The first pit stop challenge in DTM history, in which the fastest pit crew of the year is awarded, ends with a surprise: with the Swiss Emil Frey Ferrari squad, a team that has not prevailed in previous years was competing in the DTM and had to get used to the performance stops.
“We are very pleased with this victory, even though we would of course have liked to be a little further ahead in the championship,” says team boss Lorenz Frey-Hilti, whose team finished seventh in the team rankings, in an interview with “Motorsport-Total.com .” “But at least we’ll take home a trophy.”
The title could no longer be taken away from the team from Safenwil on Saturday when they once again completed the two fastest stops with 5.8 and 5.95. And in the end they won 25 to 18 against the Winward Mercedes team. The Lamborghini team SSR (15) and the Porsche team Manthey EMA (13) landed in third and fourth place.
Injured Mechanics: How Winward Went Off the Title Course
How did you get the result? The three fastest stops of each race are awarded three, two and one points. The measurements are taken using the air lance that is used to jack up the car – and at the end the points are added up.
In 16 races, the Emil Frey team achieved the fastest stop six times, Winward struck three times, SSR and Manthey EMA twice each and the BMW Team Schubert, the Audi Team Abt and the Mercedes Team Landgraf once each.
In the first half of the season, Winward was well on course for first place, but then unfortunately two mechanics were injured in accidents before the Nürburgring weekend, which had nothing to do with pit stop training. The team had to reshuffle the crew, who then had to regroup.
The fastest stop of the year was at Vermeulen
This meant that the Mercedes squad didn’t score any points in the Pitstop Challenge at the Nürburgring and Lausitzring, which was the deciding factor in the end. The Emil Frey crew still completed the fastest stop of the year at Saturday’s race at the Nürburgring: Thierry Vermeulen’s four mechanics changed all four wheels in just 5.76 seconds.
“The DTM stops were completely new for us, but thanks to our many years of experience in GT3 racing, we already had experience with timed stops in the past,” Frey-Hilti refers to the sprint series of the GT World Challenge Europe, previously under known as the Blancpain GT series, in which performance stops also take place, but with only two mechanics.
Emil Frey team practiced with older Ferrari chassis
Since the team also uses the DTM vehicles in other series, a pit stop area has been set up in the racing workshop in Safenwil where stops can be practiced with an older Ferrari chassis.
“It’s simply training, training, training,” says Frey-Hilti, whose team’s stop training is an integral part of their daily routine, about the secret of his team’s success. “Just as the engineers analyze the vehicle’s data, the mechanics analyze the camera images from the pit stop, where every hand movement can be improved. This is a science in itself. The crew makes the difference.”
In the Pitstop Challenge, the pure downtime is measured, but that is not the only factor. “Above all, we worked very hard on getting in and releasing, because we lost a lot of time at the beginning because of the new car for us,” says the team boss.