Germany has a long tradition of racing families. Young Mick Schumacher is cutting his racing teeth this season in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship, while the Winkelhock legacy of Manfred and Joachim is carried on via factory Audi racer, Markus.
But for a German family completely immersed in racing, both on and off the track, there is only one three-letter name that comes to mind – Abt.
Daniel Abt is cultivating just as rich and as diverse a career in motorsport as his ancestors did, and believe me when I say the Abt ancestry has an engineering lineage like no other.
The Abt fascination with engineering stretches back to 1895 when Johann Abt (Daniel's great-great grandfather) started the family business honing horse-drawn coaches in the southern German town of Kempten. Remarkably, 120 years on, the Abt business is still based there, and it is thriving.
Hans-Jurgen Abt, Daniel’s father, is the Managing Director of the Abt Sportsline empire, which also now includes an event management company, ABT Lifestyle GmbH, of which Daniel is CEO.
His uncle is, of course, former DTM race winner – Christian. The traditions are endless but yet there was no significant pressure for the latest Abt Junior to follow in the family traditions. The emphasis was very much on doing it if he enjoyed it.
Daniel was this year able to emulate his uncle Christian (who was on the podium in Audi’s first Le Mans back in 1999) and stand on the famous Le Mans podium. A win in the LMP1 privateer class was the young German’s reward for a dogged first La Sarthe campaign in the Rebellion Racing entered Rebellion R-One-AER LMP1 racer.
“Honestly, it was really a tough race but I enjoyed it a lot. It was a fantastic week, so much going on, it was almost too much to take in and process,” said Abt. “There were so many new things for me. I had to learn everything, the car, the team and just the whole new discipline of driving at night. I had to learn the track quickly, driving through traffic at night… all these things, but I enjoyed it so much because doing these new things pushed me in a tough but very positive way.
“In the end, suddenly I was standing on that podium and saw that big crowd,” he concluded. “It was a fantastic feeling; I will never, ever forget it.”
Sam Smith
Photo: 24 HOURS OF LE MANS (LE MANS, FRANCE), DRIVERS' PARADE, FRIDAY 12 JUNE 2015. Rebellion Racing's Alexandre Imperatori (left) and Daniel Abt (right) went on to finish first of the LMP1 Privateer entries at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans.
