Andre Lotterer looks like a man comfortable in his own skin. Happy enough to tick the Formula 1 box at Spa last year, say thank you very much and go back to his successful dual career racing for Audi in the World Endurance Championship and for TOM'S in Super Formula in Japan.
And that contentment might go some way to explaining why he has been consistently rated among the world's best sportscar drivers almost since the day he joined the German manufacturer back in 2010.
The multiple Le Mans 24 Hours winner and 2012 World Endurance champion is totally in love with motor racing and entirely fulfilled by the position he's reached in his career. And it shines through every time he climbs behind the wheel of a racing car, whether it's the Audi R18 e-tron quattro or his Super Formula Dallara-Toyota SF14. Or for that matter a Caterham-Renault CT05, an Audi R8 LMS ultra or even a historic Audi Coupe Group 2 touring car built by the team for which his late father, Henri, worked more than 30 years ago.
One-off F1 appearance was "a once-in-a lifetime opportunity" LAT |
"You get the feeling that he gets so much pure joy out of driving," says Ralf Juttner, who as technical director and now managing director of Audi Sport Team Joest Racing has overseen Lotterer's Audi career. "I think that is a big part of his success.
"After the race at Interlagos [the WEC finale in November], we had a party and we were chatting over a couple of caipirinhas. He started raving about driving the car. He was explaining what he was doing in the car with a child-like enthusiasm. He's so happy with what he does that it makes it easy to perform and to use his undoubted talents to the maximum every time he's in the cockpit."
Lotterer describes motorsport as a his "passion and his life". It may sound like a cliche, but with him you really believe it. He loves doing it and he loves talking about it. Mention to him that you love this track or have always wanted to visit that track, and the conversation will be followed by an email with some on-board footage of him at that circuit.
He's an avid AUTOSPORT reader and was chuffed to bits to be named in the magazine's Top 50 Drivers Who Never Raced in F1 feature in the summer of 2013 - and equally thrilled to put that right when he made his one-off appearance with Caterham at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix after a late call from team 'advisor' Colin Kolles.
Lotterer admits that he was "ticking a box" when he accepted the offer to race for Caterham at Spa last August. And it wasn't as straightforward as it might have looked. Audi gave him permission to do the race, but TOM'S in Japan didn't want him to miss the clashing Motegi Super Formula round.
"TOM'S wasn't happy, but I kind of took the decision myself," he explains. "It was something I wanted to do, because I knew that at my age [he was 33 at the time] that kind of chance wasn't going to come around again. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn't refuse."
Not that Lotterer had any thoughts about trying to build on his belated F1 debut 12 years on from a stint as Jaguar test driver and seek a full-time ride.
Lotterer has been racing in Japan for several years LAT |
"I have a great thing with Audi and also get the chance to race formula cars in Japan," he says. "I'm really happy where I am, so I wasn't going to give that up for F1, and there probably isn't a drive out there for me anyway."
And nor did he want "to be the guy driving around at the back". That, and the fact that Roberto Merhi would have done free practice one, explains why he didn't remain with Caterham for Italy (which Audi would have been happy with) and why he didn't even contemplate doing the F1 finale in Abu Dhabi (which Audi probably wouldn't have been so keen on) when Caterham came calling for a second time.
"The whole F1 thing would have lost its effect if I'd done more races and been stuck at the back of the grid," he says. "A one-off was the best thing for me: Audi was happy with it and I gained a lot of respect in what I achieved [in outqualifying team-mate Marcus Ericsson]. I've always targeted racing in series where I can win - it's winning and being competitive that satisfies me."
That same ethos explains why Lotterer was happy to ply his trade almost exclusively in Japan between 2003 and '09 after his deal with Jaguar Racing came to an end.
"I was really happy racing in both categories [Formula Nippon, the forerunner of Super Formula, and Super GT]," explains Lotterer, who won the GT title in 2006 and '09 and Nippon in '11. "I did have opportunities to do something else in Europe, but it was never something great. In the back of my mind, I had decided that it had to be something really big to persuade me to leave Japan."
He tested DTM machinery for both Opel and Mercedes early on after leaving Europe and for Audi as late as 2007, but wasn't convinced to give up on Japan for the German-based series.
