The start of the second half of the DTM season after an eight-week summer break is only planned for next weekend, but this Sunday the Nürburgring was already very busy: Eleven of 13 teams used a privately organized test day to get ready for the decisive phase on the sprint track prepare for the championship.
A total of 22 DTM cars were on the road in perfect conditions with sunshine and around 22 degrees – and used the nine and a half hour test time from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. without a red flag. The big surprise: With Rene Rast’s Abt team and Sheldon van der Linde’s Schubert squad, two teams fighting for the championship were not there!
In view of the tight preparation time on the race weekend and the fact that you only get one fresh set of tires for the two 45-minute free practice sessions on Friday, can you even afford that?
Abt team boss on the Nürburgring test: “It was never planned”
“The test was never planned, we were in Spa,” says Abt team boss Thomas Biermaier when asked by “Motorsport-Total.com”. A reference to the fact that the Abt team tested on August 4th with an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and title candidate Rast on the Ardennes circuit. Incidentally, the Rosberg squad with the two drivers Nico Müller and Dev Gore, who shared an Audi, was also there at the time.
But unlike Abt, Rosberg also used Sunday’s test at the Nürburgring to prepare for the course in the Eifel with both cars and both drivers. Apparently, the Abt team, which recently made great progress with the set-up with Rast, is convinced of their own base.
Schubert was already testing in the Eifel at the beginning of August
What is the situation at Schubert? The team of BMW works driver van der Linde, who led the championship for a long time and was relegated to second place by Grasser-Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti, was also looked for in vain during the test. Instead, they were in action at the ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring.
Due to the complex double program, Schubert used the summer break to do a day of testing with the two DTM drivers Sheldon van der Linde and Philipp Eng before the ADAC GT Masters weekend at the Nürburgring in early August.
Nürburgring test provides logistical advantage
The test was also a good idea for the teams because they will be driving at the Nürburgring a week later anyway – the pits have already been assigned the same way as on the DTM weekend, which means that the cars can stay on site before the first practice session is scheduled for Friday . This also keeps costs down.
Since not all teams drove with transponders, you can only draw a few conclusions from the times driven, but there was proper driving. “That was a good test with 160 laps,” says Walkenhorst-BMW driver Marco Wittmann, who traveled directly from Barcelona from the test with the new BMW LMDh car, to Instagram.
Walkenhorst has finally received the fourth and fifth M4 GT3 from BMW. All three DTM cars were in the pack for the test, but only the cars of Wittmann and Esteban Muth were used, with whom youngster Theo Oeverhaus, who will make a guest start at the weekend, took turns.
Despite a shortage of tyres: how the teams got their hands on tyres
Incidentally, the Bernhard team not only had Norisring winner Thomas Preining, but also the team boss himself in the test. Porsche for the DTM Trophy, which was also fielded by the team.
How was it even possible to take part in the test, despite the shortage of tyres, Michelin no longer delivered tires for test drives after the start of the season due to material shortages?
According to information from “Motorsport-Total.com”, the French have provided a set of S8 compound tires for each DTM vehicle to give the teams the opportunity to prepare. Some teams also have a remaining contingent of tires or use other mixtures.