The new DTM regulations for the 2022 season, which were submitted to the German Motorsport Association DMSB in mid-January and subsequently to the FIA, were presented at the FIA World Council meeting in Bahrain in mid-March as part of the Formula 1 season opener officially sanctioned. Before that, however, there were still some adjustments to the rules for the upcoming season, which starts in Portimao at the end of April.
The DTM umbrella organization ITR has once again changed the team order ban, the pit stop rules during the new Full Course Yellow phase and the rule that in future you will get a point for the fastest race lap.
This was partly due to objections from the DMSB as the national sporting governing body, but also due to feedback from the teams with whom the ITR holds regular working groups.
This is the revised Team Order paragraph
The revised team order paragraph has now – as requested by the DMSB – been provided with a precise description of what the ITR understands by a team order in order to be protected by sports law:
“The term ‘Team Order’ means an instruction from a competitor, sponsor, supplier, company or associated company including a manufacturer (brand), importer or their agent to a competitor and/or rider – regardless of ability and possibly against his will to win – to take a specific action that may affect qualifying or the race result,” reads Article 14.2.
penalty unchanged
“Competitors and/or Riders are not permitted to follow any oral, contractual or otherwise imposed team order. Contractual agreements with Competitors or with Riders or between Competitors and Riders must not provide for an obligation on Competitors and/or Riders to follow team instructions .”
Competitors and/or drivers are required to show 100 percent of their ability to achieve the best possible finish at the event. Any violation will be reported to the stewards and all parties involved may be subject to penalties up to and including disqualification from the championship.”
This makes it clear that the team must not issue any internal instructions, even if they only affect their own drivers. The penalty “up to exclusion from the championship” has remained the same.
Mandatory stops with a new yellow phase are now possible
In addition, the regulations have been revised with regard to the newly created full course yellow phase (FCY). The teams are now not only allowed to pit one vehicle per lap during the safety car phase, but also when the race is neutralized by a caution phase. The first version of the new regulations stated that stops under FCY conditions are not allowed at all.
In addition, the permitted speed at FCY has been increased from 60 to 80 km/h compared to the original design, which is now 20 km/h higher than in the pit lane.
And there has also been an adjustment to the championship point introduced this year for the fastest lap of the race: In order to get this, you no longer have to finish in the top 10 of the race like in Formula 1, you just have to reach the finish line.
One paragraph had to be deleted due to an objection by the DMSB: This is Article 23.3, which stipulated that a renewed lack of equal opportunities at the pit stops by the homologated vehicles could be compensated for by different speed limits in the pit lane. With this measure, which the ITR wanted to reserve, the DMSB identified a safety risk and demanded its deletion.
ITR satisfied: “have created comparable conditions”
The ITR is satisfied with the now finalized set of rules for 2022. “We have been working intensively at all levels since the end of last season with the aim of optimizing the set of rules,” said DTM manager Frederic Elsner.
“Based on the experiences of the previous season and suggestions from our teams and our new race director Scot Elkins, we have examined all the topics and worked out all the necessary changes. The fans will also benefit from this, because the changes not only guarantee more action, but also additional transparency.”
And Layla Wagener, DTM Manager for Sport and Technology, is also convinced that the new regulations are a step forward. “With the careful changes to the DTM regulations, we have created the conditions for comparable conditions among the 29 registered drivers and teams,” she says. “This has now finally been confirmed with the official stamp of the FIA and DMSB under the DTM regulations.”