A Wild Race for Eastalent Racing in Monza

Monza/Italy – The weekend of May 29–31, 2026 was anything but easy for the Eastalent Racing Team led by Team Principal Peter Reicher. The GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS headed to the royal park of Monza for the second round of the season’s Endurance Cup. In summer temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius, the Italian high-speed circuit welcomed no fewer than 57 GT3 cars. For Eastalent Racing, Christopher Haase, Simon Reicher, and Markus Winkelhock shared the cockpit of the Audi R8 LMS evo II.

The “Temple of Speed,” as the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is also known, presents teams with very specific challenges. The full-throttle percentage is exceptionally high here. Simon Reicher explained:

“It was clear from the outset that Monza would be difficult for us. Regardless of that, we already struggled during free practice. We never really found our rhythm and were not one hundred percent satisfied with our setups. In qualifying, we gave it our best, but unfortunately there was not much more in it. In the race, we then failed to be more aggressive with our strategy. Beforehand, nobody could have known that it would turn into such a wild race. Perhaps a different strategy would have moved us further up the field. In the end, we finished in 20th place. Another learning weekend is behind us, which we will now analyze. After that, we will look at how we can improve and turn our focus positively toward the upcoming race at Spa-Francorchamps.”

Christopher Haase also drew a mixed conclusion:

“Various circumstances meant that we were unable to get the maximum out of our car this weekend. As a result, we lacked the speed to fight at the front. We tried to compensate for that with an aggressive pit strategy in the hope of perhaps gaining an advantage. In the end, however, that approach did not pay off. In that situation, we hoped to make the impossible possible. Now it is up to us to keep working with focus in order to unlock the car’s full potential.”

Team Principal Peter Reicher also offered a critical analysis of the race weekend:

“In principle, we knew that Monza would be difficult for us. In the end, however, the race was completely crazy from the very beginning. It was very hard to judge. Today, it came down to having that little bit of luck and using the safety car phases at exactly the right moment for a pit stop and driver change. Unfortunately, we did not have the luck to catch the perfect pit window. You either gain time or lose time in that situation — and that was the decisive factor today. Regardless of that, we congratulate our competitor on a well-deserved victory for the four rings from Ingolstadt.”

Of the 57 cars that started the race, only 42 reached the finish. Under these circumstances, simply making it to the end can already be considered a success.

The team now has a short break before the CROWDSTRIKE 24 Hours of Spa takes place in Belgium from June 24 to 28, 2026. The famous and notorious Ardennes rollercoaster of Spa-Francorchamps will be the next highlight on the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS racing calendar.