Porsche team Uniserver by GP Elite is preparing for a new season in the Porsche championships, with the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup as one of the most important. At the helm of the superpower in the world of Porsches is Torsten van Haasteren. The team boss is looking forward to a new year full of great races and most importantly: taking back the title.
Every championship that GP Elite participates in, the Porsche team from De Rijp is doing well. When you say GP Elite, you say winning countless times and raising the bar every time to strive for even more. For example, the team was dominant in the Porsche Supercup in 2020 and 2021, they were almost sole rulers in 2021 and 2023 in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, and they achieved numerous victories in other championships. In those years, Larry ten Voorde was the figurehead of the team. However, the multiple world champion has left GP Elite, and so a new era is beginning.
GP Elite is on the eve of a new, exciting Supercup season with a brand new driving duo: Huub van Eijndhoven (24) and Kas Haverkort (20). Van Eijndhoven already has a wealth of experience, and Haverkort, who switched from formula cars, impressed during his debut. It looks like GP Elite is set in stone. “So it changes a bit, yes,” says Van Haasteren in conversation with F1Maximaal. ‘Larry was with us from the start and we achieved a lot together and shared many successes. We had a great time, which now ends, and that’s fine too,” the team boss continues.
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GP Elite may have gold in its hands with Haverkort and van Eijndhoven
‘It is also very nice for us, because we have a new team. We can now prove that we can also do it with young talents, Kas and Huub. We have a really cool line-up, where we are a bit of an underdog in the championship this year. A very fun, new way of working,” Van Haasteren continues. Van Eijndhoven is still very young, but has already gained a lot of valuable experience in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. Including a nice podium place in his last Carrera Cup Germany race of last season. He carries that feeling into this season.
Haverkort, who raced in the Formula Regional Championship by Alpine (FRECA) last year, has switched to GT cars. He took part in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe during the winter, and immediately won his first race. Did GP Elite expect that? “You hope so, of course!” Van Haasteren laughs. ‘Everything fell into place in Valencia. I don’t think we’ve actually seen that before in the Porsche world, in the Sprint Challenge. The level in such a Sprint Challenge is very high,” explains the team boss.
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‘For someone to get in and immediately win a race is actually very unique. It was super cool. Then Kas also won the race in Barcelona. He has won two of the four races. If we continue this all year long, we will become champions’, says Van Haasteren proudly. Until the Thursday before his first race weekend, Haverkort had never driven the GP Elite Porsche, which shows how special his first victory was.
The Formula 1 dream prevails among the young boys: ‘But there is so much more than F1’
The Porsche Supercup is in the ‘support program’ for eight Formula 1 races. It almost sounds disrespectful, but believe it or not, more often happens during the Porsche races than during the main program. ‘It’s much more fun to drive GT cars. It’s door to door, there’s fighting on the track. Here the rider really makes the difference,” Van Haasteren explains. That is sometimes difficult for young boys in motorsport to understand. With Max Verstappen as an idol, everyone would like to get into Formula 1. ‘However, the Formula 1 dream disintegrated fairly quickly. That may be sad, but it is also realistic.’
The budgets for the entry-level classes, Formula 4, Formula 3, Formula 2, are very high. They often encounter this and are then unable to take further steps. ‘Formula 1 is the ultimate dream, but there is so much more than F1. When you are sixteen or seventeen and you find out that the world is bigger, there are so many possibilities,” says Van Haasteren. ‘The Formula 1 dream is no longer realistic for anyone, but if you start winning GT championships, like Renger van der Zande for example, then that is of course wonderful. Loek Hartog (former GP Elite driver, ed.) is going to do the GT World Challenge, which is fantastic.’
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‘We worked really hard this winter’
Haverkort also ran into the pricey seats of the Formula 3 championship, which would have been a logical step after the FRECA. “We were already working on Kas in January,” continues the GP Elite team boss. ‘It’s often about the switch: when is the driver in the formula cars really ready to make that switch? Kas wanted to continue and looked at the GTs with a slanted eye, and he is one of the first to make that switch. And I think, if he is successful, there will be a lot more to come next year.” With that victory during his debut, it seems that Haverkort has even more in him. GP Elite now has the key to unlocking that potential.
The duo of Haverkort and Van Eijndhoven will battle Lechner to regain the title. ‘We have worked very hard this winter. We have a very good team that works very hard. And we drove all winter long,” Van Haasteren sums up. ‘Together we are the two top teams, I dare say that. They are very good. They did some things a little better, but we didn’t do any worse at all. The riders, at least the rider who won, generally just had a bit more luck,” Van Haasteren concludes. If it were up to GP Elite, Lechner could enjoy the view from her rear wing all season long.
The Porsche Supercup season will start at Imola, Italy, in mid-May. The races are broadcast by Viaplay. After the summer break, the Porsches will also go to Zandvoort. All reports of the Porsche Supercup can be read at F1Maximaal.
