Juncadella says that politics in the DTM “destroyed my career” before seeking out a psychologist.

gt racing star Daniel Juncadella Has said that DTM used to be so political in the past that it “kind of destroyed his career”.

Juncadella was part of Mercedes’ factory program in the DTM for five seasons between 2013 and 2018, initially racing for Muke Motorsport before moving to drive in HWA.

This was an era where manufacturers had complete control over their teams and drivers, with Mercedes, BMW and Audi throwing their full weight behind what they thought would be their best bet for championships.

This generally forced the other drivers in their line-up to play supporting roles, leaving a sour taste in their mouths regarding their time in the series.

The methods used by the manufacturers to manipulate the results were also controversial, but many considered this to be a part and parcel of Germany’s greatest championship.

With overall wins at the Spa 24 Hours, as well as class wins at the Daytona 24 Hours and Petit Le Mans, Juncadella has now established himself as one of the top GT drivers of his generation.

But the 33-year-old revealed that the start of his career as a professional driver was incredibly difficult, which led him to seek out a sports psychologist to work on his confidence issues.

“Since 2018, which is quite late in my career, I started working with a sports psychologist and focused on these things,” he said in a podcast hosted by fellow racers Laurens and Dries Vanthoor.

“That was a big turning point in my career because my career has been a bit up and down over the years. After those successful years in F3, I decided to go the DTM route and DTM, along with politics, kind of destroyed my career.

“I never really understood why certain decisions were taken one way or the other and for five years I got no results. You may be very good, you may be doing well in many aspects, but if results are not coming, it breaks you.

“When I started working with a sports psychologist, my perception of how to deal with lack of confidence changed a lot.”

Juncadella won the 2012 Euro Formula 3 title as a Mercedes junior and was initially set to move up to GP2 with Rapax the following year.

However, payment delays from his sponsor Astana forced him to abandon those plans and accept an offer from the Stuttgart-based manufacturer to race in the DTM.

But during his tenure as a factory Mercedes driver in the series, which yielded only one win and a best finish of 15th in the standings, Juncadella felt he would never be given a fair chance to prove his worth.

The trauma of the DTM was also such that he crashed a Formula 1 car during an FP1 appearance at the 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix, causing Force India’s regular driver Sergio Pérez to miss the entire day’s racing.

He reiterated, “For me, it kind of destroyed my career.” “I am really happy where I am now but (in) those five-six years I have really struggled.

“There were also those days when I was a reserve driver for Force India in Formula 1 and I crashed in a free practice because mentally I was completely destroyed. I couldn’t deal with it.

“Now when I hear the word DTM, I already get nervous. I don’t even want to hear it. I can’t really tell what was worse and what was more political about the first BMW, Audi, Mercedes.

“But with Mercedes it was difficult. It was very hard because I felt like I would never be given a chance – and that’s really not true. Of course, you will get the chance, I believed in myself when I was there. (But) if you have a negative thought in your mind, it will never go away.”

After Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher made the late decision to withdraw from DTM, Mercedes promoted Juncadella’s former F3 rival Pascal Wehrlein – one of its junior drivers – on the vacant seat at Muke Motorsport.

This created a team of two promising young talents, but Juncadella revealed that Mercedes had decided their fate before the start of the season.

“We spent a team building day with the team owner, team manager and engineers on a boat in a lake in Germany,” the Spaniard recalled.

“We’ve been together a little bit and it’s just before the first race weekend. Wehrlein had just done one test but he was flying, he was very fast. But he told us, ‘The target for us this year is probably around P15, P14.’

“And we (Wehrlein and I) are looking at each other like, ‘What?’ What do you mean? I just won F3, the kid is leading in F3. Why do we need to target P14, P15?’ And this is out of 20 cars.

Juncadella revealed an instance where Mercedes allegedly faked low fuel conditions to prevent Wehrlein from completing his fastest lap in qualifying, just as it looked like the German would knock off Gary Paffett Out of Q4.

“There was a race at the Norrisring that was incredible,” he said. “Previously, DTM had this qualifying format, which was Q1, Q2, Q3, Q3, Q4. Q3. The top four were advancing to Q4.

“We made Q1, we made Q2. And then it’s Q3 and it’s 10 cars. Gary Paffett was looking for a championship. It was still early days, like the fourth race of the year.

“I think Paffett was P4 and Wehrlein was on purple sector 2. They (Mercedes) opened the radio and said ‘box, box, box, we have no fuel, you need to box, we’re going to be disqualified. Are.’

“He didn’t finish the lap because he was probably going to go into Q4 and leave Paffett at P5. So they put him in the box and I think he finished P5 and I was P8.”

During the same weekend, Juncadella was indirectly instructed to remain behind race leader Paffett despite having a tire advantage over the Briton.

This potentially cost Mercedes the victory in the DTM’s Blue Ribbon round, as both Paffett and Juncadella lost time and were overtaken by other drivers later in the race.

Audi’s Mattias Ekström eventually claimed victory, but was later disqualified for the infamous Watergate incident.

Juncadella explained, “(Paffett) was on the hard tires because he messed up the strategy and I was catching him three tenths per lap.”

“At some point I was on his ass. I turned on the radio and I asked what should we do now? He told me to protect my teammate. They couldn’t actually say ‘stay back’ because the rules were (against it). So he said, ‘Protect your teammate.’ When I looked in the mirror, there was no one behind.

“I was just driving behind thinking I could take off the radio, overtake that guy, win my first DTM race, be a hero for the day, but in the long term it would be of no use .

“I can see Audi, BMW starting to come. Then (Edoardo) Mortara comes, overtakes me and they start fighting like crazy. They traded blows a bit and Mortara played it a little dirty with Puffett and in the next corner Puffett absolutely crushed him. Massive shunt and (both) out of the running.

“I’m just thinking that this guy (Paffett), I just trailed for 20 laps and lost my win, and he just went with that guy (Mortara) because he was angry about something.”

Following Mercedes’ exit from the DTM after 2018, Juncadella spent another season in the series as part of the new R-Motorsport Aston Martin venture. He returned to the series with Mercedes in 2021 when GT3 regulations were adopted, and scored a podium at the Nürburgring.

Now 33 years old, Juncadella competes for TF Sport Corvette in the LGT3 class of the World Endurance Championship.