AMG Boss Tobias Moers Isn’t Concerned About Nurburgring Lap Times – Or Is He?

After Nissan started this game with the R35 GT-R, the Nurburgring became the place where every automaker had to put down a fast lap. The goal was to post a lap faster than that of each car’s direct competitors, which would be exploited accordingly by the marketing department. Why, even PHEVs got to boast about their ‘Ring ‘record’…

The Nordscheife is still an important place for automakers, as they use the iconic track for testing purposes, but to Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers, setting a fast lap around the circuit isn’t that important.

Road and Track got to speak with Moers at the New York Auto Show and got the scoop on why he isn’t concerned with setting blistering times around the track.

Watch: Mercedes-AMG GT R laps the ‘Ring faster than the Viper ACR and the Ferrari 488 GTB

Moers and R&T specifically got on the topic of the AMG GT R’s lap time around the Nurburgring. For those that need a bit of a refresher, the supercar managed to set down a very respectable time of 7:10.92. That, though, was in the hands of Sport Auto magazine’s test driver Christian Gebhardt. Any other automaker would want to do another run with one of its own drivers, but not AMG.

“Auto manufacturers work three months in the industry pool with race drivers, one dedicated car and then they announce ‘we broke seven minutes with our whatever GT,’” said Moers. “I don’t like to announce lap times with a car customers can buy. And this makes a difference because if a car is able to run fast on the Nurburgring with Christian Gebhardt or someone else, then the car is easy to drive.”

While Moers claims that he’s not that interested in posting the best possible lap around the Nurburgring, he still sees the track as an important place to test vehicles and AMG did strap a pro race car driver into the GT R and set a lap time around the track, but Moers won’t reveal just how much faster his lap time was. And that is the whole point: if Gebhardt can set a quick lap time in the car, then a lot of other drivers can, too.

There is one AMG product, though, that could change that: the Project One hypercar. Earlier this month, Moers claimed that the Project One could set the fastest lap ever at the Nurburgring. “Maybe Project One will be a different story,” the AMG boss conceded.

Mercedes-AMG GT R

Mercedes-AMG Project One