"I could probably have done DTM with any of the three manufacturers, but I didn't find it particularly attractive and nor did I think it was the right thing to do. I didn't feel I had to be back in Europe to be in the spotlight."
Le Mans was always on Lotterer's radar, but it remained a distant bleep on the screen for much of his time in Japan.
"I looked around, but teams always needed me to bring budget and I never really wanted to do it unless I was in a decent car. I always looked up to Tom Kristensen [another alumnus of the Japanese racing scene] and what he has achieved with Audi, but it seemed so far away that I thought it would be impossible to reach."
The German made his debut at Le Mans in a privateer Audi in 2009 LAT |
The perfect opportunity to showcase his talents in front of the German manufacturer finally came during his seventh season in Japan. Kolles was running a pair of ex-works Audi R10 TDIs at the 2009 24 Hours, but he too required funds. Lotterer was happy to go out and find the money, and even top up his budget with some family funds, because he knew it was a gilt-edged chance.
"I'd spoken to Colin at the start of the season and he told me that I needed a certain amount of money," recalls Lotterer. "I've been paid to race since I was 18 and thought, 'Do I really want to start bringing money?' But then I said to myself that it really was a great opportunity.
"I had a friend who sponsored me with a small amount, but we got confused with the exchange rate between euros and dollars, so we were 15 per cent short. We had to top it up with some money from my uncle's company. It's the only time I have paid to drive since I was a kid, but I guess I hit the jackpot."
Lotterer clicked with LMP1 and the Circuit de la Sarthe straight away, and reckons that the years spent racing in Japan were the perfect preparation for the move to the pinnacle of sportscar racing.
"Japan is the best school for this kind of racing," he explains. "You are driving some really quick cars out there: Nippon or Super Formula is all about pure driving and in Super GT you learn how to handle traffic because there are two classes. That meant I wasn't really shocked when I went to Le Mans for the first time. It wasn't such a steep learning curve: I had all the ingredients; I just had to learn how to put everything together."
Lotterer ended up seventh on his Le Mans debut as part of a duo with Charles Zwolsman Jr after team-mate Narain Karthikeyan, who was due to start the race, famously dislocated his shoulder when he fell from the pitwall as he left the grid to go and relieve himself.
"That definitely put more focus on us," he recalls. "Everyone was asking who were the kids in their first Le Mans doing quadruple stints with little rest in between.
"It added value to what I achieved, but at the same time I was able to do some really good lap times during the night. Maybe Narain hurting himself was part of my destiny."
The Le Mans performance led to a short programme with Audi based around Le Mans in 2010 without any kind of evaluation test. "I'd tested the DTM car in 2007, so they knew all about me," he says.
His first Le Mans win came in 2011 LAT |
His first season with Audi, while he continued racing both single-seaters and GTs in Japan, didn't give an obvious indication of the successes that were to follow. He made mistakes in each of the three races he contested (the Spa 1000km, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta) at the wheel of the R15+ TDI, most famously spinning and damaging the car on the formation lap in Belgium.
"I remember sitting in the office of Dr Wolfgang Ullrich [head of Audi Sport] at the end of the season without much confidence," says Lotterer. "He told me that they were not going to judge me on what happened in the races because I hadn't made any mistakes in testing. When the R18 came out for the following year, I felt comfortable and confident straight away. Spa went well, and I thought, 'Now I am ready.'"
A first Le Mans triumph together with Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler in 2011 was followed by a full-time ride with Audi on the advent of the new WEC the following season, but Lotterer wasn't ready to give up racing in Japan.
"I spent a month preparing to leave. I thought it wasn't going to work, because I would miss it too much," recalls Lotterer. "I called Dr Ullrich and told him that there were no clashes with Super Formula and explained that from a personal and sporting perspective it would be a benefit for me to continue racing in Japan. He is a very human person and understood that it would work for everyone, and it has been like that ever since."
Lotterer added further Le Mans triumphs to his CV in his world championship-winning season in 2012 and again last season, but it is the first that remains his favourite.
"It's hard to pick one out, but 2011 was special because it was my first and the battle with Peugeot was so intense. At the last pitstop we were six seconds apart and the final margin was 13s. It was drizzling and keeping it together in those conditions was mentally very tough.
