After being home in Connecticut for a bit less than two weeks I was pretty excited for our next race at Red Bull Ring in Spielburg, Austria. This was a quick trip and last race before the summer break.

My free practice results were not the best to start the weekend. It was a combination of driver and car issues. I was struggling a lot with oversteer on entry and Red Bull Ring is a short circuit, making traffic an issue with 34 cars. We finished practice with a good understanding how to move forward. We were the first group on the circuit Friday to start the DTM/FIA F3 weekend, and the heavy rain Thursday night didn’t help with the baseline set up.

My engineer Ralf and I did find a bit of time for first qualifying, ending it in P16. I felt the car was better than that, and I didn’t get any clear track late in the session when the circuit was best. This is a part of qualifying in F3, and we all have the same issue.

The track temp was rising quickly and the DTM cars had practiced before our next qualifying run. For second qualifying we decided to make a small aero change to the front. That session went a bit better, and we ended P11 for races two and three. I lost my best lap to traffic – the field was extremely tight, and only one tenth would have put me up the order by four spots!

In race one I had a great start and passed two cars off the line, another car in turn one and another in the brake zone of turn two. As the race went on, I managed to get into 11th and held that position for a while until I got a bit of dirt on my rear tires at the exit of turn nine and slid of the track in turn one, losing one spot.

Race two was pretty exciting for me, although I didn’t make it into a points-paying position. I had a strong start and was up to eighth but on the exit of turn two, I was bumped off the track and fell back to 13th. To be fair, turn two is a crazy place on the opening laps. It was hard racing and I got the short end. I have been on the good end too, so no complaints.

Now, falling back I had my teammate behind me for most of the 24 lap race and had to defend. He had a couple of good moves early that failed, and once I found my pace I slowly gapped him. Later I made a mistake in turn two. I locked the rear tires and didn’t get the car into first gear, so I had a very bad exit out of the uphill hairpin and he was able to drag race me down to turn three.

We both braked late but I had the optimum line on the inside. Another driver behind my teammate missed the brake point, hitting me in the rear and nearly spinning me. Luckily, I held on to my position!

With five laps to go the track went yellow and the safety car was deployed. I didn’t need that, because it closed the gap I made, and once again my team mate was on my rear. Neither of us had the pace of the cars in front of us, so the fight was behind me. The safety car came in with three laps to go, and I had a tough finish on my hands. I got a very bad run out of turn one and I was really struggling with rear exit grip at this moment as my tires were finished.

My teammate had yet another attempt to draft me down the straight and tried to pass me entering turn two. I held on in the brake zone and he ran off the track extra wide to ensure he had a good exit. We all know this works well at the restarts. So he tried to get underneath me for turn three. I shut the door and didn’t leave space for him. So he got a little stupid and put two wheels in the grass to try and pass me! Crazy!

The only option he had, in my mind, was the outside again, but apparently the grass was the only option he saw. Despite the fact he nearly crashed us both, he failed to get by and I comfortably finished in front of him.

So after the race he was so upset he went to the stewards, on his own, to complain about me – his teammate! In Mücke Motorsport we have rules and procedures. This is a professional race team. He should have talked to the lead person and then, if warranted, gone with him to the stewards. But being a German driver on a German team he acts and thinks like he is above everyone. Keep in mind that there are five of us, and through his own arrogance, he has no friends.

A bit later we were on our way to the stewards, two team-mates with the team boss. Two team-mates that finished nose-to-tail, out of the points. Rule One: In Europe, you never go to the stewards about your team-mate, especially on your own. Ever. If you are called by the stewards, that’s a different story.

I was sitting in the stewards room, for the second time this year, listening to him rant about how he was next to me wheel to wheel and that I pushed him off the track. Blah blah blah. I was doing my best not to laugh because we all have cameras on the cars and he was lying.

The false accusations and the rant was topped off by him demanding to see the on-board video of his car. The stewards happily obliged so we watched it. Oops! He was 100 percent wrong! It was very clear that you can see him drive behind me then, pull out and into the grass to try and pass me. How embarrassing that was for the team? There goes his credibility, as he is the first to complain every weekend about somebody, on his own team or elsewhere. So I went to bed that night with a big smile on my face!.And for him, I hope he learned a valuable lesson about complaining in general. But knowing him as I do, he is likely still thinking he was right …

Back to the racing and the Sunday final. It was pouring, and we were delayed 100 minutes, so we lined up on the grid to start under yellow behind the safety car. We did this for three laps, and then the track went red. Unfortunately we never got the green flag, and there was no race. To be honest, the condition was very bad and there was no visibility. The track holds a lot of water. So instead of postponing the race to later in the day or our next race in Portimao, they decided to run one more lap behind safety car and end it right then and there.

No green flag, just four laps behind a safety car and then race over. We finished where we started. It was a very sad situation. They even awarded half points for a race that didn’t happen. Okay, I am a bit biased as I am very fast in the wet, and being P11, I could have certainly moved far up the grid. We all pay a lot of money to race and I don’t understand why we didn’t race later in the day or at another venue. In my opinion, it was a very poor decision to cancel the race and award points as if it happened.

Overall it was a rather disappointing weekend not being able to score any points for the first time this year, but I am sure the next race in Portugal will be much better. A big thanks to my sponsors Eastern Account System, Cly-Del Manufacturing, Alpinestars, Arai Helmets and Brett King Design. And of course to my team for keeping the car in perfect condition and my engineer Ralf ‘Einstein’ Druckenmüller for, as usual, finding the changes we needed.