Home round for Audi and ABT
Bavarian manufacturer, Bavarian team: Audi and ABT Sportsline want to break the winning streak of Mercedes-Benz at the Norisring in Nuremberg.
Located just 75 kilometers north of Ingolstadt, the Norisring has traditionally been a home round for Audi – so far, though, without a home advantage: the merely 2.3-kilometer city street circuit between the Frankenstadion sports arena and the Dutzendteich lake is – except for the new circuit in Shanghai – the only race track on the DTM calendar on which Audi has not clinched a victory with the A4 DTM. The "credit side” of Audi’s track record reflects a total of four third places and a second place achieved by Christian Abt in the 2005 season.
Last year the squad around Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who led the brand with the four rings to its ninth triumph at Le Mans just a few days ago, came closer to clinching the much-longed-for home victory at the Norisring than in any of the years before: only on the penultimate lap Timo Scheider, who had started from the pole position, lost the lead to Mercedes driver Jamie Green.
Knowing full well that the Audi Sport Abt Sportsline team was fighting on a par with its rivals at the Norisring in 2009 and that the 2009-specification Audi A4 DTM, which is internally designated as the "R14 plus,” underwent some detailed optimizations prior to the technology freeze, the Audi squad is by no means looking toward Nuremberg with apprehension. "We know that we can do it if everything works perfectly,” says Dr. Ullrich. "Le Mans has shown what is possible with a perfect team performance – and it has given everyone at Audi Sport special motivation to finally do it again at the Norisring too.”
Located just 75 kilometers north of Ingolstadt, the Norisring has traditionally been a home round for Audi – so far, though, without a home advantage: the merely 2.3-kilometer city street circuit between the Frankenstadion sports arena and the Dutzendteich lake is – except for the new circuit in Shanghai – the only race track on the DTM calendar on which Audi has not clinched a victory with the A4 DTM. The "credit side” of Audi’s track record reflects a total of four third places and a second place achieved by Christian Abt in the 2005 season.
Last year the squad around Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who led the brand with the four rings to its ninth triumph at Le Mans just a few days ago, came closer to clinching the much-longed-for home victory at the Norisring than in any of the years before: only on the penultimate lap Timo Scheider, who had started from the pole position, lost the lead to Mercedes driver Jamie Green.
Knowing full well that the Audi Sport Abt Sportsline team was fighting on a par with its rivals at the Norisring in 2009 and that the 2009-specification Audi A4 DTM, which is internally designated as the "R14 plus,” underwent some detailed optimizations prior to the technology freeze, the Audi squad is by no means looking toward Nuremberg with apprehension. "We know that we can do it if everything works perfectly,” says Dr. Ullrich. "Le Mans has shown what is possible with a perfect team performance – and it has given everyone at Audi Sport special motivation to finally do it again at the Norisring too.”