"At one point, I was leading, but I thought I was second. The number on the pitboard was getting bigger, so I believed I was losing time to the Peugeot. I was taking some amazing risks out there because I thought I was in the process of losing the race."
Le Mans is the highlight of Lotterer's season. He still views it as a bigger prize than the WEC crown, which is why he regards 2014 as a successful season despite Audi's failure to win any world championship titles.
"Le Mans is still the place where you make history," he says, "but the good thing about our championship is there are two parts to the cake."
The importance he attaches to Le Mans is why you don't see him out in an Audi R8 at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, whereas he is happy and keen to race his employer's GT3 machine in the Spa 24 Hours later in the summer.
"Audi has asked me, but if I do it, I want to do it properly, not just as something on the side," explains Lotterer, who has done the race without aspirations of victory aboard a Lexus. "The two months before Le Mans are very important to me; I am very strict on how I handle my free time and do my training. Le Mans is so important to me that I don't want to use energy for other things.
The Spa 24 Hours is a race that Lotterer loves to add to his schedule XPB |
"Spa is a race close to my heart because I grew up with that event with my father [who ran the RAS Sport team famous for masterminding Volvo's European Touring Car campaigns in the 1980s]. I love driving different cars and proving my versatility, and doing Spa gives me that."
That probably explains why Lotterer is such a content individual. He gets to drive and win aboard two distinct types of racing car that are, he says, "both more fun to drive than F1". He points out that he braked later in his R18 than the Caterham and describes the current breed of Super Formula one-make racers as "big Formula 3 cars".
"I'm really happy with what I have achieved and attach a lot of value to getting where I have," he says. "I don't think in any way that I haven't made it as a driver because I didn't really do F1."
LOTTERER ON...
MISSED F1 CHANCES
"I had quite a few opportunities that could have taken me to F1. I could have been backed by BMW and remember being so nervous on the phone with Gerhard Berger [BMW Motorsport boss at the time] at the age of 17. I wasn't sure where it would lead and thought I might end up in GT racing or something.
"I had the opportunity to stay with Red Bull [which sponsored his maiden Formula 3 season in 2000 in Germany], but I decided to go with Jaguar [to race in British F3]. It was a bit early for Red Bull and no one knew what their plans were.
Jaguar deal led to opportunities to test the team's F1 machinery LAT |
"The Jaguar route was the most straightforward, but a new wind came through the team when Niki Lauda replaced Bobby Rahal as team boss and he was more in favour of Antonio Pizzonia."
MAKING HIS GRAND PRIX DEBUT
"I had nothing to lose really, but I did feel pressure. I felt like I had the weight of the WEC grid on my back; a lot of people think that F1 has all the best drivers and the rest of us are nothing. I wanted to show that they are wrong.
"I was there to fulfil a dream, but I wanted to do well. Colin [Kolles] didn't bring me in just so I could go and have some fun. When I got there I realised that taking part in a grand prix without testing the car was the biggest challenge I've ever faced."
WHAT MAKES HIM SO GOOD?
Ralf Juttner's boozy conversation with Andre Lotterer after the Interlagos WEC race late last year revealed much more than the German's deep love of our sport. It offered a new insight into how he drives - and perhaps why he is so consistently quick.
"I actually learnt a little bit more about him and about his talent that night," explains Joest Racing boss Juttner. "He was explaining how he was driving during the race and trying new things all the time.
"Andre isn't a driver who gets in the car and thinks, 'OK the car is a bit understeery, or whatever, I'll drive it like that for the next two hours'. He is someone who is adapting all the time to the changing conditions, whether it is the track, the tyres or the car. He is always checking to see how the limits have changed in either direction.
"He has a rare ability to adapt his driving in a very fine frequency. That's probably what makes him so good."
Juttner adds that Lotterer is also technically very strong.
"He is not the kind of driver who will come into the pits and say, 'give me this rollbar and that spring'. He's not someone who doesn't need an engineer, but he can very accurately explain what the car is doing.
"Most importantly, he can describe what areas of the handling are costing time on the track. And it's that kind of driver that we engineers prefer."
It also needs to be pointed out that Lotterer rarely makes mistakes. At Interlagos, he ran wide and off the track at Juncao during the race. Neither Juttner nor this writer can remember him making another mistake during a race in an LMP1 car since his debut season with Audi Sport Team Joest back in 2010.
