Oschersleben and is currently ranked 12th in the drivers’ ranking. Engelhart is currently ranked 6th in the BlancPain series.

Following his great successes in the Porsche one-make cups in 2018, Christian Engelhart will concentrate on his factory involvement with Lamborghini

In the US, ZF has been an official partner of the IMSA SportsCar Championship since 2014. In this role, it equips many teams with shock absorbers and clutches. In the prestigious GTLM class, another ZF partner is in first place in the current manufacturer classification: Porsche Motorsport. Porsche won two of the four previous season races and also took third place on the podium in the other two races.

In the IMSA Championship Porsche Motorsport starts with the Porsche 911 RSR

In addition to Porsche’s US activities, ZF also supports the Porsche Motorsport Juniors, the official young talent driver program from Porsche for up-and-coming works drivers. Two Porsche Motorsport Juniors are competing in the international Porsche Supercup, which is part of the supporting program for European Formula 1 Racing. The Porsche Talent Pool is new to the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany this year. Here, young drivers are given the opportunity to be sponsored by Porsche and, if they perform well, the chance of getting one of the sought-after spots as a Porsche Motorsport Junior. These young drivers are also supported by ZF as part of the partnership on the way to a professional career in motorsports.

The Porsche Supercup holds its international races in the supporting programme of the Formula 1 race weekends

In the Australian Supercars Championship, ZF Race Engineering equips numerous teams with shock absorbers. The Red Bull Racing Team and Autobarn Lowndes Racing, two partner teams, are currently in promising positions in both the drivers’ and in the team ranking.

Craig Lowndes (Australia) is not only an Australian touring car legend, but also a brand ambassador for the ZF product brand SACHS

But even this achievement can be topped: Team Hahn Racing has placed its trust in a ZF transmission, along with its other kit, in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship and is celebrating the success that they have had with it. At the season opener in Misano, Italy, Hahn celebrated victory in two of the three races and immediately took the lead in the drivers’ ranking after winning second place in the championship in 2017.

In the FIA-Truck-EM the fourfold European champion Jochen Hahn wants to fight for the title again

ZF in Motorsports

As one of the worldwide leading suppliers of the automotive industry, ZF Friedrichshafen AG is also committed to motorsports. The ZF Race Engineering subsidiary develops, produces, and distributes ZF core products in the field of driveline and chassis technology particularly for race car applications.