Miguel Molina #17: From ‘Magic Molina’ to ‘Magic Devil’

When Miguel Molina in his first DTM season, in 2010, won the title ‘Rookie of the Year’ as the best newcomer, he was nicknamed ‘Magic Molina.’ In 2015, the Catalonian might be receiving a new nickname: ‘Magic Devil’ – matching the name of his new Audi sponsor in the DTM.

The logos of Audio Teufel (‘Teufel’ means ‘devil’ in English), a Berlin-based company specializing in home cinema, hi-fi and PC speaker systems, are now featured on his red-black Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM. Plus, with Molina’s lucky number ‘17’ on his car and a retro helmet design that brings back memories of his successful days in karting, what could go wrong anymore now?

“The 17th is my birthday and a number I’ve always been fond of,” says the 26-year-old. “I used to wear it on my back playing soccer as a teenager.” Speaking of soccer, as a Catalonian, he obviously keeps his fingers crossed for Audi’s partners FC Barcelona and Real Madrid and welcomes any PR event at which he can appear together with the popular soccer pros. 

Molina lives close to Barcelona, in a place where many Germans spend their vacations: Lloret de Mar. Ever since his return to Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, where his DTM career originally started, Molina has typically been catching a plane on Mondays to spend the days before the race with his team and his race engineer Markus Michelberger.

“Markus and I have a close relationship and the team spirit at Abt is great in general,” says the Spaniard. “We are preparing for the new season as intensively as we did last year – when this immediately paid off in the first races.”

Qualifying was Molina’s greatest strength in 2014. “This year, we’ve got two qualifying sessions on each race weekend,” he says with obvious delight. “I’m hoping to be able to profit from this.”

The Catalonian is enthusiastic about the new DTM format in general: “It’s good for the DTM but it’s good for the drivers too. We get to drive a lot more and will have more opportunities to score points.”

In order to be able to tackle the races in an even more focused manner Molina has been working with a renowned mental trainer. At the same time, the race driver Miguel Molina is to become the ‘Miguel Molina brand.’ “Having permanent car numbers will be helpful in this respect,” says the pleased Spaniard. “I’m going to try to integrate #17 into my logo as soon as possible and to display it on my helmet as well.”

Alongside his commitment with Audi in the DTM which, in Molina’s own words, is his ‘priority number one, two and three,’ he promotes youngsters in his own kart team together with his father, Mariano, and supports the Catalonian association for the new Formula Ashenkoff that is designed to close the gap between kart and formula racing. In addition, Molina was involved in testing the new race car for the Audi Sport TT Cup last winter.

Like many of his Audi colleagues, the Spaniard drives an Audi RS 6 as his private car. “I’m not completely sure yet whether I’m going to keep the RS 6 or switch to an RS 7. The new RS 3 is tempting as well ...” Only this much is certain: “It’ll definitely have to be an RS model!”

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Date of birth: February 17, 1989
Place of birth: Barcelona (E)
Residence: Lloret de Mar (E)
Marital status: single
Height/weight: 1.75 m/63 kg
Motorsport since: 1999 (Audi driver since 2010)

Sporting career
1999 1st Spanish Cadet Kart-Championship
2000 1st Spanish Cadet Kart Championship
2001 1st Catalunyan Junior Kart Championship
2002 2nd Spanish Junior Kart Championship
2003 1st Spanish Junior Kart Championship
2004 1st Italian Kart Open Masters Jesolo Formula A
2005 Formula Renault Euro Cup
2006 6th Spanish Formula 3 Championship, Renault World Series
2007 7th Renault World Series
2008 4th Renault World Series
2009 8th Renault World Series, 19th Formula Superleague
2010 10th DTM (Audi A4 DTM), ‘Rookie of the year’
2011 11st DTM (Audi A4 DTM)
2012 18th DTM (Audi A5 DTM)
2013 17th DTM (Audi RS 5 DTM)
2014 17th DTM (Audi RS 5 DTM)
2015 DTM (Audi RS 5 DTM)

www.miguelmolina.net
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@MiguelMolinaM2
youtube.com/user/miguelmolinam2