Benoît Tréluyer: “I like difficulties”

How do you find yourself here?

I am an Audi development and reserve driver and am therefore ready to take the wheel if necessary. I recently carried out tire tests at Spa with the RS5. DTM. When they called me, I think I hesitated for a thousandth of a second.

Your last race, the only one with the RS5 DTM, went well. What do you expect?

Yes, it was during the Dream Race Super GTxDTM (last November. Editor's note) but it was on a circuit that I knew by heart (Fuji Speedway. Editor's note). There, I don't know the track and will be fighting with guys who are totally in the juice and who are coming out of a first weekend on this track. I'll have to adapt quickly. I will try to limit the damage in race 1 and try to do something good the next day.

How do you prepare?

For reasons linked to the pandemic, I cannot go to the Audi simulator in Neuburg. So I'm working on mine. Otherwise, I am constantly in contact with the Audi engineers and attended all the Team Phoenix briefings and debriefings last weekend. It's going to be hard, it's quite a challenge, but I like difficulties.

In other words, you're not ready to stop?

If I've never hung up, it's because I like to seize opportunities and I have too much fun racing. There, it suited me, because I needed time to set up my company (Trajectus, car guarding. Editor's note), but once it is on track, I would like to reconnect with competition so this race falls to peak.

Find the latest information from the DTM in AUTOhebdo No. 2282, available in digital version and on sale at newsstands.