Audi co-drivers reveal how they work together as a coherent whole

Having to set up a race car for three different drivers is not an easy task, but to set up a car with as many different technical variables and with as much precision as the Audi R118 e-tron quattro demands is exponentially more difficult with three drivers such as Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer.

Setting up one car for three different drivers

The three drivers will start fourth in the FIA World Endurance Championship Six Hours of Circuit of the Americas race on Saturday night. Marcel Fassler talked about setting up the No. 2 machine so that it compliments the styles of he and his co-drivers.

“For sure it’s not always easy to manage that, but luckily we have almost the same driving style, and the preferences we have are more or less the same, so therefore actually it’s for us not so difficult to find the right way on the setup, almost 95% we agree [with each other],” Fassler revealed to Motorsport.com.

We all trust each other and we all talk together in a meeting and try to find out what is the main problem

Benoit Treluyer

Treluyer echoed those sentiments but also drew upon the fact that the trio has been working together since 2010.

Working together

“We all trust each other and we all talk together in a meeting and try to find out what is the main problem. We prioritize the problem and we try to solve this step by step. You cannot solve the problem to each driver and we try to have an agreement between us to know what is the biggest problem so it’s happened very well in between us three, we’ve been working five years together and it’s always been very good so we have no problem for that,” Treluyer told Motorsport.com.

If there is the need to have such a different setup from somebody, there’s something wrong.

Andre Lotterer

Andre Lotterer spoke to how similar the setup has to be for all three drivers, because dramatic changes could result in a slower car.

We need to be coherent

“At this level, all drivers know how the car has to be to be a fast car and it’s the same way for all of us. If there is the need to have such a different setup from somebody, there’s something wrong. […] We need to have the ability to drive with the same setup which suits us anyway. It would be wrong if we have to change the setup for another driver, there’s too much compromise to do, and that’s such a big compromise would be a loss in performance actually,” Lotterer explained to Motorsport.com.

There has been one major change in the last year for the cars, because fuel has to be saved more often but there also is four wheel drive.

“I have to say that it was very very similar in the past, now with the new car, we have to save the fuel much more than before and we have to adapt our driving style,” Treluyer said.

Lotterer: “When you want a fast car, there are not a thousand ways of doing it.

“For sure our technology with the four wheel drive helps a lot in a way, it’s been amazing to drive yesterday and fun, but of course our competitors have four wheel drive as well but still the way we make it work it is very very good,” Lotterer explained.