Maximilian Günther: “The objective is to win the Macau Grand Prix”

Max, your first DTM Young Driver Test was almost a year ago in Jerez. What has been going on in your life since then?
Since the beginning of this season, I’ve been the official test and substitute driver to the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport DTM Team. I’ve also been contesting my second season in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship as a member of the Prema squad. For a long time, I was in contention for the title. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t to be, and I finished third as the highest-placed Mercedes and Prema driver. Obviously, I had set out to win the title. But at least I did my best. Overall, it has been a good year with several major successes, including my win in the Grand Prix de Pau. On some of the DTM weekends, I drove the Mercedes race taxi, which was also great.

On the subject of the Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM race taxi, tell us what it was like to drive it.
That was a cool experience! You are not pushing as much as in a real test, but the reactions of my passengers were amusing and totally different. I always got very positive feedback, and the people had a lot of fun. Driving the race taxi was really great – not the sort of thing you do every day as professional racing driver.

After the Young Driver Test, you go into the winter – always a problematic period. How will you spend the next weeks and months?
After the DTM Young Driver Test, I’ll begin making my preparations for the Macau Grand Prix in China. The FIA F3 World Cup is an absolute highlight at the end of the year, and I would like to round off the season with a positive outcome. The objective is to win the Grand Prix. I know that there will be a lot of different factors in play. After Macau, we’ll see if there are any more test drives in prospect this year.