A change is announced in the Mercedes-AMG line-up for the 2023 DTM season: The GruppeM team, which was the first team ever to register for the new GT3 format at the end of 2020, is about to withdraw from the GT3 format after two years traditional series.
“We are still in talks with AMG,” explains team boss Kenny Chen in an interview with “Motorsport-Total.com”. “It’s possible that we won’t start in the DTM if we take part in other big international programs.”
What is it about? “Now that travel is also normalizing after COVID-19, we are planning to switch back to the IGTC as an AMG performance team,” he clarifies that the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge series is in their sights. “And Macau too. We’ve always liked that.”
Did damage cause costs to double?
But why is the Hong Kong-licensed team, which clinched pole position and two podiums this year thanks to Maro Engel, no longer happy in the DTM? “The DTM is not an easy championship,” explains Chen. “It’s almost impossible to plan a budget because the cost of the damage is unpredictable.”
The damage caused in the 2022 season caused costs in the range of “around two million euros” for two Mercedes-AMG GT3s, according to the Taiwan-born Brit. With the traded pure operating costs of around one million euros per car, this is a doubling.
In addition: “Group M is possibly the only team here that is financed 90 percent by ourselves,” explains Chen, who bears the lion’s share of the budget himself. Because BWT is not a team sponsor, but a “strategic partner” of Mercedes-AMG.“
80 percent probability that the car will be damaged”
The high costs of the past season also have something to do with the fact that both Engel and his teammate Mikael Grenier had to change their chassis once during the season: This was the case for Engel after the Norisring Crash Festival, when he was after the Contact with Mirko Bortolotti thundered head-on into the wall. Grenier’s chassis also had to be changed after the aquaplaning impact in Spielberg.
Last year, when GruppeM was still a one-car team, Daniel Juncadella was repeatedly involved in collisions and incidents. “You saw in the DTM this season and last: If you’re in the middle of the field, there’s an 80 percent chance that your car will be damaged,” said Chen.
Team boss: DTM restart as the main cause of damage
He also sees the repeatedly criticized restarts in narrow rows of two based on the Indianapolis model as the cause of the high costs. “You only have to look at the restarts. Everyone is fighting against each other – but how can you solve that? And if there is no solution, then there will always be this damage,” says the team boss.
Above all, Chen cannot understand the decision of race director Scot Elkins to restart Sunday’s race in Spa in the last lap with a DTM formation restart. “It was completely unnecessary,” he says. “This damage alone cost us 55,000 euros,” he points out that the eighth-placed Engel retired after several collisions with his damaged car.
How a GroupM exit would affect
The Group M balance sheet after two DTM years: In 2021 Juncadella, who was on the podium once, finished ninth in the overall standings. The team finished sixth out of eleven teams in the championship. In 2022, the GruppeM team finished twelfth – out of a total of 17 teams. The pilots Engel and Grenier came in twelfth and 20th in the significantly larger starting field.
Should GruppeM actually – as is currently the plan – no longer compete in the DTM in 2023, Mercedes-AMG will lose a team from the squad for the 2022 season, which together with Winward, HRT and Mücke from four racing teams and eight Boliden exists.
If the plans of the DTM umbrella organization ITR to introduce a limit of a maximum of six vehicles per manufacturer, Mercedes-AMG would be with six cars – and right on schedule. However, it is not yet clear how the other Mercedes-AMG teams will line up for 2023.