GP2 Feature - Michael Ammermuller Interview
05/05/2006
Michael Ammermuller was nervous. He didn't show it, but he knew this was a big challenge. He tried to keep his pre-race routine the same: lunch, followed by a chat with his Bridgestone tyre engineers and then a lie-down.
In the race, he rose to the occasion and drove brilliantly, blowing away his team-mate. And this was no ordinary team-mate; this was Michael Schumacher.
"I thought Schumacher was amazing," says Ammermuller. "That race was back in 2002 and Michael came into the Super A kart series for a one-off outing. With very little testing, he was only a couple of tenths off the regular guys. That's pretty incredible when you think about it and Michael's been my hero ever since."
Since that race, both drivers have gone on to greater things. Schumacher has won two more Formula 1 world titles, while Ammermuller has progressed from karts to car racing, and this year contests the GP2 series with Arden.
Ammermuller's rise through the ranks has been one of the fastest of any young driver in recent memory. He started car racing in 2004, when he was picked up by Red Bull as part of their driver development programme, and now - just two years later - he is driving for one of the top teams in GP2. And he's already won a race this year.
"The win at Valencia was really nice," he says, "because no-one expected it from me. I didn't even expect it from myself because these cars are a big step up from what I'm used to in Formula Renault, both in terms of power and grip from the Bridgestone tyres. Even now, I feel like I'm only maximising 95 percent of the car's potential. But I love the car too; it's beautiful to drive."
Perhaps even more impressive than Ammermuller's win (he started from pole position after the grid for Sunday's race had been reversed) was his second place at Imola last weekend. To get on the podium, he had to battle from ninth on the grid and carried out some thrilling overtaking manoeuvres.
"I'm very pleased with how things have gone," he says. "At the start of the year I told myself that I'd be happy to finish in the top 10, but the goal posts have moved. My expectations for the rest of the year are now higher than that."
He currently lies equal third in the championship table, nine points behind leader Nelson Piquet Junior. He expects to be fast at the next two tracks on the calendar - Nurburgring and Barcelona - but he then faces a tough time on tracks he doesn't know.
"I don't know Monaco, Silverstone, Budapest or Istanbul," he says, "so it will be tough at those tracks because there is no testing. The most difficult one will be Monaco. I've only ever driven around there in a road car and it seems very difficult. I think it's best if you don't have fear at Monaco! But I'm looking forward to the challenge of it too."
Schumacher has won around the streets of the Principality five times in F1, so perhaps he can get some advice from his former team-mate…