Andre Lotterer: “I don’t have much to lose doing this…”

Andre Lotterer says he has nothing to lose by making what at the moment is a one-off appearance for Caterham at Spa.

The 32-year-old German had to get permission from his regular employers, Audi and TOM’S, in order to be allowed to do the race,

“To have the chance to drive is something special, I think not everybody has the chance to jump in like that,” he said today. “I thought I have this opportunity, let’s do it. For sure it’s a big challenge, I think you have to be quite brave to jump in like this in the middle of the season, but the reason I feel ready for it is first of all I still race single-seaters, Super Formula, which I believe is one of the fastest single-seater series after F1. So in that sense I’m not out of shape in formula racing.

“Also I’m racing really complex cars in WEC with Audi. The last time I drove an F1 car was more than 10 years ago, the sport changed and evolved, but on my side for sure I gained a lot of experience as well. It’s something nice to do suddenly in my career. It’s a great opportunity.”

Lotterer says he knows it won’t be easy: “For sure I will have to learn everything very fast, so don’t expect too much from me. Obviously F1 a lot is dictated by the car. I don’t want to speak badly about the team, but we don’t have a winning car. We have an update package, so I hope I can bring all my experience, my speed, as fast as possible.

“The wins in other categories gave me the confidence as well to think, OK, I have an established career on the other side, which is Le Mans with Audi, and also in parallel in Japan, so I don’t have much to lose doing this, let’s say.”