This weekend, Audi A4 DTM driver Mattias Ekström goes to the penultimate round of the 2011 Championship over in Valencia, Spain, with targets both immediate and long-term.
Hi everyone!
I’m writing the blog sitting in my office, at home in Switzerland, escaping from paperwork for five minutes. Later on I’ll be heading off to the airport and a flight to Valencia. I won that race last year, and I won the last DTM race two weeks ago – but that doesn’t get me out of having to do a mountain of paperwork at home, so here I am, sitting at a desk, taking care of business. It’s pretty boring, but that’s OK, someone has to do it. And by ‘someone’, I mean me. This is the bit of motor racing they don’t tell you about when you’re a kid!
Not much more to do here though, and then Spain, and lots to do this weekend. The last couple of races we’ve had very good results. It’s nice to have those because the first part of the season wasn’t so good. The set-up changes that we made in the summer mean we like the car much more now than we did at the start of the year, and that’s why the results have been better. I’m pretty confident now but equally I know that winning in Oschersleben doesn’t make you any quicker in Valencia. The only difference is that coming to the racetrack with this confidence makes it easier to take good decisions.
'I’d rather finish fifth but learn valuable lessons than win without moving forwards in terms of preparation'
While it sounds strange to say it, another thing to consider at this stage of the year is the fact that winning the races isn’t the only thing that matters. As we can’t win the championship we have to focus on making fine adjustments for next year and getting everything ready for 2012. Next year is going to be hard and we need to be prepared.
When it comes down to it, I’d rather finish fifth this weekend but learn some valuable lessons, which might mean we start next year with a perfect set-up, than win this weekend but without moving forwards in terms of preparation.
Obviously when you’re in the car you’re not thinking about next year, you’re thinking about winning the race – but there’s a lot of stuff going on around that too. We’re making changes in the team to make us stronger for the future. We’ve only got two more weekends to try this stuff out: after that it’s the winter and the opportunity is gone. You can talk about it plenty but the only way to work it out is at the racetrack.
But first, paperwork…
Cheerio
Mattias
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