Jeffrey Schmidt celebrates victory and third place in Porsche Carrera Cup
Switzerland’s Jeffrey Schmidt has continued his impressive run of results with a win in Sunday’s Porsche Carrera Cup race, staged in the context of the DTM weekend at the Hockenheimring. He had already picked up a trophy for a third-place finish on Saturday. The historic racetrack in Baden-Württemberg is obviously very much to the liking of the 22-year-old, as he has made five podium appearances in a row there – including two wins. The Lechner Huber Racing driver is now fifth in the championship standings after four out of 16 races.
Jeffrey, congratulations on this victory. Please give us your impressions of this fantastic race.
After qualifying second, we knew that we were in with a good chance. I got off to a perfect start, managing to pass pole-sitter Christian Engelhart on the way to the first corner. I then needed to quickly pull out a gap, because the others were in hot pursuit. And I succeeded in doing that. I established a lead of one or two seconds. Unfortunately, the drivers behind me soon gave up on the idea of battling each other and were concentrating on catching me instead. I knew then that I couldn’t afford to make any mistakes! Although Christian got closer, I managed to maintain the two-second gap and ultimately win the race. That was great, because for someone from Switzerland who has no race venues in his own country, Hockenheim is the closest thing to a home race. A lot of fans made the trip across the border, including family members, friends and sponsors. It’s especially nice to be celebrating such a great result with them.
Is it problematic driving all alone at the front for so long?
When you’re in the lead and having to ensure that your opponents don’t catch up, a race like that can seem like an eternity. As the leader, you’re not in a position to work your way up to another car or get on its tail. You also don’t have any reference point in terms of braking or slipstream. Consequently, all of your opponents make up lost ground on the straights. Being race leader can therefore be very, very difficult. So every single lap feels very long, especially on the Hockenheimring. In addition, you tend to worry a lot about what could still happen.
But it wasn’t just on Sunday that you performed strongly. You finished the first race with a podium.
That’s right. I started from third on the grid. Sven Müller and Christian Engelhart were on the row in front. Christian had fitted new tyres for the race. He used one of his ‘joker’ sets; every driver has three per year – at this point I still had all three of mine. We had to start with a flag because the gantry lights weren’t working. That was a little unconventional, but not a problem. I remember it from my karting days. Müller immediately went past Engelhart. I had hoped that the two would be battling it out with each other and that I could be the beneficiary. But it didn’t happen like that. So I mounted my own attack, closed the gap and then also got past Engelhart. That was a good manoeuvre. Towards the end of the race, however, my tyres were gradually degrading, and after I made a braking mistake, he overtook me again on the hairpin. So I finished third. To that extent, the tyre strategy did not work out on Saturday.
The race was shown by Telebasel live on Swiss television, which was a first for them. Did you have that at the back of your mind?
Yes, to some extent. Because I was appearing live on TV, I obviously wanted to lay on something of a spectacular. In Saturday’s race, there wasn’t a lot of action at the start because the two leaders were avoiding any confrontation with each other. Consequently, I wanted to create bit more excitement. That worked quite well. I’m really grateful to Telebasel for showing the Porsche Carrera Cup. I’m especially pleased because I come from Basel, even though viewers all over Switzerland can receive the channel now. Fredy Barth is the commentator for all the races. He is the absolute expert. I approached Telebasel with the idea, and they were immediately enthusiastic about it. We worked together on finding advertising partners for the programme. I think it’s great that we have now realised this project. After all, Switzerland is not what you would consider a classic motorsport country.
The next round of Porsche Carrera Cup will be contested at the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg. How well does this track suit your style?
My team – Lechner Huber Racing – are already looking forward to this race because they are based in Passau and it’s not so far from there to Spielberg. The Red Bull Ring is definitely a cool track. I like it, and it seems to like me. I proved that last year with my debut victory there in the Porsche Carrera Cup. With these good memories in mind, my anticipation of this event is all the greater. There are some very long straights and the few corners have to be taken very fast. That suits me.