Andre Lotterer looks like a man comfortable in his own skin. Happy enough to tick the Formula 1 box at Spa last year, say thank you very much and go back to his successful dual career racing for Audi in the World Endurance Championship and for TOM'S in Super Formula in Japan.
And that contentment might go some way to explaining why he has been consistently rated among the world's best sportscar drivers almost since the day he joined the German manufacturer back in 2010.
The multiple Le Mans 24 Hours winner and 2012 World Endurance champion is totally in love with motor racing and entirely fulfilled by the position he's reached in his career. And it shines through every time he climbs behind the wheel of a racing car, whether it's the Audi R18 e-tron quattro or his Super Formula Dallara-Toyota SF14. Or for that matter a Caterham-Renault CT05, an Audi R8 LMS ultra or even a historic Audi Coupe Group 2 touring car built by the team for which his late father, Henri, worked more than 30 years ago.
One-off F1 appearance was "a once-in-a lifetime opportunity" LAT |
"You get the feeling that he gets so much pure joy out of driving," says Ralf Juttner, who as technical director and now managing director of Audi Sport Team Joest Racing has overseen Lotterer's Audi career. "I think that is a big part of his success.
"After the race at Interlagos [the WEC finale in November], we had a party and we were chatting over a couple of caipirinhas. He started raving about driving the car. He was explaining what he was doing in the car with a child-like enthusiasm. He's so happy with what he does that it makes it easy to perform and to use his undoubted talents to the maximum every time he's in the cockpit."
Lotterer describes motorsport as a his "passion and his life". It may sound like a cliche, but with him you really believe it. He loves doing it and he loves talking about it. Mention to him that you love this track or have always wanted to visit that track, and the conversation will be followed by an email with some on-board footage of him at that circuit.
He's an avid AUTOSPORT reader and was chuffed to bits to be named in the magazine's Top 50 Drivers Who Never Raced in F1 feature in the summer of 2013 - and equally thrilled to put that right when he made his one-off appearance with Caterham at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix after a late call from team 'advisor' Colin Kolles.
Lotterer admits that he was "ticking a box" when he accepted the offer to race for Caterham at Spa last August. And it wasn't as straightforward as it might have looked. Audi gave him permission to do the race, but TOM'S in Japan didn't want him to miss the clashing Motegi Super Formula round.
"TOM'S wasn't happy, but I kind of took the decision myself," he explains. "It was something I wanted to do, because I knew that at my age [he was 33 at the time] that kind of chance wasn't going to come around again. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn't refuse."
Not that Lotterer had any thoughts about trying to build on his belated F1 debut 12 years on from a stint as Jaguar test driver and seek a full-time ride.
Lotterer has been racing in Japan for several years LAT |
"I have a great thing with Audi and also get the chance to race formula cars in Japan," he says. "I'm really happy where I am, so I wasn't going to give that up for F1, and there probably isn't a drive out there for me anyway."
And nor did he want "to be the guy driving around at the back". That, and the fact that Roberto Merhi would have done free practice one, explains why he didn't remain with Caterham for Italy (which Audi would have been happy with) and why he didn't even contemplate doing the F1 finale in Abu Dhabi (which Audi probably wouldn't have been so keen on) when Caterham came calling for a second time.
"The whole F1 thing would have lost its effect if I'd done more races and been stuck at the back of the grid," he says. "A one-off was the best thing for me: Audi was happy with it and I gained a lot of respect in what I achieved [in outqualifying team-mate Marcus Ericsson]. I've always targeted racing in series where I can win - it's winning and being competitive that satisfies me."
That same ethos explains why Lotterer was happy to ply his trade almost exclusively in Japan between 2003 and '09 after his deal with Jaguar Racing came to an end.
"I was really happy racing in both categories [Formula Nippon, the forerunner of Super Formula, and Super GT]," explains Lotterer, who won the GT title in 2006 and '09 and Nippon in '11. "I did have opportunities to do something else in Europe, but it was never something great. In the back of my mind, I had decided that it had to be something really big to persuade me to leave Japan."
He tested DTM machinery for both Opel and Mercedes early on after leaving Europe and for Audi as late as 2007, but wasn't convinced to give up on Japan for the German-based series.
