Torsten van Haasteren, the team manager, makes no secret of the team’s roots. The 911 GT3 Cups from GP Elite glow in a magnificent orange hue and the drivers’ names are a sheer giveaway to their origin: ten Voorde, van Splunteren and van Kuijk. To take the Dutch cliché even further, it’s not uncommon to see pictures of the team’s racing cars staged in front of a quaint windmill.

As the team’s name suggests, GP Elite is executing a clear concept: Holland is passionate about motorsport, and therefore truly talented drivers race for Team GP Elite in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. So where are they headed? It’s too early to make a prediction while in their first Supercup season of course, but if the motivation and commitment of the young but experienced van Haarsteren are any indication, it will be far ahead in the field. Van Haarsteren has a unique talent to recognize opportunities and he is driven to turn audiences into his audience. His ultimate goal is to take GP Elite to Le Mans. But before Le Mans, there’s work to do. The Porsche Supercup is an acid test and a milestone for the team to achieve in order to establish themselves as a steadfast competitor on the international racing scene.

The right crew is crucial to achieving ambitious racing goals. This includes everyone – from mechanic to driver to coach; where Jake Aliker, former performance coach of Max Verstappen, has been fueling the team since 2020. GP Elite’s strategy is multi-faceted: promote and develop the diversity of driver talent through a variety of different training techniques and fine-tune support for those drivers with race engineering know-how. Van Haasteren and GP Elite are aiming high, but their vision is grounded. To put it bluntly, ‘go-karting’ is sub-optimal and Formula 1 is otherworldly. This makes the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup a very enticing series: technically demanding driving with Formula 1 flair on a fair international racing platform.

In line with the team’s motto: ‘Drive to Perfection’, GP Elite has been crowned with success the last few years. Demonstrating his talents behind the wheel, Max van Splunteren helped the team win Sprint Challenges, Endurance Racing and the 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux. Max grew up in a ‘Porsche family’, his father Paul van Splunteren having competed himself in the Supercup, so perhaps driving the Supercup is inherently in his DNA. One of Max’s dreams was to drive for GP Elite. Now that this has been achieved, his next goal is to be in the top five Rookie ranking. Certainly ambitious, but it’s also a clear indication that for a new team like Team GP Elite, their drivers are essential and formative for their first full Supercup season.

Talking motivation, let’s meet Jesse van Kuijk, a freshman racer at 25 years old. Team Manager van Haasteren laughs at comments about van Kuijk being a ‘late bloomer’ and reminds us that Jesse routinely raced in Spa-Francorchamps in 2018 and also made guest appearances with Team GP Elite in the 2019 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. Jesse is a bit of a dark horse, driving under the radar without all the fanfare, but nevertheless a well-established talented driver who is full of surprises and – as he also proved in #virtualPMSC – definitely fast! Just like the third driver in the team, Larry ten Voorde is - or shall we say ‘LtV’ since it’s faster off the tongue. LtV is a driver who seems to want to become a private label in racing. Is there a Plan B? No way! Creating a back-up plan would only be a distraction from chasing the podium race after race. Larry’s racing CV has been a success story for GP Elite so far. In the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition, he’s a top contender for the overall victory. We’re anxious to see if he can do the same in his real Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

The Dutch racing team managed by the young Torsten van Haasteren is headquartered near Amsterdam and is approximately a 45 minute drive to the Zandvoort race track.

GP Elite’s connection to Porsche, their evolution from the national, one-make cups, the element of surprise they bring being a relatively unknown team and last but certainly not least, their uncompromising racing spirit embodied in three Dutch drivers is their signature character. It’s what makes GP Elite a team. It is this constellation that will not only shape their debut in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup 2020, but also in the years ahead.

Giving everything they have to keep the Dutch at the top of their game is what GP Elite truly wants. That’s why there are no race-free days, not even during the COVID-19 lockdown, which certainly didn’t make things any easier for GP Elite’s start of their first full Supercup season. Instead of the 3,996cc Porsche six-cylinder running hot, the rigs of the SimRacer were. And the moment that live testing is possible, Torsten van Haasteren will do everything he can to get his drivers back on the track. Racing performance must be optimised, and this requires real test laps.

Beyond the checkered flag, GP Elite offers it’s know-how and expertise to just about anyone interested in racing and are known in Holland as a go-to resource for newcomers to the sport. They are a fixture on the home circuit in Zandvoort, an easy to reach destination for those wanting a true Porsche cockpit racing experience.

Van Haasteren's goal is to discover and promote Dutch talent, and to do this he aims to offer cars that are 100% top of class. And regardless of who ends up showcasing their talent behind the wheel of a GP Elite Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the future, everyone should be given the same opportunity: to be the ‘Nieuw’ fast.