Jeffrey Schmidt narrowly misses podium in Oschersleben
Season opener at Oschersleben: Jeffrey Schmidt had high expectations for the new season after taking third place in the overall standings of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany in 2015. Fourth place in the second race and an unfortunate penalty in the first race – the season-opener was an emotional roller-coaster for the Swiss driver.
Jeffrey, you fought your way up into fourth place on Sunday, but nevertheless, you are not happy with the opening weekend.
No, not really. Fourth place on Sunday was the maximum we could do by way of damage limitation after the way the weekend had gone. Much more than fourth place was not possible. The result is one thing, the other is the speed. The car no longer felt quite right on Sunday after a collision on Saturday, and I wasn’t quite satisfied with the speed – when testing previously, we’d been ultra-quick on the long runs. We’ll now have to carefully go over all the data.
You started the race on Saturday from second place on the grid. What happened next?
A fellow competitor made contact with me at the start, and I spun as a result. One of the drivers behind us was unable to take evasive action and damaged my rear skirt, but I was able to continue until the race directors suddenly called me into the pits and took me out of the race. That was the result of a series of misunderstandings. The race directors tried to get me on the radio, but the connection was bad. I’m sorry about that, and we’ll ensure that it never happens again.
Still, there are some positives that you can take from this weekend.
I’m still learning even now as a ‘veteran’ in his fourth year in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. No matter what happens, you can’t just stick your head in the sand. The season is long. We just had a spot of bad luck. Next time, it could quite easily happen to someone else. Then we’ll be all square and can start over again. The struggle continues, and such challenges just enable you to go on growing. We’re stronger now as we leave than when we arrived.
Your next race will be under the DTM banner at Hockenheim.
Yes, we’ll be there for testing next Wednesday. I always like going back to the Hockenheimring. It’s where I achieved my second victory in the Porsche Carrera Cup and other successes last year. That obviously fills me with confidence. I hope that we can be up there with the front-runners once again.
