„Together is the only way“

Learn from the best

The ABT Sportsline team never fails to turn in outstanding performances in the DTM, Germany’s most popular racing series. Harry Unflath, Head of Sports Marketing at ABT, and Head Engineer, Leon Wippersteg, talk about the importance of team-oriented thinking, the need for innovation and the idea of sustainability as factors of success.

ABT Sportsline is the most successful active DTM team and, in 2024, is participating in its 25th season. What are your aims in competing against other factory and private teams?

Harry Unflath: The Olympic idea that “taking part is everything” isn’t the way we work. We want to be successful and we do everything we can to achieve this. Our motto is: “From motorsport to the street.” As a result, what we achieve on the racetrack has a direct impact on our subsequent business. This is the recipe for success that we have adhered to for the last quarter of a century. During that time, we have competed in more than 300 races and finished with a podium position in approximately 90 percent of them, winning just about every fifth race. That is a show of strength to which many people have contributed.

While it is the drivers who get the limelight, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes. How important for success is cooperation between every member of the team?

Harry Unflath: There are four things that make the difference: Good partners that provide financial support, a great car at the cutting-edge of technology, an outstanding driver and, last but not least, an excellent team. Drivers who sign with us know that after winning a race, they will have to hand over the trophy. Because they are only one part of the whole. Together is the only way. And the reward for success belongs to the entire team.

Leon Wippersteg : A victory on the racetrack is the result of a lot of hard work. There are the engineers, mechanics, the logistics people... – if we are to get a competitive car to the starting line, then everything has to mesh with everything else. We live our passion and commit 110 percent, even during everyday training with 25 pitstops. Because everyone knows: If it takes 9 seconds instead of 6.5 to change a tire, then even the best driver has no chance of winning. We all know exactly what we have to do. That starts with me when I have to send the team out for the pitstop at exactly the right moment without putting anyone in danger. And it continues right up to the man with the wheel gun, who must be in exactly the right place to dismount and remount the tire as quickly as possible. This means that everyone has to give everything they’ve got if we are to end up being successful together.

What can the partners of a racing team like ABT Sportsline learn from you?

Harry Unflath: The idea of acting as a team, the trust and confidence that we can all rely completely on one another. Every little thing has to be right. It’s often the tiny details that make the difference. That’s true of a racing team just as much as it is of a company. And all the peripheral things have to work as well. Our colleague who makes the hotel reservations plays her part, as does management, which motivates the team through its leadership. Another point is the good cooperation between us and our partners, without whom we wouldn’t be able to take part at all.

How important are innovative strength, performance and flexibility?

Harry Unflath: In 1896, the blacksmith, Johann Abt, started to develop horse-drawn carriages with wheels for the summer and skids for snowy days – that is to say, genuine hybrids. During the last few years, ABT Sportsline has brought electric cars onto the street. This just shows that if you want to be successful across the generations, you have to innovate and try out new things.

Leon Wippersteg: But to achieve the necessary performance, you naturally also need to show a certain amount of flexibility. So although we are involved with e-mobility, we are also already using up to 50 percent e-fuels in our combustion engines. Motorsport sees itself as the spearhead of innovation. Every day, we work to bring about improvements. Our cars are equipped with several hundred sensors. There are lasers at six points in the vehicle that measure the clearance between the base of the car and the track to an accuracy of a hundredth of a millimeter and we then use this information to create aeromaps. In extreme cases, half a millimeter can mean the difference between drivable and uncontrollable.

How important is sustainability to ABT Sportsline?

Leon Wippersteg: With our commitment to Formula E or the use of e-fuels, we are already really well positioned in this area. However, sustainability characterizes every aspect of our work. We have all the skills we need in house, even including carbon production to enable us to renovate damaged parts rather than having to buy new ones.

Harry Unflath: At ABT Sportsline, sustainability embraces everything, from our sporting ambitions through our cost-effective working approach and on to the way we live and work with one another. We value consistency and have many employees who have been with us in the team for more than 20 years. A lot of things have come together in that time. And the same is true when it comes to our business partners. Here, too, we have many long-standing relations and are working to ensure that these continue between our various partners in the long term.

A strong team: Bihler is ABT Sportsline partner

As of 2024, Bihler has been official partner to ABT Sportsline in the DTM. The event officially got underway with the ABT Racing Party kicking off this year’s DTM on March 18th, 2024 at an altitude of approximately 1,900 meters in Obergurgl in Austria. “We are delighted to be able to welcome Bihler into our circle of partners. At ABT, being a partner means more than just having your logo on a racing car. We want to bring people together so that they can work and share with one another in the long term,” says Harry Unflath, Head of Sports Marketing at ABT Sportsline.

“ABT and Bihler have a lot in common,” explained Mathias Bihler at the press conference in the Gurgl Carat Convention Center. “Both companies stand out for their striking innovative strength. Just as for Bihler, what counts in motorsport is the team performance – facing up to the competition and relying on one another, with everyone fulfilling their role in the team with the utmost precision.” The partnership was then immediately taken a step further with a DTM Partner Workshop at Bihler in Halblech. Here, the companies partnering the DTM – CUPRA, act3, SONAX, Schaeffler, KEUK, Red Bull, Speedpool, RUKU and Ötztal Tourismus – discussed questions relating to the start of the DTM season, ABT Sportsline, Formula E and commitment to the DTM, and were enthused not only by the Bihler event but also by the high-performance Bihler technology that they were able to observe during their shared factory tour.