Podium on final weekend of Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in the USA
All good things come in threes. A third podium finish of 2016 rounded off an eventful year in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup for Jeffrey Schmidt. The Lechner Racing Middle East driver was particularly impressive for the quality of his starts in the double bill of the Porsche single-make cup at Austin. Overtaking battles with opponents – some extending over several laps – had the spectators on the edge of their seats and showed the driving skills of the 22-year-old from Liestal in Switzerland to best advantage.
Congratulations on a great season. What was the key to securing the podium in the second race?
Clearly the start. I got off the line like a rocket and immediately moved up from fifth on the grid to third in the field. In recent races, the starts have been going really well. I had absolutely no problem keeping up with the front-runners. I deliberately stayed out of the battle going on ahead, because that would just have allowed the pursuing pack to close the gap. I was hoping that the two in front would give each other such a hard time that I would be the beneficiary. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but finishing third behind two Porsche Juniors was really a successful way to round off the season.
In the first race at Austin, there was an incredibly exciting battle between you and Christian Engelhart. Tell us how you saw that unfold.
Once again, I was building on a superb start. However, there were a few scraps going on ahead of me, and that stopped me making progress. In fact, towards the end I was hard pushed to hang on to seventh which is where I started from on the grid. My car was really great and I eventually found myself involved in the battle with Christian that you mentioned. We went through almost four successive corners driving wheel to wheel before I managed to get past. Towards the end, though, I became aware that my tyres were degrading heavily. At that point, Christian had one of the fastest cars on the track and was putting me under a lot of pressure. I was able to fend him off for several laps, but my tyres were fading rapidly and he squeezed past.
With all the rain that fell at Austin last year, you’ve finally competed in your first dry races there. How do you like the Circuit of the Americas?
I felt good right from the first moment, and the evidence for that is the third-fastest time I set in free practice. It was a similar story in 2015 when I finished a wet-weather race in fourth place. The track is very much to my liking, which made it all the more frustrating that I was unable to show it in qualifying. I got blocked by another driver when I was on my first set of fresh tyres. He was penalised for it afterwards, but that doesn’t exactly help me. On the second set of tyres, the timing was not optimal. Just as I was starting my hot lap, there was a red flag and no improvement was possible.
You end the year with three podium appearances and sixth place in the championship. How satisfied are you with your season in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup?
For about two-thirds of the campaign, I was third in the championship table and therefore well on target. To be honest, finishing sixth is not ideal. In retrospect, it was the race weekends at Spa and Monza that ruined my chances. There were of course races where I’ve only got myself to blame. Basically, it was very difficult to match the Porsche Juniors who won all races this season between them. On several weekends, I was ‘Best of the Rest’, which is cause for personal satisfaction.
At the end of a long season, the most pressing issue must now be where we can expect to see you in 2017.
At the moment, there are a variety of plans, many possible directions and several deals in the offing. I don’t yet know where the journey is going to take me. I would like to compete in a good championship which allows me the opportunity to develop and improve as a racing driver. At the same time, it’s important that I offer my sponsors and partners a superior platform. Consequently, I intend to analyse all the options carefully over the next few weeks and we’ll then see which one is best with respect to the criteria I’ve outlined. It may well be that I carry on racing over the winter – this time most likely in the USA.
