Kiano Blum (Ford): Motivated for the final despite Salzburg misfortune

Kiano Blum had set his sights particularly high for the two ADAC GT Masters races at the Salzburgring – after all, a group of supporters from Vorarlberg had travelled to his home race, and he still had a chance of securing the overall victory. However, the Ford junior and his HRT team-mate Niklas Kalus could manage no better than third place in the first race (2.1 seconds behind the winners, Fourie and Zimmermann in the BMW) and a disappointing eleventh place in the second.

That said, it wasn’t down to the 19-year-old, as technical issues plagued both races. What Blum could take away from it, however, was: “I’m very happy with my performance.” His mentor, Manuel Reuter, also confirmed the “excellent job”, but admitted: “It was a wasted weekend, but not because of Kiano.”

Bad luck in both races for Kiano Blum

Blum summed up the first race as follows: “Unfortunately, it took longer than expected to get past my team-mate Dybionka in the second HRT Mustang. After that, it was full throttle until the pit stop, during which we had a problem with the automatic timing system. We had to control the stop manually and lost around ten seconds in the process. That’s why we fell back behind our team-mates again. Overtaking is very difficult here. However, the strategy of doing the short stop first and then the long one was the right one. Without the problem at the stop, it would have been a clear victory.”

In the second race, Blum, as the starting and finishing driver, was the first to benefit from pole position because the Engstler Lamborghini (Zulauf/Hirsiger) was disqualified as the fastest in qualifying following a breach of the rules and had to start from last place.

“I was able to capitalise on pole position with a good start. It was important to have a clear run at the front. The car was like it was on rails – simply perfect. The pit stop was still okay, but something must have gone wrong during the tyre change – perhaps with a sensor. That’s why Niklas no longer had ABS when he braked for the first chicane after coming off the track. After that, he had to drive slowly for half a lap because he had to reset the engine. Unfortunately, that cost us a lot of points and our chances of winning the championship. But there’s no point dwelling on it; now we have to keep our heads up and keep fighting,” said Blum, looking ahead to the two final races at Hockenheim in early October.

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In the overall standings, Blum/Kalus remain third, though with 136 points they are 48 points behind the new leaders, Fourie/Zimmermann.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for the Fussach native next season. He will remain in Ford’s development squad, and the Americans will decide on his race programme. “Kiano has a good chance of progressing because he has been thoroughly impressive so far,” agrees HRT coach Reuter. The former Le Mans winner also believes Blum could move up to the World Endurance Championship (WEC) for Ford in the medium term – starting in GT3, and perhaps even progressing to the Hypercar class later on. But there is still a long way to go…