One of them is battling in the Audi RS 5 DTM for the lead of the DTM standings and the other one is making his circuit racing debut in the Audi Sport TT Cup: the two friends, Mattias Ekström and Felix Neureuther, will be in the focus of interest at the Red Bull Ring on August 1 and 2.
“Felix is always ready whenever there’s something wild to experience,” Audi factory driver Mattias Ekström knowingly says about his friend Felix Neureuther during an Audi telephone press conference. The German ski star, for instance, did not have to think twice when Ekström offered to let him drive his Audi S1 EKS RX quattro from the World Rallycross Championship last winter. During the hot ride in the 560-hp four-wheel drive vehicle, Neureuther not only displayed plenty of talent at the wheel. The experience also instantly sparked the idea that ‘car-mad’ Neureuther, as he describes himself, might make his circuit racing debut in the new Audi Sport TT Cup. Now the time has come. And Neureuther is not the only ski star to compete in the ‘young’ one-make cup at the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg. His opponents: the local Austrian hero and World Cup winner Marcel Hirscher and Olympic gold medalist Aksel Lund Svindal from Norway.