The DTM (tickets at www.dtm.com is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and it is also a very special season for ABT Sportsline. “We had the entrepreneurial courage to enter the DTM as a small private team in 2000,” says ABT CEO Hans-Jürgen Abt. “Now we have been involved for 25 years and are the most successful active DTM team. There can only be one goal for our anniversary season: the championship title.”
The two ABT drivers also share this goal. “We have to win the title. It simply belongs back to Kempten, it’s been far too long since the last one,” says Ricardo Feller (23/Switzerland). “We have to do everything we can to do more than just compete for the championship. It’s time to take the championship title with us in the end.”
His team mate Kelvin van der Linde (27, South Africa) has already made a good start to the new racing season with a podium at the 12-hour race in Bathurst, Australia. “I hope we can take that into the DTM season and have a bit more luck on our side in 2024 than last year,” he says.
The two ABT drivers have prepared themselves particularly intensively for the anniversary season – also thanks to the partnership between ABT Sportsline and Red Bull. It enables Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde to use the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre (APC) in Austria. It offers top athletes and sports teams sponsored by Red Bull unique opportunities for performance diagnostics at a central location. Mental health and nutrition also play an important role at the APC.
At the beginning of February, the two ABT pilots virtually passed their ‘entrance exam’ in Thalgau near Salzburg. “We were checked from A to Z and everything was super professional,” says Ricardo Feller. “It was very interesting to learn about my own little weaknesses – but also good to get confirmation that I’m healthy and can start the season with confidence. I’m going to train a bit more specifically and eat more consciously on days when I'm not active.”
“The days at the APC were mega,” enthuses Kelvin van der Linde. “It was especially cool for me to talk to doctors and professionals who really know motorsport. I now have a lot of new tools to improve myself both athletically and mentally. I think that will help me a lot this season. It was also great to see how other popular professional athletes who were at the APC at the same time as us are working and preparing for the season.”
In order to compare the athletes in their respective segments, the international APC team has developed clusters and training programmes for the individual sports. For motorsport athletes, for example, there is a special neck test, a steering wheel simulator for measuring upper body strength, which has been developed over the last three years together with Red Bull’s Formula 1 drivers, and leg work for braking force in the racing car.
Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde will regularly visit the APC in future – at least once before and after each racing season. The APC and its network of doctors, specialists and surgeons will also be available in the event of accidents or injuries.
ABT Motorsport Director Martin Tomczyk knows the APC very well from his time as an active racing driver. “What Red Bull has created there is truly unique,” says the 2011 DTM champion. “I am sure that Ricardo and Kelvin will benefit from it, and so will we as a team.”