In the comeback race of the newly formed Landgraf team, Lucas Auer achieved his first DTM triumph in two years: How the AMG team got into winning form so quickly
Before the season, pit stops were considered the Achilles’ heel of the Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf, which returned to the DTM with a newly formed team after a year’s break. But in their comeback race, the crew managed the fastest stop of the day in 6.350 seconds, laying the foundation for Lucas Auer’s victory in his duel with Jordan Pepper in the Grasser Lamborghini.
“The first pit stop was crazy,” said Auer himself, who had to wait 33 races or 931 days for his tenth victory. According to Auer, he was even worried that the mechanics, who had been practicing pit stops three times a day since December, would injure themselves during the preparations.
“They trained so hard,“ he says. ‘I was in the workshop all the time, and I even told them once not to overdo it: ’At some point, some of you are going to break your hands.’”
Landgraf team put together “very carefully and cleverly”
Auer describes the stops as “high-performance sport” for the mechanics. “It’s so hard on the body. And they’re there every day, whether they’re doing dry training or live pit stops.” But the change of scenery has also clearly done the Austrian good, who previously spent four years with the Mercedes-AMG Team Winward.
“Landgraf has positioned itself well in all areas that a racing team needs, with experienced people,” says the 30-year-old, describing his new team, with whom he has only worked on the Nürburgring Nordschleife so far. ‘They made sure there was harmony between the people. That has also been achieved.’
That’s by no means a given, because “you sometimes have people who don’t get along,” explains Auer. Everyone in the DTM is ambitious anyway, but “you also have to enjoy yourself, have fun.” Those responsible at Landgraf were “very thoughtful and very clever” in putting the team together, because even at the first meeting, “you could tell right away: the chemistry is right!”
Auer on his race engineer: “A great guy with incredible know-how”
The same goes for his relationship with his new race engineer Marius Avemarg, who knows the Mercedes-AMG GT3 inside out and, from what we hear, is a man who doesn’t mince his words. “That suits me,” grins Auer. “As a Tyrolean, you don’t beat around the bush, we’re more straightforward. We’re similar in that respect.”
Auer describes Avemarg as a “great guy who has incredible expertise and incredible quality.” What’s more, you can “talk about anything and no one takes it personally,” he says. “That goes for my entire crew, and it makes it easy to work together.”
Tyrolean tire man makes him feel at home
The fact that Auer feels at home with Landgraf may also have something to do with his new tire man. Johann Pfister, who is known as “Johnny” in the team, comes from the Zillertal valley in Tyrol, just like Auer. “‘Hey Luggi, how’s it going?’ he greeted me,” smiles Auer, who knows how important his fellow countryman’s role is.
In the DTM, the tire pressures have to be exactly right to get the unheated Pirelli tires up to temperature. “The tire issue is extremely critical. He’s very experienced and really good at it – an extreme asset,” says Auer.
Despite the good atmosphere in the team and the perfect preparation for the team’s DTM comeback, the victory at the season opener came as a surprise even for the driver. “It’s not so easy to come back after a year’s break because the DTM level is so tough,” says Auer, who will be contesting his tenth DTM season in 2025.
“I’m sure we’ll have our ups and downs, but we’re strong as a group – and I’m confident that we’ll come through with our heads held high,” says Auer, convinced that his team is crisis-proof. ‘Our start was a dream come true, you can’t count on something like that. But you can see that everyone has experience. And when everyone pulls together, you can really step on the gas.’
