The professional soccer players of FC Ingolstadt 04 have swapped their training ground at their home base, the Audi Sportpark, for the Audi driving experience center in Neuburg. After a welcome and briefing, the players, coaches, and support staff of the long-standing Audi partner club completed varied training sessions with Audi models. Divided into two groups, the “Schanzers” first mastered a training session with driving safety as the focus on the wet asphalt of the 30,000-square-meter dynamic skidpad. Then later, they experienced the sportiness of the Audi R8 high-performance sports car delivering 620 hp during a few fast laps on the handling track, all under the guidance of five-time Le Mans winner Frank Biela.
The Audi driver about the DTM festival at Hockenheim and the planned joint appearance of the DTM and FIA Rallycross World Championship (World RX). You’re a DTM driver and owner of a private rallycross team. How do you view the joint appearance of DTM and World RX at Hockenheim? It’s fantastic that this is coming off. The ITR and the IMG have been working on this for a long time behind the scenes. As a rallycross team boss, I’m delighted about the RX supercars being allowed to race in front of such a great crowd at the Hockenheim Motodrom. As a DTM driver, I’m delighted about the DTM opener becoming even more interesting as a whole and that additional fans will be traveling to Hockenheim. It’s a win-win situation for both – the DTM and the World RX. But the fans are the true winners. What can the spectators look forward to on the first weekend in May? To two of the best racing series that currently exist in the world, with fascinating race cars such as the Red Bull AudiRS 5 DTM and our Audi S1 EKS RX quattro – currently the only Audi in motorsport with conventional quattrodrive. In addition, there’ll be the inaugural event of the new Audi Sport TT Cup. It’ll be a unique opportunity to experience all this on a single weekend not to be missed by any fan. I’m sure that the best tickets for the DTM festival will quickly be sold. The DTM had a long winter break. Now the action will soon be starting again, with testing scheduled at Portimão (Portugal) for the beginning of March. Are you looking forward to sitting in the DTM cockpit again? As long as there’s still snow on the ground here I’m still finding a bit difficult to think about a DTM race. But the upcoming track tests are sending a clear signal that we’ll be starting again soon. And that’s good. The new DTM season with its new format and the additional races promises plenty of suspense. You’ll be competing in car #5 in the DTM this year – that’s the number you clinched your first title with in 2004. A good omen?
At Le Castellet, Audi has achieved another important milestone before heading to the Le Mans 24 Hours. Audi Sport Team Joest has traditionally been running a major endurance test on the high-speed track in southern France to prepare for the loads acting on the cars at Le Mans. The Le Mans specification of the latest generation of the Audi R18 e-tronquattro was used in the test, with aerodynamics designed for the high average speeds of more than 240 km/h per lap at Le Mans. All nine Audi LMP race drivers, Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer, Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis, Filipe Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and René Rast, plus reserve driver Mike Rockenfeller, shared driving duties, reeling off a total of more than 6,500 test kilometers from Monday to Thursday. “Having checked off every item on our list, plus impeccably performing a 30-minute endurance run, we achieved our aims,” says Chris Reinke, Head of LMP at Audi Sport. “In addition, our drivers were able to gather a lot of driving experience at the wheel of the latest version of our race car. It’s been a successful test.”
Felix Baumgartner is taking the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS ultra again in the Bathurst 12 Hour. The Austrian is looking forward to the race in Southeast Australia with eager anticipation for more reasons than one. On Sunday, you’ll be on the grid of the Bathurst 12 Hour, exactly 231 days after the checkered flag was waved in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, which you finished in ninth place with the team of the Audi race experience. How did your involvement in motorsport continue afterwards? Following the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring I contested another race in the VLN. Afterwards, I had several meetings with Audi to discuss other racing commitments. As the Audi race experience that I raced with at the Nürburgring is not fielding a car in Australia I was put in touch with Team Phoenix. This is a super-professional cooperation, the entire squad is extremely well organized and they deserve a big compliment. Now you’re traveling to Australia. Do you have any special ties to this country? I’ve never been to Australia before. That’s why this event has two highlights for me: being in this great country for the first time and combining this with such a fantastic mission. Another lifelong dream is now coming true. How have you been preparing for the race? I’ve been practicing on the simulator for two and a half months and have already reeled off 700 kilometers, but driving the Audi R8 LMS ultra on a race track is of course a completely different story. So, the practice at Bathurst will be an initial performance assessment. Mount Panorama Circuit with a length of 6.213 kilometers is a lot shorter than the Nordschleife but hardly less demanding. Do you feel well prepared? Bathurst is a very tough track – extremely narrow, with walls bordering many sections. Plus, it’s probably going to be very hot, but I’m tremendously looking forward to the race and to the chance of proving myself there. You’ll be racing together with Stéphane Ortelli and Christopher Haase.
Mattias Ekström thrilled numerous winter athletes with his Audi S1 EKS RX quattro at the Nordic Ski World Championships in Falun. Just one day following the world championship title win in the mixed team event of the ski jumpers, the DSV athletes Richard Freitag, Carina Vogt and Katharina Althaus sat in the passenger’s seat of the 560-hp rallycross race car. At the event of the Audi driving experience the DTM driver did a few fast laps on the snow and ice course in his native Sweden with his prominent passengers and impressed them with his driving skills.
An unusual role for Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström: The Audi factory drivers served as instructors of the Audi driving experience for readers of Sport BILD magazine in Saalbach, Austria. With instructions provided by the two DTM champions the ‘drift’ students got a first-hand impression of the superiority of the permanent quattro all-wheel drive on icy ground in an Audi S5 Sportback.
On Saturday, Audi Neuburg received internal and external employees and their family members at a Family Day. Audi’s Management Board Member Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Hackenberg and Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich welcomed some 1,500 guests. The new complex with its modern facilities opened its gates to the families for the first time. The visitors had the opportunity to view the fascinating world of Audi Sport with a line-up on display ranging from the race cars used in the WEC, DTM, GT racing and the Audi Sport TT Cup through to components such as the hybrid system of the Le Mans winning Audi R18 e-tronquattro and obtained autographs from the race drivers. In addition, Audi raffled off 30 opportunities for rides in the passenger seat with the Audi driving experience.
Audi partner Oris has chosen a motorsport related venue for its first national sales staff training. The Swiss watchmaker invited 60 dealers to the new driving experience center in Neuburg, near the Danube river. Vice president of Oris, Rolf Studer, presented the partnership between Audi Sport and Oris, but it was not only theory, as the participants also went out on track. Together with Nico Müller, the newly crowned winner of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, as well as the GT driver Rahel Frey, and the three-time Le Mans winner Marco Werner, the watch experts collected practical driving experience on the various tracks at the facility.