Three Rounds, Two Circuits, One Strategic Calendar
After a successful inaugural season that drew roughly thirty drivers and eleven teams, Lamborghini has confirmed the Super Trofeo Middle East will return in 2018 with the same compact formula: three double rounds compressed into a five-week sprint across the United Arab Emirates. The opener lands at Abu Dhabi’s 5,554-meter Yas Marina circuit on February 2-3, a venue that has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi since 2009. Two weeks later the series moves to Dubai for rounds on February 16-17, then returns to the same circuit for the finale on March 2-3.
The weekend format mirrors the structure used across the three main continental championships: two one-hour free practice sessions, two 20-minute qualifying runs, and two 50-minute races featuring rolling starts and mandatory pit stops. By scheduling the entire Middle East season between early February and early March, Lamborghini Squadra Corse gives European, Asian, and North American teams a block of competitive seat time just weeks before their home championships resume. That timing converts a regional series into something closer to a structured preseason for the global Super Trofeo ecosystem, and it is this calendar positioning that makes the Middle East edition far more than a standalone championship.
A Fourth Championship With a Different Job Description
Lamborghini positions the Middle East series as the fourth one-make championship for the Huracán Super Trofeo, sitting alongside the established European, Asian, and North American legs. Its role, though, is distinct. The three main series each run six double rounds across a full season. At three rounds, the Middle East edition is compact enough to serve as a reference championship and testing ground without demanding a season-long commitment from teams already stretched across other programs.
The class structure reinforces that developmental purpose. PRO, PRO-AM, AM, and Lamborghini Cup replicate the hierarchy used globally, so results carry weight when teams evaluate talent. A young driver can build a racing CV in the Middle East without conflicting with European or Asian commitments that begin later in the spring. Lamborghini frames the series as a preparatory step for GT championships experiencing growth across Asia, a region where the brand sees increasing commercial and competitive opportunity. In practice, the Middle East calendar functions as the bottom rung of a ladder designed to move drivers upward through the Squadra Corse system.
Where Middle East Alumni End Up
The 2017 season offered early evidence that the development pathway works. Axcil Jefferies, a 23-year-old Zimbabwean with GP2 and Indy Lights experience on his single-seater résumé, paired with young Dutchman Rik Breukers at GDL Racing to take the PRO title. Both drivers subsequently competed in the European Super Trofeo series, exactly the kind of upward mobility Squadra Corse designed the Middle East championship to produce. Paul Scheuschner and Hendrik Still followed a similar trajectory, winning PRO-AM with Konrad Motorsport before stepping into the European series with the same team.
Carrie Schreiner’s story adds another dimension. The 18-year-old German used the Middle East series as her first competitive outing in a Huracán Super Trofeo, gaining race-weekend experience in a lower-pressure environment before facing the deeper fields of the continental championships. For drivers at that stage, the condensed UAE calendar offers controlled exposure that builds confidence without the financial and logistical burden of a full European season.
Lamborghini’s broader driver development architecture reinforces this pipeline. Squadra Corse operates a Young Drivers Program targeting promising competitors under 26 in the continental Super Trofeo championships, with coaches evaluating performance and inviting standout talent to dedicated track tests. Championship winners from each class in the Middle East series receive free entry to the Super Trofeo World Final, providing a direct route to compete against the best from every continental leg. Frederik Schandorff’s career arc illustrates the ceiling: after winning the 2019 Pro class title in the Middle East, he claimed a World Finals victory the same year and progressed into the Lamborghini GT3 Junior Drivers programme.
The Huracán Super Trofeo as a Teaching Tool
The car itself is engineered to serve the series’ developmental purpose. Lamborghini says the Huracán Super Trofeo produces 620 horsepower from its naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 at 8,250 RPM, wrapped in a hybrid carbon fiber and aluminum frame that brings dry weight to 1,270 kg. The result is a weight-to-power ratio of 2.05 kg per CV, enough performance to demand respect without the complexity of a full GT3 machine.
The rear-wheel-drive layout is the key pedagogical choice. By stripping away the all-wheel-drive system found on the road-going Huracán LP610-4 from which the race car derives, Lamborghini forces drivers to manage traction, throttle application, and oversteer correction in ways that translate directly to GT3 competition. A Marelli-actuated six-speed sequential gearbox, 12-position racing ABS, and nine-position traction control give drivers adjustable tools to learn car setup without overwhelming them. The Super Trofeo series, first launched in 2009 with the Gallardo, was designed from the start as this kind of finishing school, and the Huracán generation refined the concept further.
For anyone watching the broader Lamborghini motorsport story, the Super Trofeo ladder now connects directly to the brand’s GT3 ambitions. With the Temerario GT3 representing Lamborghini’s first fully in-house competition car, the pipeline from one-make racing to factory-supported GT programs becomes even more strategically important. Drivers who learn racecraft in the Super Trofeo today are the candidates Squadra Corse will evaluate for its next generation of GT3 programs.
What This Means for the Lamborghini Motorsport Ecosystem
Ferrari runs the Challenge series. Porsche operates the Carrera Cup. Both are well-established one-make ladders with deep grids and long histories. Lamborghini’s answer, the four-championship Super Trofeo structure, is younger but arguably more integrated. The Middle East edition fills a calendar gap that neither rival series addresses in the same way: a winter championship in a region with guaranteed weather, modern facilities, and a growing appetite for luxury performance brands.
Lamborghini has not disclosed the financial investment required to run a regional series of this scale, nor the specific cost of entry for a team or driver. What the structure confirms is that Squadra Corse views the Middle East not as an exhibition but as a functional part of its global talent identification system. The free World Final entry for class champions, the coaching infrastructure, and the deliberate calendar positioning all point to a program designed to produce results beyond the UAE.
The 2018 Middle East season is a small piece of a larger picture. Lamborghini’s motorsport credibility depends on fielding competitive drivers in GT3 and endurance racing, and those drivers need somewhere to start. A five-week sprint across Abu Dhabi and Dubai, under floodlights and desert heat, is where some of them will.
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