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| Ralf Schumacher will start with the AMG Mercedes C-Class |
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Ralf Schumacher:
A selection of quotes for your report
"Of course I know that neither the media nor the spectators consider me the greatest race driver of all times and this is not what I'm aiming for.
During my last three years in Formula 1, I didn't have much success and it almost sounded strange to me when Norbert mentioned in our conversation, that short before this time I had managed to win two Formula 1 Grands Prix within only eight days.
However, I am still the same Ralf as at those times, the same racer who has fun in motor sports and who wants to compete with the best.
Now I am able to do so in the DTM which I know very well since the mid-nineties when I was a young up-coming driver racing in Formula Junior and Formula 3 which had been staged as a supporting programme of the DTM. Then I dreamed of racing in the main event sometime.
I like the series, I like the environment, I like the enthusiastic and positive spectators. And I like Mercedes - with them I got my first chance to test a Formula 1 car in 1996 and who knows how my Formula 1 career had turned out if I had accepted the McLaren Mercedes offer to become their test driver for 1997.
But then I wanted to drive races, and that's what I still want today, more than ten years later.
I will learn in the DTM, I will work hard and I will put it behind me if people will criticize me if I should have problems during the first couple of races.
It was great fun testing the DTM C-Class and I look very much forward to the new season, more than I did for a long time. Money and popularity like in Formula 1 don't play the first role for me.
Now I want sport, fun and excitement and that's what the DTM features more than any other race series.
It's fine if people have patience with me being an apprentice in the beginning, but if not - I don't mind.
I know already most of my future competitors, but I don't expect them to let me pass just because here comes Ralf who doesn't know the DTM so well.
Norbert Haug:
A selection of quotes for your report
It was decisive for our engagement of Ralf that he showed enthusiasm for the DTM and his willingness to commit himself to a learning period with the for him unknown race touring cars and with the enormous competitiveness of the entire field.
Needless to describe Ralf's driving skills, until today he is the most successful German Formula 1 driver behind his brother Michael and this is not because these successes were a present.
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