The Audi team’s charm offensive
- Two girls hold their own in the 120 strong DTM team
- Dr Lucia Conconi and Rebecca Cramer in the spotlight
- When the girls arrive the gentlemen appear
The passion for motorsport could not have been sparked off much earlier. “I even played with Matchbox as a small child,” explains Rebecca Cramer. In essence, not much has changed. However, the cars which she deals with on a day-to-day basis are of a slightly different calibre: 470 hp to replace hand power, Nürburgring instead of lounge carpet and battles with Mika Häkkinen or Heinz-Harald Frentzen as a substitute for harmless laps around the table leg. As assistant to the Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline Team Organisation the newly married Cramer mingles with the DTM stars. This is not the only charm offensive of the successful Audi team, which pocketed all three title last year in Europe’s most popular touring car series: Also behind the lap tops on which the set-up for Champion Mattias Ekström’s car is developed, long blond hair flashes backwards and forwards: Dr Lucia Conconi belongs to the Audi Sport squad of engineers, who prepare the DTM cars with the four rings for qualifying and the race.
Girl power squared in the most masculine of all sports. All in all this is no problem for the almost 120 strong DTM team from the Ingolstadt manufacturer. “Our two girls are part of the close knit family and, furthermore, bring an excellent atmosphere in this mans world,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. Rebecca Cramer’s and Dr Lucia Conconi’s professional expertise is undisputed. Dr Ullrich: “Their work is absolutely professional, but they repeatedly break the ice with their charm. They even manage to explain dull technical aspects in a more elegant way than their male counterparts, which is also very positive for the fruits of our labours.” And it brings success: During the 2004 season Audi won the Drivers’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championship with Mattias Ekström and the Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline from Kempten. The chances of successfully defending the titles look good as the season enters its final third.
If new components or different set-ups are developed or tested for the high-tech Audi A4 DTM touring car, it is then Dr Lucia Conconi’s job to simulate the planned modifications – an equally important and demanding job in the rapid motorsport business. And at the same time a fascinating one. Dr Conconi: “It’s enormously captivating to receive the feedback from the tests or technical developments and to see exactly the effects in competition on the circuit.” Conconi also sees the advantages, particularly in the motorsport field, of female intuition: “More often than not there is more than one way to crack a nut, as the different approaches of men and women show – this makes all the work that much more interesting.”
Her colleague Rebecca Cramer never has time to get bored. As assistant to the Technical Director and Manager at Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline she is a busy as bee at the circuit. Or even more? “Some also say that I am the team’s agony aunt, which really pleases me,” admits Cramer. She is responsible for the smooth running of the race-taxis rides at the weekend, coordinates all the ‘pit garage walkabouts’, looks after the guests and is also in the thick of the action during the obligatory pit stops during the race: Dressed in fireproof overalls she gives the drivers the command to ‘put their foot down’ after the tyre change and refuelling.
The Audi charm offensive has made an impact. “The way our guys from the Allgäu joke around and pull each others leg is sometimes a little coarse”, confesses Technical Director Albert Deuring. And smiles: “But when Rebecca turns up they are all suddenly become gentlemen.” With charm to victory – the Audi team wants a rerun of this motto again this year when the championship battle comes to a head, and the drivers fight for the title with the support of Dr Lucia Conconi and Rebecca Cramer – and not just with Matchbox cars on the lounge carpet.