Five Thousandths of a Second, Then a Lockout
Team Emil Frey Racing put both of its Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVOs on the front row at Hockenheimring for the second International GT Open race of the weekend, and the qualifying margin tells you everything about how closely matched these two crews are. Norbert Siedler beat teammate Giacomo Altoè to pole by five thousandths of a second, roughly the time it takes a hummingbird to complete a single wingbeat.
Siedler stretched his advantage to nearly three seconds before the mandatory driver change handed the #14 car to Mikaël Grenier. The #63 entry, with Albert Costa now at the wheel after Altoè’s stint, briefly dropped behind Oliver Wilkinson’s Aston Martin to third. Costa recovered the position, closed the gap to Grenier through the final laps, and the two Huracáns crossed the line first and second. It marks the second win of the 2019 season for Siedler and Grenier, who also took victory at Paul Ricard in April.
The championship math is the detail that matters most for the rest of the season. Despite finishing second on Sunday, Altoè and Costa now hold a seven-point lead over Siedler and Grenier in the overall standings. Both title contenders drive the same car for the same team, which is either a strategist’s dream or a team manager’s headache, depending on how the remaining rounds play out. Spa-Francorchamps, scheduled for June 8th and 9th, will be the next test.
Why the Huracán GT3 EVO Keeps Winning on Old Bones
By 2019 standards, the Huracán GT3 platform is already mature hardware, and that maturity is arguably its greatest competitive asset. According to one report, the race car’s 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 produces around 530 hp with a 38mm air restrictor in place, down from the road car’s 580 hp. The engine features strengthened crankshaft bearings and solid mounts built for endurance, designed for 10,000 km between rebuilds under normal race conditions. For a customer team like Emil Frey Racing, that durability translates directly into lower operating costs and more predictable race weekends.
The chassis carries over the road car’s hybrid aluminum and carbon-fiber construction, reinforced in areas of greatest torsional stress. A carbon-fiber firewall, shared with the street Huracán, quietly illustrates how much of the race car’s DNA comes from the production line. A Bosch MS6.4 ECU handles engine management, traction control, shifting, and data-logging in a single integrated package. None of this is exotic by modern GT3 standards, but the system’s reliability record across multiple seasons gives teams confidence that the car will finish races, not just start them.
One detail that rarely gets discussed outside paddock conversations: fuel consumption for the GT3 sits at approximately 1.5 km per liter, or roughly 3.5 miles per gallon. That figure matters because fuel strategy in endurance-format GT races can determine finishing positions as much as outright pace. A car that sips even slightly less than its competitors gains a tangible advantage during pit-stop windows. Hockenheim’s lockout was not a fluke born of raw speed; it was the product of a platform refined over years to reward consistency above all else.
Customer Racing as Brand Strategy
A one-two finish at a GT Open round does not sell road cars the way a Le Mans victory might, but Lamborghini’s investment in customer racing serves a different and arguably more sustainable purpose. Huracán race cars compete in championships across Europe, Asia, and the United States, giving the brand a persistent, visible presence on circuits where potential buyers and existing owners spend their weekends. The GT Open, the Super Trofeo one-make series, and various national GT championships form an ecosystem that keeps the Huracán name in front of an audience that actually writes checks for these cars.
Balance of Performance regulations shape the competitive picture in ways few outlets explain. GT3 cars from different manufacturers are equalized through restrictor sizes, minimum weights, and other parameters so that no single platform dominates on raw specification alone. Winning consistently under BoP, as the Huracán GT3 EVO does, signals that the car’s underlying engineering, its chassis balance, tire management, and driver ergonomics, rewards skilled driving rather than relying on a power advantage. For a customer team evaluating which manufacturer to partner with, that consistency is worth more than a peak horsepower number.
Lamborghini’s customer racing network also functions as a development pipeline. Teams generate real-world data on component wear, aerodynamic behavior in traffic, and setup sensitivity across different circuits. That information flows back to Squadra Corse in Sant’Agata Bolognese, informing both the current car’s updates and the next generation’s design targets. Results like Hockenheim validate the entire model: a mature platform, well-supported teams, and a feedback loop that keeps the car competitive deep into its lifecycle.
The Temerario GT3 Is Coming, and That Changes Everything
Every dominant weekend the Huracán GT3 EVO delivers also raises the bar for its successor. The Lamborghini Temerario GT3, confirmed as the first race car entirely designed and developed in-house at Sant’Agata Bolognese, will replace the Huracán as Lamborghini’s factory-backed GT3 platform. As Car and Driver reported, the Temerario GT3 will use a modified version of the road car’s twin-turbocharged engine, stripped of its hybrid system to comply with GT3 regulations.
That transition from a naturally aspirated V10 to a forced-induction powertrain represents a fundamental shift in how Lamborghini’s customer race cars will behave. Turbo lag management, heat rejection, and boost control are engineering problems the Huracán platform never had to solve. For teams and drivers who built their programs around the V10’s linear power delivery and predictable throttle response, adapting to the Temerario will require relearning some basic instincts.
Road & Track noted that while Lamborghini stuck with updated versions of the same basic Huracán racer for a decade, Porsche alone released three entirely new GT3 cars in the same period. The Temerario GT3 represents Lamborghini’s answer to that criticism: a clean-sheet design rather than another evolution. Whether it can match the Huracán’s remarkable reliability record from day one is the question that will define its first competitive seasons.
For prospective customer teams weighing their options, the practical takeaway is timing. The Huracán GT3 EVO remains a proven, well-understood platform with strong parts availability and a deep knowledge base among race engineers. Teams entering GT3 racing in the near term get a car with years of development behind it. Those planning longer-term programs will want to evaluate the Temerario GT3 once real-world race data begins accumulating.
Spa Is Next, and the Title Fight Is an Internal Affair
The championship picture heading to Spa-Francorchamps is unusual. Lamborghini’s two strongest title contenders share a garage, a team principal, and identical equipment. Altoè and Costa lead Siedler and Grenier by seven points, a margin that could evaporate in a single race. Team orders become a delicate subject when both crews are legitimate championship threats, and Emil Frey Racing will face increasing pressure to manage that dynamic as the season progresses.
Spa’s combination of high-speed corners, elevation changes, and notoriously unpredictable weather will test the Huracán GT3 EVO‘s aerodynamic balance and mechanical grip in ways that Hockenheim’s relatively conventional layout does not. The car’s performance through Eau Rouge and the long blast up the Kemmel Straight will reveal whether the V10’s mid-range torque delivery gives it an advantage over turbocharged rivals in the field, or whether BoP adjustments level that playing field.
Hockenheim confirmed that the Huracán GT3 EVO, even deep into its competitive life, remains a car capable of dominating weekends when the team gets the setup right. The platform still wins races. It still leads championships. And it sets a standard that the Temerario GT3 will eventually need to match, not just on pace, but on the kind of weekend-in, weekend-out dependability that customer teams build their businesses around.
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