We met Gottfried Grasser in front of the team truck and immediately noticed that the GRT motorhome is much larger than all the others. Is that a coincidence or does size really matter? "Many teams have motorhomes for show, ours is a real hive of activity," Grasser says. The motorhome dates back to none other than Brawn GP from 2007. "After Brawn GP became world champions in the first year, I thought to myself, it can't hurt if we buy their truck. It has to bring good luck," Grasser says.
I am an early riser. There is nothing nicer for me than seeing a sunrise. At home I have a room that is specially oriented to the east and has a large glass front. I really enjoy the fact that we are racing at home in Styria now. My schedule on the race weekend is: get up early, read a bit, watch the sunrise and drink a coffee. Without that, I can’t do anything.
I get to the track around 07:30 and then it all gets going with the first briefing. We meet with the race engineers and technical directors to discuss the set-up for the cars. The briefing is extremely important because we have four cars on the track and it's crucial that everyone knows what we are all doing.
After the qualifying session, we sit down again and discuss the individual results. We look at what went well and what went badly. The focal point here is TEAMWORK. Everyone has to work and exchange ideas with everyone. I act as a link, because in motorsport you basically have a big group of alpha males. My job is to get the alphas working together.
I enjoy media engagements because the more the media report on DTM, the more fans will come to the race tracks. Especially when an engagement involves the fans like the Pitwalk does, I’ll be right there. Without the fans we wouldn't be here, after all. Many people forget that! That comes back to all the alpha males in this sport – drivers as well as team members – many of whom don't like the PR stuff at all. They have to understand that motorsport exists as a whole, and they don’t race in a vacuum.
Grasser pilot Mirko Bortolotti finished on the podium in the first race on Saturday. "After the race, we sit down again with the individual teams behind the four cars. All the data gets pooled together."
By this time, the mechanics are almost finished, and it is all quiet in the paddock. This is the point when we meet with the engineers for the strategy meeting. This has become a ritual for our team and usually lasts until 22:00. We evaluate different races, look at what happened last year and try to learn from it for this year. It is important to me that everyone is present at the meeting, because the best ideas come about when we all get together and exchange thoughts.
Team HQ is only a few kilometres away from the Red Bull Ring, so the journey home is a short one for the team principal. And today, it's another high-speed day again for Grasser Racing.
