- 24h Nürburgring debutant with impressive manoeuvre at 210 km/h
- Footage from the driver's perspective shows the lightning-fast reaction at the wheel
- Jusuf Owega: “My heart was already in my mouth”.
Last weekend, Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver Jusuf Owega (GER) made his debut at the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring. On the second lap of his first stint, the 22-year-old experienced the challenges of the Nordschleife, known as the Green Hell, at first hand. At the so-called Mutkurve, his #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN oversteered slightly and even hit the grass with the right rear tyre at 210 km/h. By showing an outstanding reaction, Owega was able to keep the car on the track. What could not be seen on TV broadcast at that moment, has subsequently gone viral: the video of Owega's manoeuvre has already been viewed several million times on social media. His own onboard footage shows Owega's lightning-fast reaction from the driver's perspective. The man from Cologne talks about his debut, the instinctive reaction of a racing driver and the media attention.
>> Watch a compilation of different onboard footage here
Jusuf, a special moment occurred on your debut. Lap 22, your first stint in the race, your second race lap. What happened there?
Jusuf Owega: “At the start of my stint, I had a sufficient gap to the GT3 car behind me. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time due to a Code 60 phase at Fuchsröhre, which allowed the competitor to catch up. The car was already right behind me in the Mutkurve. When I was at the apex, I noticed how the rear axle started to slip. That's a pretty strange feeling at such a place on the Nordschleife. I've never had an accident on this track before. And then something like that happens at the 24-hour race of all things. I just instinctively counter-steered and played with the brakes very minimally to reduce the speed carefully. I actually managed to get the car straight again. For the moment, I was able to take a deep breath and concentrate on the race again. Fortunately, I was able to keep the other car behind me.”
Oversteering, in other words. How does oversteer occur in a GT car and how do you react as a driver?
Jusuf Owega: “There can be several reasons for oversteering. As a rule, however, it is due to the setup of the vehicle. The setup is selected according to whether the drivers are more comfortable with an understeering or oversteering car. But of course, this can also happen when the track surface is wet. When the vehicle suddenly reacts like this, as a driver you naturally have to counter-steer, and you have to find the right balance so that the car doesn't move too far in the opposite direction. So, it requires a great deal of feeling in the shortest frame of time.”
What goes through your mind during a scene like this on the Nordschleife? Do you even have time to think about it or does everything happen instinctively?
Jusuf Owega: “There was a brief moment when I thought: ‘It can't be true that I'm ending the race so early for us.’ I just didn't want to let that happen. The first thing you feel is the bottom of the car breaking away. That's when my heart was already in my mouth. After that, everything happened very quickly and instinctively and fortunately everything went well.”
Do you judge the video differently from the situation itself?
Jusuf Owega: “When I watch the video afterwards, I have to say that the situation looked really spectacular. I didn't realise in the car how close I was to the barrier with the rear. At that moment, I was only concerned with catching the car. Only later in the onboard recording and when analysing the data I realized how close it was. They showed that I lost the rear at 210 km/h and had to apply 100 degrees of opposite lock. The second counter-steering took place at 180 km/h and even with a steering wheel angle of 200 degrees. If I had touched the barriers, it would probably have been quite a heavy impact.”
The video of your manoeuvre has several million views by now. How surprised are you by the level of interest?
Jusuf Owega: “I was surprised because the scene wasn't even shown on television. I announced on the radio that I had a dangerous slide and asked if the team had seen the situation. But they hadn't. I later showed my engineer the onboard and that was the end of the matter for me. I didn't think anyone else had noticed it either, but I was obviously wrong. So I'm surprised by the interest, but that's probably also because it happened in the Mutkurve and the car behind me captured the action perfectly. The manoeuvre was already spectacular, but the angle makes everything look even more spectacular. I'm sure that also contributed to the social networks celebrating the manoeuvre.”
What were the reactions on social media?
Jusuf Owega: “There were the typical comments on social media afterwards. I'm just grateful and happy for the positive responds. Some people have also contacted me and asked how I managed to save the situation. But you couldn't have seen it coming that so many people would click on the video in the end.”
Does this second stint in your first 24-hour race at the Nürburgring change anything in your approach for future races?
Jusuf Owega: “It won't change my approach in the future. Every racing driver has such critical moments, which can very quickly turn into a disaster if you don't have the necessary luck. Such situations are completely normal and are part of motorsport. If you let it influence you too much, it wouldn't be good.”
