T Sport Bernau Team MAN make preparations for a new season!

Nov 21, 2020

Report by Melanie Derflinger – T Sport Bernau team

As soon as one race season finishes, preparations for a new season begin!

After what would turn out to be the final race weekend of 2020 at Hungaroring, the T Sport Bernau team spent two weeks at garage Lunau in Wuppertal, Germany. This time was spent modifying the steering system with custom-built components that we had received from FTL steering systems. The plan was to test the upgraded system at the planned final round at Misano, Italy, but unfortunately the race weekend had to be cancelled. The test of the new components will now have to wait for the 2021 pre-season testing.

Still, the team is really pleased with the progress and developments we have made during the season. Not only did we build a brand-new race truck and give our team setup a fresh new look, it was also the first year of our new team collaboration (T Sport / Lutz Bernau) and the unexpected arrival of the pandemic set new challenges for the team.

Nevertheless, the passion for what we do really came to light. The T Sport Bernau team stuck together, we re-organised ourselves and made new plans. Over the condensed season spanning in the past three months the core team members went out on the road, travelling from one race to the other across Europe, meanwhile the rest of the team worked from home, to ensure both safety and the best possible outcome for us as a race team and for our partners.

Logistically this posed a great challenge, having to take everything that we might need in order to deal with all the repairs and the technical developments we needed to make during the season. There was also the addition of lots of extra paperwork that was needed for us to be able to travel safely around the continent.

On the other hand, we were able to use this time abroad to grow together as a team, to focus on developing the new race truck and to explore new marketing channels, such as the formation of our T Sport Bernau YouTube channel.

Even though the overall standings (6^th place in the driver standings and 1^st in the team championship together with Norbert Kiss) are not officially recognised by the FIA; we are very pleased with the progress and achievements we have made this year and believe we are in a great position for a successful 2021 truck racing season together with Antonio Albacete!

The following provisional 2021 FIA ETRC calendar had been published this week:

22/23 May: Misano, ITA

12/13 June: Hungaroring, HUN*

17/18 July: Nürburgring, GER

28/29 August: Most, CZE

11/12 September: Zolder, BEL

25/26 September: Le Mans, FRA*

2/3 October: Jarama, ESP

*subject to event organiser agreement

Obviously, we are not sure what 2021 will bring, but for us one thing is for sure; we are motivated and we will keep pushing! Where there is a will, there is a way!

A big thank you once again to all our partners for their support throughout 2020 and their continued support going forwards.

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