The Sunday supplement: Mind games

“I enjoy sitting on the water and fishing. For me, there’s nothing finer.” Hardly the words you’d stake your house on hearing from a 25-year old who has just won the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. But that’s what makes Sven Müller special.

Fishing on flat-calm Swiss lakes with his grandfather since the age of four, this, for him, is the definitive way to stay grounded.

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The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, is a far cry from the tranquility of low alpine angling.

Temperatures are hitting 104 degrees Fahrenheit in the cars as 27 drivers from 14 countries vie for the podium in the final race of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

Müller only needs a single point to win the championship, and by his own admission has never driven so cautiously before, nor let so many cars pass him.

After 31 minutes and 8.105 seconds, he comes in a tactical eighth, and with that comes overall victory.

Müller drove his first go-kart at the age of six, raced for a European championship at the age of 12 and joined the ADAC Formel Masters at 18 before moving into Formula 3.

Scarcely a shooting star, he had to wait six long years for his two championship titles in Formula racing. Six years during which he stopped dreaming of Formula 1 and came to feel more and more at home in GT racing. “I had some low points, but I also learned to just keep attacking,” he says.

Learning to lose, and coming back fighting, is what ultimately taught Müller how to win big. And it was this that brought him to Porsche’s attention.

“The ability to pace himself tactically, be satisfied with second place on occasion, but always hang tough at the front no matter what—Sven perfected these capabilities during his training for the professional ranks in our junior squad,” says juniors coach Sascha Maassen. Only a driver with those qualities would be able to make up 18 places in a race, a feat Müller pulled off twice in the Carrera Cup. He is also the first driver in the 27-year history of the Carrera Cup Germany to win ten races in a single season.

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Despite ups and downs in his early races with Porsche, a week before his win in Texas he also took his home title in the Carrera Cup.

Clearly Müller is now one to watch, both physically and mentally fit, and mature enough to understand that each race is won both on the track and in the mind.

Exactly what was his recipe for success in the third and final year of the junior program? “Perfect preparation, good fitness, precise knowledge of the car, close collaboration with the engineers, a lot of confidence in the car and in myself.” And a fair bit of fishing.