1985 Porsche 962C

I have had the good fortune to have raced many good cars in my career, from early days in Formula Three, to the excellent Bastos Ford Sierra Cosworth (a car I’ll never forget), my DTM Mercedes cars and now driving and demonstrating the Mercedes racing cars from a past era— cars like the W125 and the W154. The Mercedes Silver Arrows Collection visits various events around the world like the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It’s an amazing opportunity for me to drive cars that were once piloted by great drivers such as Fangio, Caracciola and von Brauchitsch—and I’m being paid too!
I drove for the Zakspeed F1 team in 1988 and ’89; the car was hard to handle and not that easy to drive, it wasn’t the most competitive car on the grid in those days. Actually, getting the car onto the grid, even the last row, was very tough. When driving is so difficult it is easy to lose confidence. As a young driver, like many others, I had aimed my life at being in Formula One. When the chance came it was not the best and I cannot tell you how disappointing it was for me. I did drive for the Footwork Arrows team in 1990, just for two races while Alex Caffi was out.  The first race at the USGP at Phoenix, Arizona, I qualified 20th and finished 12th, but for the second Grand Prix in Spain I failed to qualify.
I suppose I’d given up the idea of becoming a Formula One driver and turned to sportscar racing. I drove the Porsche 962C. Now this was a great car. Porsche had developed the car to be very powerful, very light and perfectly balanced —the perfect combination for a racing driver. It allowed me to get back to winning races and increasing my confidence once again. I had great success and became champion in the Kremer car. I enjoyed too, driving the Joest car in the IMSA series, co-driving cars with great drivers like Bob Wollek and John Winter; and at Le Mans with Henri Pescarolo. It was good to drive a car again knowing it was competitive and had the possibility of winning. I think this is why the car was, and still is, so special for me.
I had another chance in Formula One with a test drive in the 1995 McLaren. It was great. For the first time I was able to sit in a well-prepared Grand Prix car that had so much reliability and speed. It was a great and very enjoyable experience, but Grand Prix racing was not for me at this time. I was racing in the DTM series (German Touring Car Championship) and the ITC (International Touring Car Championship) with Mercedes. The cars were very well prepared and I was able to win many races and championship titles. I think some of the Mercedes touring cars became more technical than Formula One cars. In the mid-1990s, I was the first driver to win a touring car race with active suspension, everything was allowed in these days the cars were full of computer-operated systems.
Over the years, although not having a good experience in Formula One, I’ve never lost my motivation for driving racing cars. From a small boy it’s all I’ve wanted to do. To be able to make a career from driving in this way is something very special and something I will always appreciate.
As told to Mike Jiggle