"I could probably have done DTM with any of the three manufacturers, but I didn't find it particularly attractive and nor did I think it was the right thing to do. I didn't feel I had to be back in Europe to be in the spotlight."
Le Mans was always on Lotterer's radar, but it remained a distant bleep on the screen for much of his time in Japan.
"I looked around, but teams always needed me to bring budget and I never really wanted to do it unless I was in a decent car. I always looked up to Tom Kristensen [another alumnus of the Japanese racing scene] and what he has achieved with Audi, but it seemed so far away that I thought it would be impossible to reach."
The German made his debut at Le Mans in a privateer Audi in 2009 LAT |
The perfect opportunity to showcase his talents in front of the German manufacturer finally came during his seventh season in Japan. Kolles was running a pair of ex-works Audi R10 TDIs at the 2009 24 Hours, but he too required funds. Lotterer was happy to go out and find the money, and even top up his budget with some family funds, because he knew it was a gilt-edged chance.
"I'd spoken to Colin at the start of the season and he told me that I needed a certain amount of money," recalls Lotterer. "I've been paid to race since I was 18 and thought, 'Do I really want to start bringing money?' But then I said to myself that it really was a great opportunity.
"I had a friend who sponsored me with a small amount, but we got confused with the exchange rate between euros and dollars, so we were 15 per cent short. We had to top it up with some money from my uncle's company. It's the only time I have paid to drive since I was a kid, but I guess I hit the jackpot."
Lotterer clicked with LMP1 and the Circuit de la Sarthe straight away, and reckons that the years spent racing in Japan were the perfect preparation for the move to the pinnacle of sportscar racing.
"Japan is the best school for this kind of racing," he explains. "You are driving some really quick cars out there: Nippon or Super Formula is all about pure driving and in Super GT you learn how to handle traffic because there are two classes. That meant I wasn't really shocked when I went to Le Mans for the first time. It wasn't such a steep learning curve: I had all the ingredients; I just had to learn how to put everything together."
Lotterer ended up seventh on his Le Mans debut as part of a duo with Charles Zwolsman Jr after team-mate Narain Karthikeyan, who was due to start the race, famously dislocated his shoulder when he fell from the pitwall as he left the grid to go and relieve himself.
"That definitely put more focus on us," he recalls. "Everyone was asking who were the kids in their first Le Mans doing quadruple stints with little rest in between.
"It added value to what I achieved, but at the same time I was able to do some really good lap times during the night. Maybe Narain hurting himself was part of my destiny."
The Le Mans performance led to a short programme with Audi based around Le Mans in 2010 without any kind of evaluation test. "I'd tested the DTM car in 2007, so they knew all about me," he says.
His first Le Mans win came in 2011 LAT |
His first season with Audi, while he continued racing both single-seaters and GTs in Japan, didn't give an obvious indication of the successes that were to follow. He made mistakes in each of the three races he contested (the Spa 1000km, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta) at the wheel of the R15+ TDI, most famously spinning and damaging the car on the formation lap in Belgium.
"I remember sitting in the office of Dr Wolfgang Ullrich [head of Audi Sport] at the end of the season without much confidence," says Lotterer. "He told me that they were not going to judge me on what happened in the races because I hadn't made any mistakes in testing. When the R18 came out for the following year, I felt comfortable and confident straight away. Spa went well, and I thought, 'Now I am ready.'"
A first Le Mans triumph together with Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler in 2011 was followed by a full-time ride with Audi on the advent of the new WEC the following season, but Lotterer wasn't ready to give up racing in Japan.
"I spent a month preparing to leave. I thought it wasn't going to work, because I would miss it too much," recalls Lotterer. "I called Dr Ullrich and told him that there were no clashes with Super Formula and explained that from a personal and sporting perspective it would be a benefit for me to continue racing in Japan. He is a very human person and understood that it would work for everyone, and it has been like that ever since."
Lotterer added further Le Mans triumphs to his CV in his world championship-winning season in 2012 and again last season, but it is the first that remains his favourite.
"It's hard to pick one out, but 2011 was special because it was my first and the battle with Peugeot was so intense. At the last pitstop we were six seconds apart and the final margin was 13s. It was drizzling and keeping it together in those conditions was mentally very tough.
