– Was the main racing team (HRT), which competes in the DTM and other racing series with factory support from Ford with the Mustang GT3, recently no longer owned by racing driver and founder Hubert Haupt, even though the team bears his name? Rumors like this have been circulating in the paddock for some time.
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Now the team from Drees at the Nürburgring has announced a new ownership structure: HRT team boss and managing director Ulrich Fritz holds “a significant stake” in the company in the future, which “is majority-owned by the Haupt entrepreneurial family.” But only recently, as Motorsport-Total.com has found out.
Because since the end of 2023, that is at the end of the penultimate year of the team with Mercedes-AMG factory support, Hubert Haupt was temporarily no longer registered as a shareholder of his racing team. This is suggested by the ownership structures around the HRT team in the commercial register.
Commercial register shows: Haupt sold HRT temporarily
It shows that the Haupt Racing Team GmbH, founded in 2020, was initially 100 percent owned by Hubert Haupt, who also initially acted as managing director. In May 2021, Haupt handed over this position to Ulrich Fritz, before there was a change in the ownership structure of the team at the end of 2023.
A look into the commercial register shows a profound cut: On December 19, 2023, HRT Management GmbH took over all shares in the team from Hubert Haupt. At that time, he had sold his stake and was no longer listed as a shareholder of Haupt Racing Team GmbH.
100-percent owner of HRT Management GmbH – and thus also of the racing team – was, besides his role as managing director, a certain Bernhard Laber. He is 62 years old, comes from Munich like the 56-year-old Haupt – and he is also a racing driver and active in real estate. In addition, he founded his own racing team, Team GT, in 2018, for which not only he himself but also YouTube star Felix von der Laden competed in the ADAC GT4 Germany in 2019.
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But why did Haupt sell the racing team to Laber a little less than two and a half years ago? “The reason was the big real estate crisis and the economic focus on the essentials. For me, that is real estate,” Haupt explains when asked by Motorsport-Total.com.
Haupt has been active in the real estate business for over 30 years and in 2023 – the year of his temporary exit from the HRT team – also sold his villa in Munich, his private jet, his yacht, and part of his racing car collection, including a Formula 1 car, and moved his main residence to Monaco.
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But that does not mean that Haupt had nothing to do with the team bearing his name in recent years.
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New HRT structure: “Significant stake” by Ulrich Fritz
He continued to be available as an advisor and racing driver and started in 2024 at the 24-hour classic and other races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife as well as in Spielberg at the ADAC GT Masters, before the team switched from Mercedes-AMG to Ford in 2025, where Haupt also continued to race.
According to Haupt, nothing changes in his advisory role under the new structure. Quote Hubert Haupt: “I am still an advisor to the company, but the Haupt entrepreneurial family now again holds the majority stake in HRT Management GmbH,” he clarifies.
Besides that, it is “a significant milestone that Ulrich Fritz is not only managing director but also a shareholder with a significant stake to secure the economic success and growth of the company in the future.”
Ulrich Fritz is no stranger to motorsport: The 49-year-old led the Mercedes-AMG engagement from 2015 until his exit at the end of 2018 and was chairman of the board of HWA AG from 2016 until the end of 2020.
How Hubert Haupt explains the new ownership structure
Why was the current step necessary? “Bernhard Laber is not willing to engage in significant investments,” Haupt explains. But these investments are important for the company “if it is to continue to grow. That is why this step has now been taken.”
Financially, the team – also thanks to Fritz – stands on solid ground, Haupt emphasizes. “The company has achieved an economic turnaround,” he explains. “There are few GT teams that compete in as many racing series as we do. Ulrich has managed to position the company economically so that a positive EBITDA margin will be achieved in 2026.”
The EBITDA margin describes how profitably a company operates in its core business. It shows what portion of revenue remains as profit – before interest, taxes, and depreciation are taken into account.
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A positive value means that the company earns money with its core business and is economically stable – anything but a given in the cost-intensive motorsport.
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