From the start of the season, people were already thinking that BMW Motorsport’s Augusto Farfus was the man that could really fight for the title as he dominated the first race at Hockenheim. However, he was always looking to do his own season from the off, as he told theCheckeredFlag.co.uk after his win at Zandvoort that “if you see only the title as your main target, you are disappointed.”
The Brazilian, who competed in the WTCC alongside Team RMG’s Andy Priaulx, as they both completed their rookie seasons in the DTM last year, showed a great potential with one race win and two pole positions. The results spoke for themselves, showing that there was more to come as he carries on his upward trend of performance in the series.
Farfus did not have any real alternative but to push hard from the time the lights went out by the North Sea, and found that the option tyres were playing into the strength of the Audi drivers. Filipe Albuquerque and Miguel Molina and Mattias Ekstrom were driving on them for the most laps during the 44-lap race, but ‘Gustl’ knew who had the best strength on the options and where his strategy for the race lied, having pulled out a gap of around 10 seconds in the early goings: “Either you save them or you stress them. This year, we have seen the strength from Audi, as they are a lot gentler on the tyres. I was pretty strong on the primes when I switched to them from the option tyres.”
He feels that he would vote his performance this year as very high, but the DNF he suffered at Brands Hatch, as well as two finishes at both Lausitzring and Norisring, really hurt his season when it came to scoring points this season and could have really put the father-of-one into an even stronger position for the title.
It seems that everyone is having difficulties when it comes to the shortened weekends that everyone is having to contend with, mainly because to would give everyone a better chance to adapt to the changes that the DMSB have made this season. Farfus went on to explain that sometimes drivers can’t change what has already happened: “The car felt great, but it can be very difficult to get the car into the sweet spot, especially with the new rules where you have parc ferme. You have to adapt and sometimes qualifying comes, you find the car is OK, but not right, and you have to go with it.”
The Brazilian said that he isn’t really bothered by which teammate he has, but was impressed with the fact of what Joey Hand does when it comes to travelling and is positively looking forward to the future in the right way: “Joey is a great guy and he does a bloody awesome job going backwards and forwards to America every time. I had Andy for so many years, and I’m fine with anyone as it doesn’t matter who it is and I have a great relationship with all the teams. I really think that Joey and I really did a good job together, we really enjoyed the season and let’s see what the future will bring to us.”
He did mention that it is a “different victory and a different feeling,” when it comes to winning a title, but he said that he “could not have influenced the result through the rest of the field, as I just focused on my own race today.”
This shows the depth of character that Augusto has, as being a consummate professional, as a true sportsman congratulated his main rival upon winning the title, even though many had hoped it had gone down to the wire in three weeks at Hockenheim. He will be looking forward to looking for a new assault when the M4 DTM comes calling for 2014, as it could be a now tool that the BMW drivers can use to their advantage, but it is anyone’s game in the race for development.
He will look to close out the season as he began by winning at Hockenheim, which will help to further his motivation into the off-season. Curitiba’s “Lucky Boy” may have had misfortune this year, but at least he can hold his head high…
