The next two weeks are a case in point – just one week after competing in the 6 Hours of Fuji (11 October), he will be racing at Sugo in the sixth and penultimate round of Super Formula, the premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing championship. The German scooped the title in 2011 and is currently lying fourth in this season’s standings. First to Fuji though where Lotterer and his teammates Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer will be seeking to tighten their grip at the top of the 2015 World Endurance Drivers’ Championship leaderboard, with Porsche drivers Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber now breathing down their necks.

How important is Japan to you?
André Lotterer: I love the country, enjoy living here, have great respect for the people and love Japanese cuisine. I’ve been racing in Japan since 2003 and have lived in Tokyo now for many years. The WEC race at Fuji is a kind of home race for me. The spectators are enthusiastic – sports car races have a great tradition in Japan.

What are your sporting goals with your teammates Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer?
We won two races at the start of the season. After taking two third places in the summer, we were second most recently in Texas. To be perfectly honest, I’ll only be happy when my teammates and I have won at Fuji with Audi. The track is very challenging for the technicians and us. And not forgetting that the weather in October in the mountains can play a major role. Two years ago there was heavy rain, last year a typhoon was raging at the time and just missed us.
 

Will you just stay in Japan for the WEC race?
No, I’m currently spending several weeks in Japan. After our race in Austin, I spent a few days in America before flying to Tokyo. I’ll also stay in the country after the race at Fuji. After our 6-hour race, it’s almost a small tradition now that I invite the entire Audi team on Monday to a big party in Tokyo. A week later I race at Sugo in the north of Japan. The next WEC race in China is then on the agenda on November 1st.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO – Translated from French by David Goward
(Quote courtesy of Audi Motorsport press release)

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE 2015, PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING SESSIONS. André Lotterer’s connections with Japanese culture are also very much in evidence on his helmet with ideograms meaning “Good hope for things to come” and “Hunter” spurring him on to victory!