Munich, It will be a few weeks before the LMP3 cars of the Prototype Cup Germany are allowed onto the Hockenheim track for the first race of 2023. Among them will be the More Motorsport team for the first time; the father-son team of Mark and Max van der Snel will take turns at the wheel of the Ligier. "We had been looking for a category in which we could race together and quickly saw that LMP3 was the best way forward for us," says 19-year-old Max van der Snel. "The fact that the choice fell on the Prototype Cup Germany was partly due to the fact that we, as Dutchmen, have two home races with Zandvoort and Assen. And the trips to the four other tracks in Germany are not too long either."

Max van der Snel started his career in karting at the age of seven and remained true to it until the age of eleven. Then followed a break, during which he devoted himself to sports such as kite surfing and downhill mountain biking. When he felt the fire for racing again at the age of 17, he entered the Dutch Westfield Cup. "It's a one-size-fits-all class, which was perfect for me to re-enter." After his debut year, which he finished as the best rookie, he was already thinking about moving up, but remained loyal to the class for one more season. With success: He improved once again and in the end finished second overall. His 51-year-old father Mark van der Snel already had a taste of motorsport in 2012 in the Radical Cup and, like Max, also looks back on two years in the Westfield Cup, in which he finished eleventh in the drivers' standings in 2022. "We both raced in our own More Motorsport team, but we each had our own car. It's going to be different now. I think it will help us especially in finding the optimal set-up, because with two of us we have more input than alone. Driver-wise, I think we'll be on about the same level," Max estimates. 

For his debut in the Prototype Cup Germany, More Motorsport will team up with Reiter Engineering. "Reiter Engineering has a lot of experience in LMP3; for example, they took the first pole position in the history of Prototype Cup Germany in 2022. Their support saves us a lot of time that we would otherwise have needed to learn." The Van der Snel duo has not set itself any concrete placings as a goal for 2023. "It's our first season in LMP3 and the jump from a Westfield car into an LMP3 racer is certainly not to be underestimated," Max notes. But he does have one long-term goal: "Like every LMP3 driver, I'd also like to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans one day. But I know there's still a long way to go." And if he can't go all the way as a driver, he has a second ace up his sleeve: Max is studying motorsport engineering.