The DTM started the 2021 season with a breath of fresh air after the end of direct manufacturer commitments and the move from Class 1 to GT3 cars. But at the end of the year old wounds reopened when Mercedes-AMG guided its driver Maximilian Götz to victory and the title in Sunday’s race.
Nevertheless, HRT Managing Director Ulrich Fritz, who won the championship with Götz and was responsible for Mercedes DTM until 2018, is convinced that the interference of the manufacturers at that time cannot be compared with today.
“There is a big difference to the old DTM,” says Fritz in an interview with “Motorsport-Total.com”. “Back then, these themes were played from the third or fourth race onwards. It was the same for all brands.”
Ulrich Fritz: “Push him out” no longer possible
That’s why you can “never” compare the new DTM with the old DTM, says Fritz. He argues: “In the old DTM, two or three people from each manufacturer had the opportunity to influence each team and each driver. ‘Push him out’ is just one example of this. That’s no longer possible today.”
In 2015 in Spielberg, it was the then Head of Audi Sport, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who shouted “Push him out” into the radio of his pilot Timo Scheider. Scheider actually drove into the rear of his Mercedes rival Robert Wickens in the next corner. The Canadian then also bowled his brand colleague and later champion Pascal Wehrlein out.
Before that, Wickens Scheider skilfully slowed down in a duel to let Wehrlein catch up. The Mercedes tactical game initially seemed to work, but then Scheider’s cone maneuvers against the two star drivers followed.
In times without official works commitments, however, the approach of the teams is different, according to Fritz: “First of all, I want to be the best Mercedes team, because they are the guys with the same material that I want to beat first. That’s why no one becomes second , say in the third race: ‘I’ll make room for that now’, or something else. For that reason alone, the comparison with the old DTM is completely obsolete.”
Team tactics: There are always ways and means in the DTM
But even with a ban on stable or manufacturer orders, the topic is far from off the table. Fritz has been in the business long enough to know that there are always ways and means. Even friendships or family relationships could play a role.
“Maybe a driver does something like that for his friend. If Sheldon van der Linde drives in front of Kelvin, then we don’t have to think that you should have said anything to him, but the result is the same. That’s just an extreme example of brotherly There are also friendships in the paddock and all of these things,” says Fritz.
“If you want to get rid of this thing, then it must not happen anymore,” he demands. “Then it shouldn’t happen that the best mate gives the other the place. Or one brother gives the other. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work.”
After the controversial DTM finale in 2021 at the Norisring, a regulation-related ban on team and manufacturer tactics is being considered. Penalties “with full severity” are planned, as DTM manager Frederic Elsner announced in the ‘ran racing podcast’.