Lucas Auer: “We are working in the right direction”

Mercedes AMG’s Lucas Auer was all smiles yesterday, after being the fastest man on track in the first free practice session held at the Lausitzring, host of the third round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season.

The 21-year old clocked a best lap of 1:17.587, leaving everyone else nearly 0.4 seconds away. “I did a couple of good laps” Auer told TouringCarTimes. “You have to take into account that everybody is testing different things and with a different programme when they go out on track, so you cannot take free practice results at face value. Still, I believe my lap was good, because I had genuine pace.”

Auer is part of Team Mücke, which is faring better than expected this season so far. The Austrian, who has found a breath of fresh air at the formation, is not surprised: “We have been working hard, we are not the best, but we are working closely with the main teams, sharing data and improving. I’m happy to be back with Mücke, I know them from my Formula 3 days, and we speak the same language, which is important. I get on well with my team-mate, so yes, we are working hard and things are going in the right direction.”

Mercedes AMG sports new bodywork for the C63 DTM. Fitting new bodywork over an old chassis, due to the homologation freeze, has been a nightmare for the Stuttgart manufacturer. Auer sees it differently: “For me, the car works perfectly, and there are no problems because of the new pieces. The engineers are very precise, that’s their job, and for them everything has to be exact. But us drivers, we just want to go out and get on with it.”