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One of the greatest Touring Car drivers of all time, Bernd Schneider will drive Erebus Motorsport’s #62 SLS AMG GT3 in the final round of the Australian GT Championship at Sydney Olympic Park, November 31 – December 2, as part of the Sydney Telstra 500.

With five DTM Titles, two runner up placing’s and a third for the AMG Mercedes team, along with two further international Championships in ITC and FIA GT, Schneider is known around the world as ‘Mr. DTM’. Aside from Michael Schumacher, he is the most successful German racing driver in history.

After a career in karting – where he was a Junior World Champion – and junior formulae, Schneider elevated to Formula 1 for the Zakspeed team in 1988 and 1989 and two races for Arrows in 1990. In all, he took part in 32 Grand Prix events – including two Australian Grands Prix in Adelaide. In the heady days of pre-qualifying, Schneider made nine Grand Prix starts.

Following his retirement from DTM in 2008, the now 48-year-old German became an AMG Brand Ambassador, an AMG Driving Academy Instructor and was instrumental in the development of the AMG Customer Sports Program’s SLS AMG GT3 with Thomas Jäger – who raced with Erebus Motorsport at the previous round on the Gold Coast.

Born in Germany, Schneider is now domiciled in Switzerland and has three children.

“This will be my first time in Australia in a number of years and the first time that I will have the opportunity to race the Erebus Motorsport Gullwing there,” said Schneider.

“There is a big Championship battle on and I will be doing my best to assist Peter (Hackett). The team is well respected among the AMG Customer Sports program, hopefully we can assist even more.”

As for his aim aboard the chromed 563-horsepower Gullwing in Sydney – it’s simple:

“Of course I am there to win – I never enter a race not to win, but the main goal is for Erebus Motorsport to win the first Championship outside Europe for AMG Customer Sports. I’ll be doing whatever I can to help the team achieve this goal.”

This will be Schneider’s first time in Australia since 2008 – where he was the headline instructor as part of a Mercedes-AMG showcase event at Mount Panorama. His affinity with Australia is strong, having played a mentor role in the career development of a young Mark Webber, when the pair took five wins together to finish second in the 1998 FIA GT Championship.

Many years after that, Webber described Schneider as a ‘big brother’ character in his career and was an ‘open chequebook’ of information. Australian GT Championship leader, Erebus Motorsport’s Peter Hackett says an open chequebook of information is precisely what is needed for the team at Sydney Olympic Park:

“Bernd Schneider is the Peter Brock, Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat of German motorsport – but all rolled into one. It’s an amazing honour to think that Erebus Motorsport will have him join our SLS AMG GT3 program in Sydney,” said Hackett.

“We have a huge Championship battle on our hands in Sydney and we have to bring the big guns to the fight. There aren’t any guns bigger in an SLS AMG GT3 than Bernd Schneider.

“The wealth of experience and information that the AMG Customer Sports drivers have brought to our team in the previous two events have seen Erebus Motorsport take a significant step forward, it has challenged me to be sharper, drive stronger and get closer to the limit.

“Having Bernd in our team will take that to a level that the Australian GT Championship has never seen before. For Australian race fans to see a driver that has achieved so much on the world stage right here in Sydney is going to be something very special.”

Schneider, who has raced at just about every major racetrack around the world, is also looking forward to the event in Sydney:

“Australian race fans are very knowledgeable about international motorsport and are very passionate about their racing. I hope that I will be able to meet plenty of Australian fans during the Sydney Telstra 500 weekend and bring some more people out to watch the races.”

Hackett leads the Championship by three points heading into the Sydney Olympic Park event, which supports the Sydney Telstra 500.

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