Felipe Fraga contested his first DTM season in 2022 and it didn’t always go to plan for him. The Brazilian made it onto the podium on his debut weekend at the season opener in Portimao and even managed his first win at the Norisring in the summer. For long stretches, however, Fraga’s season was characterized by unfortunate incidents, for which he was rarely responsible.
“I really have to thank Red Bull, because at some point I questioned myself with all the bad luck,” Fraga admits in an interview with the English-language edition of “Motorsport.com”. During Fraga’s rookie season in the DTM, Red Bull was not only the main sponsor of the number 74 AF Corse Ferrari he drove. The energy drink giant also supported the Brazilian directly.
“While I sometimes tried to find reasons for even things that I couldn’t prevent, they were always by my side. They never put any pressure on me and were always very supportive. I think they really did it believed that I had what it takes,” says Fraga, describing Red Bull’s support.
Lots of bad luck in Fraga’s first DTM season
Review: After finishing P2 in the second race of the season-opening weekend in Portimao, Fraga endured a streak of five consecutive zeros. At the Lausitzring, his Ferrari caught fire in qualifying on Sunday, which meant he was unable to take part in the second race of the weekend.
At Imola, Fraga struggled with a defective power steering and collided with Lucas Auer. At the Norisring, the AF Corse driver was turned around by Esteban Muth in Saturday’s race before driving to victory the following day. At the Nürburgring he was turned around by Mirko Bortolotti.
At the season finale in Hockenheim, Fraga made a rare individual mistake when he crashed in qualifying on Sunday and was then unable to take part in the final race of the year. All in all, Fraga finished his rookie season in the DTM in an unrepresentative 16th place overall – four points behind his AF Corse team-mate Nick Cassidy.
Podium at the season opener fueled “bad” expectations
“I think the performance was good,” says Fraga and points out: “That becomes clear when you look at the qualifying results. We really often made it into the top 5. That shows what we’re capable of. And that Winning a race and clinching a pole in my first season is of course anything but bad.”
“At the same time,” continued Fraga, “I was really unlucky this year. We have to analyze that carefully to see which incidents I could have avoided and which not.”
Looking back, the champion of the 2016 Brazilian Stock Car Championship believes that he may have put too much pressure on himself in the beginning of his rookie season in the DTM: “When the season started, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. But then I was Portimao fast right off the bat. That raised a lot of expectations, which was actually unfortunate because I had a lot of incidents as the season progressed.”
When asked if he would have seen himself as one of the title candidates without the numerous incidents, Fraga replies: “Of course. You just have to have two [schlechte] take away results. For example, if it hadn’t been for the Imola crash and any other crash, I’d easily have 50 points more. Honestly, I don’t like that ‘should have been if’ thing.”
Fraga would like to continue driving DTM in 2023, but …
Will Fraga contest a second DTM season in 2023? “I would also like to compete next year,” he emphasizes in an interview with the English-language edition of ‘Motorsport.com’ and reveals why he cannot confirm directly: “At the moment I’m just waiting until the race calendar comes out to see whether this can be reconciled with other programs.”
With “other programs”, Fraga addresses planned assignments in endurance racing: “If I had to choose between IMSA and WEC, it would be a difficult decision. Both racing series are great. The WEC has Le Mans. And Le Mans is of course special. I drive but also very much in America. I love IMSA.”
“Honestly, I would prefer America. Because, just like in the DTM in Europe, I like the racetracks a bit better. That’s why I would really like to drive IMSA,” says Fraga, who is speculating on a job in an LMDh program for 2023 and has already discussed “a few possibilities” in this regard. The Brazilian does not want to reveal which manufacturer(s) he spoke to.