According to information from Motorsport-Total.com, Mercedes-AMG is still facing problems with the supply of spare parts for the Mercedes-AMG GT3. This is due to the restructuring of the entire GT3 program from long-term partner HWA to the in-house Affalterbach Racing GmbH (AFF), which has been responsible for team support since January 2025.
“It is indeed tight, but the teams are helping each other out well,” confirmed Thomas Jager, who acts as Sporting Director for the DTM sector at Mercedes-AMG, at the end of April during the DTM season opener in Spielberg. “At the moment, it is not the case that a car is sidelined because of this.”
Apart from that, the situation had “improved significantly in recent weeks. We are certainly not yet where we want to be, but we are on the right track,” Jager said at the time. Nevertheless, reports suggest that the situation remains tense.
Did parts even have to be borrowed for Verstappen?
According to information from Motorsport-Total.com, the Winward team had to borrow parts from the Schnitzelalm team in mid-May during the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring after a drive shaft failure on Max Verstappen’s car. This was the only way to get the car running again for the joint photo finish with the race-winning Winward car.
And even the Mercedes-AMG GT3 that won the 24-hour classic benefited from gearbox parts from the Schnitzelalm crew, which were needed by Winward after Maro Engel’s qualifying crash on Friday so that the car could start the race on Saturday.
Before that, the Ring Racing team had already skipped the second Qualifiers race for the 24h classic on April 19 because they did not have enough parts available. Other teams are said to have even manufactured certain parts themselves due to the emergency, which is not without risk because they do not know the exact specifications. This can lead to material failures.
Even in early June, track rods and lower wishbones for the front axle were still in short supply – and one team was even allowed to compete in the GT Open series with a broken headlight because there was no replacement part and the series granted a special waiver.
“Suppliers have gone bankrupt”
The delivery difficulties affect “a few important parts right now,” Jager said at the end of April. This was due to the fact “that suppliers have gone bankrupt and, with complex parts, it takes a relatively long time to certify a new supplier or to get the supplier working again,” he explained back then.
According to Jager, these problems have “significantly complicated” the switch from HWA to Affalterbach Racing GmbH, which is a 100 percent subsidiary of Mercedes-AMG. “But we hope that we will be back to a good level in the next four to six weeks.”
That timeframe would have been reached by now, but it does not look like a complete easing of the situation. Mercedes-AMG had already warned its teams at the end of 2025 about a possible spare parts shortage and recommended filling up their own stocks for the transition phase until spring. However, the bottlenecks are now apparently lasting longer than expected – and it remains to be seen how the situation develops.
24-hour classics create enormous pressure
Currently, the workload is also enormous due to the endurance classics: Following the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans took place last weekend, where three Mercedes-AMG GT3s from the Iron Lynx team were also in action.
And from June 24 to 26, the third and for now final 24h classic of the year will take place in Spa-Francorchamps – with no fewer than ten Mercedes-AMG GT3s on the grid.
The DTM weekend at the Lausitzring, which takes place from June 19 to 21, should – as long as there are no unexpected total losses – proceed without major problems, as the running times are significantly shorter compared to the 24-hour races. Additionally, the number of cars is also manageable with four units.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
