Technical issues slow down Célia Martin and Lindsay Brewer in GT3 Revival at the Nürburgring
- MIKA BÖCKER
- 1 minute ago
- 5 min read
Célia Martin and Lindsay Brewer were once again hampered by technical problems during both races of the latest GT3 Revival Series round at the Nürburgring, with the all-female duo briefly battling for the ProAm podium before more issues intervened.
Célia Martin and Lindsay Brewer were once again hampered by technical problems during both races of the latest GT3 Revival Series round at the Nürburgring, with the all-female duo briefly battling for the ProAm podium before more issues intervened.
Lindsay Brewer and Célia Martin have endured a challenging debut season in the GT3 Revival Series, sharing the #40 Klausen Racing Ford GT Matech in the ProAm class. The all-female pairing made a promising start at Paul Ricard, overcoming early technical issues to finish fifth in class, before recovering to eighth and ninth at Spa-Francorchamps despite difficult qualifying, limited practice running and shortened races.
Their campaign then took them to the Le Mans Classic, where Martin returned to the Circuit de la Sarthe following her 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans appearance with the Iron Dames, while Brewer experienced the legendary 13.6-kilometre circuit for the first time. Despite showing strong qualifying pace, their weekend ended in disappointment when unavoidable first-lap contact forced the Ford GT's retirement and prevented them from taking part in the second race.
The Nürburgring weekend was marked by unsettled weather. Intermittent drizzle, gusty winds, and—for a change—sunshine made it difficult to determine the right approach.
Consequently, Brewer and Martin had to use their initial qualifying laps simply to find their rhythm. By the end of the session, however, they managed to close the gap to the leaders, trailing by just over a second, securing 13th place in both qualifying sessions and fifth in ProAm in both qualifying segment.
Conditions were far from ideal for the race as well, although the drizzle never resulted in a truly wet track. Brewer gained a position on the second lap, initially securing 12th place overall. Although the gap to 11th place was already two seconds, there was still a long way to go in the race. However, their attempt to catch up did not go smoothly, as the car started to suffer from the technical problems that marred their entire campaign to date. The team slipped back to 15th place after a few laps; they briefly regained a position when the No. 60 Ferrari received a drive-through penalty for a collision at the start - however, the Ferrari rejoined the track just behind the Ford and quickly reclaimed its position.
Brewer eventually found some pace again in the Ford. She managed to close the gap leading up to the pit stop window, reclaiming 13th place overall and fifth in ProAm with 33 minutes remaining.
Brewer stayed out for one more lap before pitting at the end of lap 11, having cycled all the way up to second in class as the pit stops unfolded, and handed the #40 Ford GT over to Célia Martin.
Brewer was not happy with the way the car had behaved during her stint, with the adjustments made after qualifying apparently failing to address the underlying issues. With the car still unbalanced, she was unable to push as hard as she would have liked and struggled to extract its full potential.
The pit stop itself proved particularly costly, taking almost a minute longer than those of the surrounding cars, leaving Martin to rejoin the race significantly delayed after a series of issues. Célia completed just a couple of laps before the problem became increasingly evident, eventually forcing her back into the pits, where the team decided to retire the car as it had become undriveable.
It was another unfortunate end to a race that had once again shown promise for the all-female pairing.
Fortunately, there was no further rain during Sunday's race, though the Nürburgring had become thoroughly soaked overnight. While the track dried out completely before the weekend's second race, the rubber laid down previously had been washed away—something several drivers noticed immediately after the start. Several spins caused chaos in the field during the opening lap; the #888 BMW Z4, for instance, fell victim to this, sliding to the back of the pack. Célia Martin, however, managed to steer clear of the trouble, bringing the Ford up to seventh place overall and third in ProAm by the end of the first lap.
From the second lap onwards, she had to fend off the powerful Z4. Fueled by the frustration of his earlier spin—a known catalyst for speed—the Z4 driver charged forward and overtook her a lap later and began to pull away. Martin’s next challenger was the Lionspeed car, though that driver had a defensive battle of his own to fight; the #46 Audi behind him applied heavy pressure and managed to overtake the Lionspeed entry after a few laps. After closing the gap, Martin’s Ford also proved unable to put up much of a fight as her car appeared to be defending with limited resources.
Shortly before the pit stop window opened—with 32 minutes remaining—the French driver fell behind the #45 car as well. Ten minutes later, the Ford pitted for a driver change.
However, problems seemed to persist there, too. Brewer had to pit again a lap later—with some work performed on the car by the mechanics. Meanwhile, another BMW Z4 spun in the final corner and bottomed out on the inside kerb. The safety car was deployed to recover the vehicle—much to the relief of the Klausen team, although they did rejoin the race a lap down. After this latest setback, they still ran in 14th place overall.
The race restarted with 10 minutes remaining. There were no positions for the Ford to gain at this stage, as the rest of the field was a lap ahead. Brewer attempted to return to the track to gather some additional data and further investigate the issues affecting the car. After another visit to the pit lane for further checks, she went back out again, although she was subsequently handed a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. By that stage, however, the penalty was largely inconsequential, as the team was effectively using the session as a test to better understand and diagnose the problems.
Despite the difficulties, Brewer continued to produce some encouraging sector times as she worked through the remaining laps, eventually completing the running in 14th position overall.
Nevertheless, the car's reliability remains the primary obstacle this season.
The team hopes to finally achieve a breakthrough at the season finale in Barcelona and match the pace of the other Ford. For long stretches, their performance in the first part of the second race was strong enough to suggest that further points should be within reach—provided no further misfortune intervenes.
