Emil Frey Racing

Emil Frey Racing is a Swiss racing team. Established in 2011, the team debuted with a bespoke Jaguar XK-based GT3 race car in the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series. After serving as a Lexus factory team from 2015 to 2018, the team switched affiliation to Lamborghini in 2019 and to Ferrari in 2023. The team now competes across multiple European championships with the Ferrari 296 GT3, including DTM and Ferrari Challenge Europe.

Emil Frey Racing

Founded	2011
Founder(s)	Emil Frey Group
Base	Safenwil, Switzerland
Team principal(s)	Lorenz Frey
Former series	Blancpain Endurance Series, VLN Championship, International GT Open
Website	emilfreyracing.com

History

Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3

Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3

Constructor	Emil Frey Racing
Homologation	RACB G3 (G3-105)
Technical specifications
Chassis	Jaguar XKR-based aluminium space frame
Engine	Ilmor prepared Jaguar 5,000 cc (305.1 cu in) V8 front engine
Transmission	Xtrac 6-speed sequential
Weight	1,240 kg (2,733.7 lb)
Tyres	Pirelli
Competition history
Competition	Blancpain Endurance Series
Notable entrants	Emil Frey Racing
Debut	Circuit Paul Ricard 2012

Development of the team's first race car was led by Frey and FIA Silver-ranked driver Fredy Barth. Once the design process was complete, chassis manufacturing was delegated to Bemani Motorenbau AG in Beinwil am See. The car completed its first shakedown at Anneau du Rhin in France in early 2012,^[1] and the design was eventually homologated as a member of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium's (RACB) G3 class.^[2]

The team and car debuted at the third round of the season at Circuit Paul Ricard. Driven by Frey, Barth, and Gabriel Gardel, the all-Swiss lineup finished 31st overall.^[3] The team then failed to finish at both the 24 Hours of Spa and the season finale at Circuito de Navarra.^[1][4]

In an attempt to diagnose and rectify issues with the Jaguar XK, the team appeared at two races of the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series with an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3.^[5] The team failed to start the 24 Hours of Spa after a puncture during qualifying and failed to finish at the season finale at the Nürburgring.^[6][7]

The Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3 returned for the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series with a new power unit tuned by British engineering company Ilmor. The team intended to complete the full season for the first time in 2014, and the revised car was second-fastest in first practice at the season opener at Monza.^[8] However, a fire followed by mechanical issues caused retirements at the first two rounds of the season.^[9][10]

A Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3 at Silverstone Circuit.

Jürg Flach, former operations director at Sauber, joined the team to fulfill the same role for the 2015 season.^[11] In 2015, the team achieved a best result of first in class at the season finale at Nürburgring, achieving the team and car's first notable competitive result. In 2016, a new lineup paired Frey with Albert Costa and Stéphane Ortelli.^[12]

Lexus Factory Team and Expansion

An Emil Frey Racing Lexus RC-F GT3 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In 2014, the team was selected by Lexus to serve as a factory team in support of the new Lexus RC F GT3.^[13] Built by Toyota Technocraft in Japan,^[14] the team expanded into the VLN Championship to support the new car. The team achieved success immediately, finishing second in class at the car's debut in 2015 with Frey, Jordan Tresson and Markus Oestreich as drivers.^[15] The team finished second overall again at the 2015 Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen.^[16] The team returned to VLN in 2016 as a non-homologated car in the SPX class.^[17] The team achieved a best result of tenth overall and second in class at the 56. ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen at the Nürburgring.^[18] In 2017, the team left VLN and entered the International GT Open Championship.^[19] New drivers Albert Costa and Philipp Frommenwiler achieved substantial success in the series, winning four races and finishing third in the overall team standings.^[20][21][22]

An Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracán at the Red Bull Ring.

Lamborghini Affiliation

In 2019, Emil Frey's partnership with Lexus ended and the team began a new affiliation with Lamborghini. After being supplied with two Lamborhini Huracán GT3 Evo chassis,^[23] the team won the 2019 International GT Open Championship with each car taking four wins apiece. The team moved to the GT World Challenge Europe in 2020, finishing fifth in the Team's Championship with two wins. The team expanded to a three car operation in 2021, achieving multiple wins and the Silver Class Team's Championship.^[24]

Switch to Ferrari

After the 2022 racing season, the team exited its most successful manufacturer affiliation to join Ferrari for the 2023 season. Team representatives stated that the switch was made "purely on marketing" after the Emil Frey Group secured a contract to operate a new Ferrari dealership in Munich.^[25]

