Discover more
Being partnered with a superstar team-mate is a double-edged sword. On the positive side, you have the ultimate benchmark against which you can judge yourself and be judged. On the negative side is the relentless performance that can highlight every tiny fault you make.
For Daniel Abt, two seasons of racing against Lucas di Grassi has highlighted both of these things. But after a difficult start to season two, the young German really managed to turn things around in the second half of the season.
After out-qualifying di Grassi for the first time in the season at Berlin, he went on to record a career-best second place, and from there Abt was fighting for podiums right up until the final race in London. When asked to rate his season out of 10, Abt said: “Seven. Because I had a pretty bad start but midway through the season I managed to really raise my game and out of the last four or five races, I had three podiums, it was really positive.”
Berlin was a major high point for Abt. With the crowds and weather on his side, everything clicked into place and he received a fantastic reception when he drove his car onto the podium: “It was probably the best race weekend I’ve ever experienced. First of all, before the race to drive through Berlin, being escorted by the police, the weather was nice and the atmosphere was incredible. Of course my result was the best ever - it was just a perfect weekend really, it made me proud and happy.”
Now Abt wants to take the next step and help the team fight to claim the teams’ title: “The most important thing is just to be consistent. That is something I also see from Lucas, he is not always the fastest but he is so consistent. That is something you have to do, you have to finish the races and score points. It doesn’t always have to be the maximum; you just have to be there. Then you can have really good season and then you can fight for championships.”
There’s a 10-year age gap between Abt and di Grassi, but they get on well and Abt is learning from his team-mate’s vast experience: “It’s definitely good for me. Of course it’s not easy racing against him and you always get compared to your team-mate. So that doesn’t make my life easy but on the other hand, I can learn a lot from him, he is very, very experienced and we get along very well. Which is really important for the atmosphere in the whole team. I think we have a good combination of experience, youth and aggressiveness.”
With the changes for season three, Abt hopes they can pick up where they left off last season: “It’s a new drivetrain but it does not affect me so much, the biggest difference is the new steering wheel, which just gives me much more opportunity to change things, adjust certain stuff. It makes it that little bit more difficult but also helps us. If we can be as competitive as last year and I manage to get a good start, then I definitely want to be challenging for the title.”
You can see Abt in action when the season kicks off on Sunday, October 9. Click here for details of where you can watch http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/championship/tv-schedule/
Season two stats:
Starts: 10
Championship position: 7th
Points: 68
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0
FanBoosts: 0