Race star honed my car

How much involvement did that celebrity racing driver really have? At AMG, quite a lot

We've all scratched our chin at Sebastian Vettel's involvement in the development of 'his' edition of the Infiniti FX SUV and wondered what that actually meant in real terms. After all, the car he drives on the weekends bears so little resemblance to any road car, so what useful feedback could he actually give?

How far did Vettel's input transform the FX?

But it's a different story at AMG. It employs DTM legend Bernd Schneider on a regular basis and actually seems to squeeze every last bit of information out of the great man, as we discovered in a recent interview with him.

For a start he regularly drives the cars in race form. His DTM glory days (mostly driving Mercedes) may be over, but any team who runs one of the SLS GT3 cars can call on AMG to parachute Schneider into the hot seat to improve their race chances.

It certainly worked on the weekend, when he took victory at Spa at the wheel of an SLS run by HTP Motorsport. It also worked back in May when he won the 24-Hours of Nurburgring in a similar car run by Black Falcon.

"This is a lot of fun for me." You don't say Bernd...

What he learns from the track goes back into the cars, particularly the Black Series versions such as the newest SLS (driven by Chris Harris here). "I go to Nordschleife to test tyres, suspension, engines, gearbox shift, the lot," he says, before adding needlessly: "This is a lot of fun for me."

You get the impression he's there right in the middle of AMG development. He told us: "We've got the racers and we've got the comfort guys - always we are trying to find good solutions. Not compromises, but solutions." He says the comfort guys get a short shift in Black Series development, but get a bigger seat at table during the road car development, as you'd expect.

We ask him if there's any likelihood of an A-class AMG Black Series, and he says not yet. AMG has previously said the Black range will two-door only, but Schneider does drop a tantalizing hint that the CLA four-door coupeversion could break that rule. "It's getting very famous," he says.

Schneider has a long history with Mercedes

Of course the most famous car-star link was Ayrton Senna and the Honda NSX. Even if the exact involvement he had in the car's development is still open to debate, his star power was such that the highly praised supercar will be forever linked to the man, something that Infinti and Vettel probably won't be. But the fact remains these F1 guys don't have the time or the skills to properly hone a road car. Lewis Hamilton has also been videoed behind the wheel of an AMG A45 in a publicity exercise, but looked a bit uncomfortable and is said to loathe driving on public roads.

Someone like Schneider is perfect - semi-retired from touring car racing, but still in full possession of his talents and blessed with an understanding of what road cars need to go fast.

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pagani1

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