PAUL RICARD, FRANCE – Al-Faisal bin Khalid Al-Zubair and Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed have confirmed that the Omani will team up with Austria’s Dominik Baumann and Canada’s Mikaël Grenier in the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup.
The team has been pre-season testing its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at Paul Ricard, which hosts the opening round on April 5–7, gathering data and fine-tuning set-up. Skipping the five sprint races, the team will focus on the Endurance rounds: Spa-Francorchamps (June 27–30), the Nürburgring (July 27–28), Monza (September 21–22) and a new finale at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit (November 21–23).
I am happy to return to this championship, which is one of the most prominent global endurance championships. I will participate in five rounds, beginning at the Paul Ricard circuit and ending at the Jeddah Corniche circuit. Of course, our ultimate goal is to compete for the title, which will have a different prospect now with the strong entry list we expect this year, featuring the most prominent car manufacturers and teams. We expect to have 55 cars on the grid, which will add more excitement.
Al-Faisal Al-Zubair
Al-Zubair recently raced in the 2023–24 Asian Le Mans Series with Germany’s Fabian Schiller and China’s Anthony Liu. They were well placed after Sepang and Dubai, but could not convert pole position, and 10th and eighth in the two Abu Dhabi races cost them the title. He also raced in the 19th Hankook 24H Dubai with Baumann, Martin Konrad, Schiller and Anthony Bartone, retiring from second after 15 hours with fuel pump and transmission problems.
Baumann, 33, began racing in 2005 and has been a professional Mercedes driver since 2010 in GTWC, ADAC GT, NLS/VLN and IMSA, winning the overall Blancpain GT Series in 2016 with Maximilian Buhk.
Grenier, also 33, from Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, Québec, races with Al-Zubair for the first time. He progressed from karting to Formula BMW Americas in 2008, the Star Mazda Championship and Indy Lights, raced in Porsche Carrera Cup Italia and won the 2017 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe. He then raced in the International GT Open and Blancpain GT Series, and in GTWC with Emil Frey Racing, Winward Motorsport and Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing.
The team has a strong line-up and three drivers who are very capable of competing and challenging for victories. Al-Faisal and Dominik have good experience in GT racing and have achieved some excellent results together in the past. Mikaël will be a strong addition to the team. He was one of our arch-rivals in the 2022 edition of the 24 Hours of Spa.
Adam Osieka, Getspeed CEO