Race Results

Blancpain Endurance Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Blancpain Endurance Series
Year	Car	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pos.	Pts
2012	Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3	80	Fredy Barth	MON	SIL DNS	LEC 31	SPA DNS	NÜR	NAV Ret	-	-
			Gabriele Gardel
			Lorenz Frey
2013	Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3	80	Fredy Barth	MON 28	SIL	LEC	SPA			-	-
	Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3		Gabriele Gardel					NÜR Ret
			Lorenz Frey
2014	Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3	14	Lorenz Frey	MON 28	SIL Ret	LEC 32	SPA Ret			10th	6
			Fredy Barth					NÜR 19
			Gabriele Gardel
			Jonathan Hirschi
2015	Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3	14	Lorenz Frey	MON Ret	SIL 16	LEC 43	SPA 27	NÜR 16		8th	51
			Fredy Barth
			Gabriele Gardel
			Jonathan Hirschi
2016	Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3	14	Albert Costa	MON 20	SIL 43	LEC 42	SPA 53	NÜR Ret		18th	8
			Lorenz Frey
			Stéphane Ortelli
		114	Markus Palttala	MON	SIL	LEC	SPA 49
			Jonathan Hirschi					NÜR 7
			Christian Klien
			Norbert Siedler
2017	Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3	14	Albert Costa	MON 31	SIL 10	LEC 55	SPA Ret			16th	6
			Lorenz Frey
			Stéphane Ortelli					NÜR 11
			Norbert Siedler
		114	Jonathan Hirschi	MON Ret	SIL 12	LEC 34	SPA Ret	NÜR 10
			Marco Seefried
			Christian Klien

Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring (VLN)

Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring
Year	Car	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos.	Pts
2015	Lexus RC F GT3	54	Lorenz Frey	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR 11	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR 13	NÜR Ret	NÜR	NÜR	-	-
			Markus Oestreich
			Jordan Tresson
2016	Lexus RC F GT3	54	Lorenz Frey	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR 10	NÜR Ret	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR	NÜR	-	-
			Stéphane Ortelli

International GT Open

International GT Open
Year	Car	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Pts
2017	Lexus RC F GT3	54	Albert Costa	EST 1	EST 5	SPA 1	SPA 7	LEC 3	LEC 6	HUN 3	HUN Ret	SIL 1	SIL 3	MON 8	MON 5	BAR Ret	BAR 1	3rd	57
			Philipp Frommenwiler

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2023	Ferrari 296 GT3	Jack Aitken	14	1	1	1	2	82	14th	7th
		Thierry Vermeulen	16	0	0	0	0	58	16th
		Albert Costa	2	0	0	0	0	8	28th
2024	Ferrari 296 GT3	Jack Aitken	16	3	4	0	3	128	8th	7th
		Thierry Vermeulen	16	0	1	2	1	71	15th

References

1. "Zwischen tradition und zukunft". Vectura Magazin. Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
2. "A Closer Look At The Privateer Jaguar GT Programmes". dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
3. "Blancpain Endurance Series 2012 Round 3 - Paul Ricard HTTT". AutoMobilSport.com. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
4. "Blancpain Endurance Series - FRONTPAGE". web.archive.org. 21 March 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
5. "A good test race for Emil Frey Racing" (PDF). Emil Frey Racing. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
6. "Total 24 Hours of Spa: Qualifying Report". dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
7. Goodwin, Graham (26 July 2013). "Total 24 Hours of Spa: Qualifying Report". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
8. "Blancpain Endurance Series Monza Bronze Test". Blancpain GT Series. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
9. "Emil Frey Racing with promising result in first testing" (PDF). Emil Frey Racing. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
10. "Blancpain Endurance Series: Silverstone, Full Report, Bentley's Breakthrough Win". dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
11. "Emil Frey Racing 2015 Press kit". Emil Frey Racing. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
12. "Emil Frey Racing marks ambitious start to 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup". Blancpain GT Series. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
13. "LEXUS RC F GT3 WINS CLASS ON VLN SERIES DEBUT". Lexus.
14. "Motorsports". Toyota Technocraft. Archived from the original on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
15. "04.07.2015: 46. Adenauer ADAC Worldpeace Trophy" (PDF). VLN.
16. "05.09.2015: Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen" (PDF). VLN.
17. "Lexus RC F GT3 Delayed, Emil Frey Exploring Jaguar Options". dailysportscar.com.
18. "16.07.2016: 56. ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen" (PDF). VLN.
19. "2017 Balance of Performance for 2017 FIA GT3 Specifications". FIA.
20. "Emil Frey Lexus Racing celebrates debut in Portugal at GT Open season-opener". Emil Frey Racing. Archived from the original on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
21. "Race 1: Costa-Frommenwiler (Emil Frey Lexus) again at the top". GT Open.
22. "Disappointing Race-Sunday for Emil Frey Lexus Racing at debut weekend at Hungaroring". Emil Frey Racing. Archived from the original on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
23. "Target Racing to field two Lambos in stepped-up effort". www.gtopen.net. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
24. "Emil Frey Racing expands to three Lamborghini car effort for GT World Challenge Europe". Lamborghini.com (in French). 27 January 2025. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
25. Lloyd, Daniel (13 February 2023). "Emil Frey's Ferrari Switch Based "Purely on Marketing" Reasons – Sportscar365". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 9 February 2025.