Lucas Auer

This Austrian-born nephew of former Formula 1 Grand Prix winner Gerhard Berger has already had an eventful motorsport career despite his young age. At the age of seven, he started karting, where he initially demonstrated his talent in regional championships. in 2002, he became Tyrolean champion, and after switching to the Bavarian championship, he took eighth place in the final standings there. From 2004 onwards, he competed in the German Kart Championship, which he concluded in 2006 and 2007 by winning the title in his age category. In 2009 and 2010, Auer competed in the German Junior Kart Championship. In the second of these years, he ended his karting career with the runner-up title and turned to formula racing.

His initial focus was now in Asia, where he was extremely successful in two junior series in 2011. As a reward, Auer got the opportunity to test for the German Formula 3 Cup after the end of the season. The Tyrolean nevertheless spent the 2011/2012 winter half of the year in New Zealand, where he finished sixth overall as Rookie of the Year in the Formula 3-like Toyota Racing Series. He then returned to Germany and competed in the national Formula 3 Cup, which he finished as runner-up and again best rookie. At the beginning of 2013, Auer contested a few rounds of the New Zealand Toyota Racing Series – more or less as a warm-up exercise for his subsequent involvement in the European Formula 3 Championship, in which he immediately achieved fourth place in the fiercely contested overall classification. During the course of the season, the Tyrolean also competed in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) for the first time in a Lotus in the LMP2 category.

in 2014, he completed the European Formula 3 Championship and the WEC in parallel, the latter in an LMP1 Lotus. The following year, Auer ventured into the DTM, where he competed for the French ART Grand Prix team in a Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM and attracted attention with two sixth-place finishes. He joined Team Mücke Motorsport for the 2016 season and showed a clear upward trend in his Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM with a first race win at the Lausitzring and 12th place in the overall drivers' standings.

Following the Berlin team's withdrawal from the DTM, the Austrian started for HWA the following year and began the season with his second race win at the opening event in Hockenheim, followed by a third two weeks later at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Auer temporarily led the drivers' standings and finished the season in sixth place in the final DTM standings after another victory at the first round in September at the Nürburgring and a second place in Nuremberg. Still in the HWA line-up, he did not manage another victory in 2018, but secured seventh place in the final drivers' standings with a second place each at Hockenheim and the Hungaroring, as well as two third places each at Zandvoort and Brands Hatch.

In 2019, the now 24-year-old returned to Asia and, following the end of Mercedes-Benz's DTM involvement, now competed for the German team Motopark/B-Max in the Japanese Super Formula, a racing series formerly known as Formula Nippon, as part of the Red Bull junior development programme. In 2020, Auer again competed in the DTM, this time for Team Reinhold Motorsport in a BMW, and with one season victory finished in 12th place in the overall standings.

In 2021, he switched again and drove for the US team Winward Racing in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, finishing in 5th place in the drivers' rankings. In 2022, he even managed to win the runner-up title with two victories and two third places. During training for the 24-hour race in Daytona in January 2023, he had a serious accident and suffered a fractured vertebra, so his motorsport career had to take a break.