"At one point, I was leading, but I thought I was second. The number on the pitboard was getting bigger, so I believed I was losing time to the Peugeot. I was taking some amazing risks out there because I thought I was in the process of losing the race."
Le Mans is the highlight of Lotterer's season. He still views it as a bigger prize than the WEC crown, which is why he regards 2014 as a successful season despite Audi's failure to win any world championship titles.
"Le Mans is still the place where you make history," he says, "but the good thing about our championship is there are two parts to the cake."
The importance he attaches to Le Mans is why you don't see him out in an Audi R8 at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, whereas he is happy and keen to race his employer's GT3 machine in the Spa 24 Hours later in the summer.
"Audi has asked me, but if I do it, I want to do it properly, not just as something on the side," explains Lotterer, who has done the race without aspirations of victory aboard a Lexus. "The two months before Le Mans are very important to me; I am very strict on how I handle my free time and do my training. Le Mans is so important to me that I don't want to use energy for other things.
The Spa 24 Hours is a race that Lotterer loves to add to his schedule XPB |
"Spa is a race close to my heart because I grew up with that event with my father [who ran the RAS Sport team famous for masterminding Volvo's European Touring Car campaigns in the 1980s]. I love driving different cars and proving my versatility, and doing Spa gives me that."
That probably explains why Lotterer is such a content individual. He gets to drive and win aboard two distinct types of racing car that are, he says, "both more fun to drive than F1". He points out that he braked later in his R18 than the Caterham and describes the current breed of Super Formula one-make racers as "big Formula 3 cars".
"I'm really happy with what I have achieved and attach a lot of value to getting where I have," he says. "I don't think in any way that I haven't made it as a driver because I didn't really do F1."
LOTTERER ON...
MISSED F1 CHANCES
"I had quite a few opportunities that could have taken me to F1. I could have been backed by BMW and remember being so nervous on the phone with Gerhard Berger [BMW Motorsport boss at the time] at the age of 17. I wasn't sure where it would lead and thought I might end up in GT racing or something.
"I had the opportunity to stay with Red Bull [which sponsored his maiden Formula 3 season in 2000 in Germany], but I decided to go with Jaguar [to race in British F3]. It was a bit early for Red Bull and no one knew what their plans were.
Jaguar deal led to opportunities to test the team's F1 machinery LAT |
"The Jaguar route was the most straightforward, but a new wind came through the team when Niki Lauda replaced Bobby Rahal as team boss and he was more in favour of Antonio Pizzonia."
MAKING HIS GRAND PRIX DEBUT
"I had nothing to lose really, but I did feel pressure. I felt like I had the weight of the WEC grid on my back; a lot of people think that F1 has all the best drivers and the rest of us are nothing. I wanted to show that they are wrong.
"I was there to fulfil a dream, but I wanted to do well. Colin [Kolles] didn't bring me in just so I could go and have some fun. When I got there I realised that taking part in a grand prix without testing the car was the biggest challenge I've ever faced."
WHAT MAKES HIM SO GOOD?
Ralf Juttner's boozy conversation with Andre Lotterer after the Interlagos WEC race late last year revealed much more than the German's deep love of our sport. It offered a new insight into how he drives - and perhaps why he is so consistently quick.
"I actually learnt a little bit more about him and about his talent that night," explains Joest Racing boss Juttner. "He was explaining how he was driving during the race and trying new things all the time.
"Andre isn't a driver who gets in the car and thinks, 'OK the car is a bit understeery, or whatever, I'll drive it like that for the next two hours'. He is someone who is adapting all the time to the changing conditions, whether it is the track, the tyres or the car. He is always checking to see how the limits have changed in either direction.
"He has a rare ability to adapt his driving in a very fine frequency. That's probably what makes him so good."
Juttner adds that Lotterer is also technically very strong.
"He is not the kind of driver who will come into the pits and say, 'give me this rollbar and that spring'. He's not someone who doesn't need an engineer, but he can very accurately explain what the car is doing.
"Most importantly, he can describe what areas of the handling are costing time on the track. And it's that kind of driver that we engineers prefer."
It also needs to be pointed out that Lotterer rarely makes mistakes. At Interlagos, he ran wide and off the track at Juncao during the race. Neither Juttner nor this writer can remember him making another mistake during a race in an LMP1 car since his debut season with Audi Sport Team Joest back in 2010.
