Auer “Confident and Ready” for Return to Racing

Lucas Auer is “confident and ready” to return to racing in the upcoming DTM season opener having recovered from his back injury suffered in a crash in practice for the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

The Austrian racer has been out of action since he made made heavy impact with the pit exit wall at Daytona, where he was supposed to contest the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener with Winward Racing.

Auer suffered “significant fractured lumbar injuries” from the impact. It put him on the sidelines for several months, missing Daytona as well as the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour a week later.

Mercedes-AMG indicated back in February that Auer’s recovery process was going according to plan with the aim to be “fully ready” for the opening round of the DTM season.

Auer reconfirmed his presence at the series’ season opener, assuring he is ready to rejoin Winward’s two-car lineup later this month.

“In two weeks in Oschersleben, you guys will see me in the first race,” Auer said. “I feel confident and ready.”

The 28-year-old discussed his recuperation process following the crash, revealing he has already returned to the cockpit with a test outing at the Hockenheimring.

“After my accident, I spent two weeks in America and then I came back to Austria,” Auer explained. “I tried to look for a team around me who would support me [and] I found really a great team.

“Basically then there was actually a really intense time of training and working on my body and coming back. But as I said, I had a really mega team around me.

“Already last week I was in the car for the first time. Everything felt good and I felt confident. So I had a really quick and good recovery.

“To be honest, I learned a lot in this time about me, about my body. So it was also an interesting time.

“But I was so happy to be back in the car and I felt confident.”

Auer said he took a step-by-step approach to returning to the cockpit, gradually building up the stress levels by driving increasingly quicker in go-karts in preparation for his GT3 comeback.

“I prepared myself a little bit,” he explained. “Because before I stepped in my machine, I should try something else. So I tried indoor karting, just to check my body, which obviously went well. Then I also went shifter karting, which is already a real hardcore exercise for the body.

“Everybody knows, if you go shifter karting, it won’t get much harder than that. So I was prepared and once I came back, I was fully ready.

“It took me a couple of laps, but then I was just pushing the limits and trying to go already for lap times. Basically, in Hockenheim already I took some curbs, like Turn 1 on the inside, flat out and I had zero pain.

“As I said, I felt straight away confident, which is the most important, because everything is fully healed.

“I think the most important thing is when you feel confident, then you’re back to normal and this was the case.”

Auer: “Nothing Decided” on Additional 2023 Races

Auer added that the remainder of his racing program for this year currently remains up in the air.

He has currently only been confirmed for the full DTM season with Winward, where he shares a garage with David Schumacher.

He said that discussions with Mercedes-AMG won’t be held before the opening round at Oschersleben, but that he will “for sure” look at other races later in the year.

“Regarding any side projects, we have to discuss together with Mercedes-AMG and myself,” he said. “First we want to wait for Oschersleben, this for sure and then we are planning for sure some other races but nothing is decided yet.

“See how everything is going and then we are planning eventually other races.”