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Faster than a bullet from a gun: Marco Werner of Audi Sport North America
By Kate Shaw
Photos © Jamie Longmuir 2008
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (August 23, 2008) -- Marco Werner qualified the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI on the outside of the front row for the Grand Prix of Mosport, only .094 behind the sister car qualified by Dindo Capello. This was remarkable because the team had had to replace the tub yesterday due to damage occasioned by running over a piece of the track that had lifted, and in the morning the car had been, he said, almost undriveable. “The spare tub,” he explained, “was the completely rebuilt one that Rocky [Mike Rockenfeller] wrecked at Le Mans in 2007. We had to put all the settings from the old car on it and it took much hard work to bring the car up to something like what I had on the original car. It was not so bad for qualifying. The guys did good work.”

Nevertheless, said Marco, he was disappointed with his position. “I am disappointed,” he explained, “because I know I could have gone at least 2/10 faster if not for an Acura that was cruising in Turn 8! I was on my fastest lap and suddenly I came up on him and he was just driving around, and I had to slow down and lost 2/10. If I had been able to keep up the pace I had been running, I would have lowered my time by .38 and I would have had the pole.” He went on to explain how in Road America he had used the traffic and a particular GT car, plus the incredible torque of the R10 TDI, to push his car into first place, and he clearly enjoyed the memory.

That is the mark of an Audi driver: not satisfied with anything less than perfection. And over the five years Marco Werner has driven for Audi Sport North America, he has absorbed that lesson well.

The track problems this weekend led to a discussion of track safety now that the speeds of the Prototype cars have increased so dramatically. First of all, Marco opined that it was not the speed of the cars that caused the breakup on the track, because the area in Turn 4 that broke up was not one that took that much abuse from the cars. “If the cars were causing the damage,” he argued, “the breakup would have happened in Turn 2. The track director said that water running under the track had lifted the tarmac up in that spot.” That being said, he agreed with his teammate Dindo Capello who said that the speed differential between the GT cars and the Prototypes was beginning to be a safety issue. “When I did my first qualifying in 2003, at Road Atlanta, in the R8 which was a beautiful car, my time was something like 1.17. Today the qualifying Dindo had was 1.04. There are serious speed differences between those [GT] cars and us, in particular three or four of them; that can be dangerous. When you come down the hill and around Turn 2 and you see a GT car in the racing line, you have to hope it is one of those who know how to live with [Prototypes]. But when you come around that turn and you don’t see the car and then when you come around the turn he is in the middle of the road…” he shook his head meaningfully. “It’s not nice.”

Finally we discussed the change in personnel at Audi Sport North America that focuses on bringing up younger drivers to replace familiar faces. Marco said that this is something veteran drivers are prepared to accept. “When drivers are at this level,” he explained, “we know that when we reach 40 the time is coming that younger drivers will be brought up to our level. I have really enjoyed my time driving for Audi; it is quite simply put, a dream, and I am happy to be here as long as my name is the one that shows the fastest time on the sheets. When it comes to [co-driver] Lucas [Luhr] being fastest time after time, then I will be prepared for the day Dr. Ulrich comes to tell me its time for me to go. I am 42 years old now and I think two or three years more will be enough for me; I will not be one of those drivers who hang on and on. But when will that day come? At Audi we aren’t told until we need to know. Audi know how to keep information private! Even the development of the diesel was not known until Audi announced it, except to those men working on it. People would ask me if I knew anything and truly, I never did. That is the way at Audi. So I will keep on driving and very much enjoying my time with Audi and trying not to pay attention to the young guys taking off their caps and bowing to my great wisdom.”

Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr will line up on the outside of the front row for the Grand Prix of Mosport which kicks off at 3:00 this afternoon. We all look forward to seeing another great Audi battle and wish Marco Werner the best as he enjoys driving his dream for Audi.

UPDATE: The No. 2 Audi R10 TDI won the race on Sunday, clinching the P1 championship for Audi. Marco Werner set a new race record en route to his and Lucas Luhr’s win.