Pit stop crew boost for GT1 Aston Martin duo

ABU DHABI // As a jubilant Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp stood on the top step of the podium at Yas Marina Circuit last night, it was fair to say that they knew they owed their success largely to the work of their Hexis team in the pit lane.

The pair, in their Aston Martin, triumphed in the opening round of the FIA GT1 Championship thanks largely to a swift pit-stop by their mechanics midway through the race.

Piccione, the driver from Monaco, had run fifth in the early stages, but the rapid work of the Hexis pit crew vaulted them up the order to first place, with a six-second advantage, leaving Dusseldorp, the 21-year-old Dutch driver, to hold off the challenge of Richard Westbrook's Nissan GT-R to take the win in his first GT race.

Piccione led the praise of his mechanics afterwards. He said: "They made this win possible today with an amazing pit stop. The car was good all weekend and it is just the best start we could have."

Dusseldorp, who credited the fast work of his team simply to "lots of practice", said he was not surprised by how quick the stop had been. "This morning we did a great pit-stop in the qualifying race and gained a lot of positions, and the team did the same job in the main race and they put me out in front which was great," he said.

"All I had to do was stay in front, which was not as easy as it looked, but we did and it is a great feeling."

Enrique Bernoldi had led the opening laps in his Sumo Power Nissan GTR, but disaster struck when he swapped over to Ricardo Zonta in their pit stop on lap 13 as Zonta collided with Frederic Makowiecki's Marc VDS Racing car. Zonta suffered a puncture and was out of contention.

There was no home delight for Jamie Campbell-Walter, Yas Marina's Formula One two-seater driver, as his co-driver, David Brabham of Australia, twice fell foul of the race stewards.

The pair had finished eighth in the qualifying race in their Sumo Power Nissan GTR yesterday afternoon, but Brabham ignored a red light at the pit exit, and he and Campbell-Walter were given a five-place grid penalty for the start.

Then Brabham, who started the race, was adjudged by the stewards to be have been "abusing the track limits" by going off the circuit as he battled with cars on the opening laps. Brabham and the Sumo Power car were given a drive-through penalty and dropped to the back of the field, and had to be content with ninth place, 32 seconds off top spot.

Meanwhile, there was plenty for the House of Portier Corvette team to be happy about in the UAE GT Championship, which was part of the support races at Yas Marina yesterday.

Karim al Azhari had already secured the GTA title, and it mattered little that he and his co-driver, Fabien Giroix, were sidelined early in yesterday's final round of the season with mechanical problems. But his teammate, Mohammed al Mutawaa, the 18-year-old Emirati, with al Mutawaa's co-driver, Jiri Skula, finished second overall behind Julian Griffin's Dodge Viper, a result that was good enough to earn al Azhari the GTB title.

And to cap a good day for Emirati racers, the GTC race was won by the UAE pair of Saeed al Mehairi and Hasher al Maktoum in their Yas Marina-sponsored Aston Martin.

gcaygill@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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