Neureuther promises his rivals a thrilling three-way battle. “Anyone who’s seen me in karting knows that I definitely fight fierce battles for positions. But it’s also clear that the main thing is to have fun. We absolutely don’t want to get in the way of the other Cup drivers with our ‘race within a race.’” Neureuther sees certain parallels between car racing and alpine skiing. “You have to be able to read the track, especially the turns. How do I have to approach them? Where’s the apex? In either type of racing, it’s important to take a lot of speed out of the corners.” He is also hoping for some tips from his buddy Ekström to help him come up trumps against his two rivals from the skiing camp. “It would be great if he could find the time to show me a few tricks here and there,” says Neureuther, who is currently doing fitness training for the coming ski season.
It will be seen whether Ekström will actually find a gap in his tight DTM schedule to help out his friend with some motorsport advice. Clearly, the current runner-up in the standings has ambitious plans for the two races at the 2015 DTM season’s midpoint. “The Red Bull Ring is the only DTM track on the calendar I’ve never been on podium at. I’d like to change that and preferably take the top spot in the standings in the process. But it won’t be easy,” says Ekström, also hinting at the success ballast on board of his Audi RS 5 DTM which, with a weight of 1,127.5 kilograms, is one of the two heaviest cars in the field. “I’d love to see Felix’s face if someone strapped a bag of potatoes on his back after a successful ski race,” the Swede adds with his usual wittiness. What confidence does he have in his friend making his circuit racing debut in the Audi Sport TT Cup? “Quite a bit. In the rallycross Audi, he became a lot faster in a short time. And I’m sure that Felix will be improving lap by lap at the Red Bull Ring as well. But he’ll also see that, besides being fast, there are some other factors that play a role in a race.”
ARD will start to air live coverage from Spielberg on ‘Das Erste’ on Saturday at approx. 18.00 and on Sunday at approx. 15.00. Additional live streaming will be available at www.dtm.com/live, www.sportschau.de and www.bild.de. The races of the Audi Sport TT Cup can be watched by live streaming at www.audi-motorsport.com.
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