Porsche romped to a DTM championship treble in solely its second season within the class final yr, because it swept the drivers, groups and the producers’ titles with Thomas Preining and the Manthey EMA staff.
The feat was notably spectacular as Porsche confronted all three of its important German rivals, Audi, BMW and Mercedes, plus Italian supercar producers Ferrari and Lamborghini, in a six-way battle for glory.
The outcome additionally marked a successful begin to Manthey EMA’s foray into the DTM, having joined the ADAC-run class in the beginning of 2023 to interchange SSR Performance as Porsche’s main staff.
However Manthey founder and advisor Olaf Manthey doesn’t assume a repeat of its 2023 success is feasible this yr, as he hinted politics might play a job in figuring out the end result of the championship.
“I do not assume we’ll be allowed to do it once more,” the 69-year-old advised Autosport’s sister title Motorsport-Complete.com. “It at all times must be properly blended.
“That is the thought of the BoP [Balance of Performance], to deliver the totally different makes collectively so that you’ve got a superb sporting present the place everybody can participate and that is the fitting factor to do.
“Nonetheless, we’ve to look at how issues develop over the course of the yr. After which we’ll need to see the place we find yourself.”
Final yr, Porsche was represented by a complete of six automobiles within the DTM, as Manthey EMA, Crew Bernhard and Toksport WRT all entered a pair of 911 GT3 Rs for a mixture of manufacturing facility and non-factory drivers.
Nonetheless, following Toksport WRT’s withdrawal and Crew Bernhard’s resolution to focus solely on one-make championships, Manthey EMA is left as the only Porsche staff within the 2024 DTM season.
Meaning there can be simply two automobiles from Stuttgart model this yr, one for defending champion Preining and the opposite for Ayhancan Guven, who has moved throughout from Crew Benhard to interchange Ford-bound Dennis Olsen.
Requested if Porsche faces a political drawback by having just one staff and two automobiles within the class, Manthey mentioned: “A number of different producers have a number of extra automobiles within the championship.
“And as it’s the identical in different championships with BoPs, I imagine that you just need to combine it up properly and that everybody has a flip [at winning].”
Manthey’s feedback observe repeated allegations that Porsche obtained a beneficial BoP within the DTM final yr, particularly on the Hockenheim finale the place Preining gained each races to seal the title.
Particularly, former System 1 and DTM driver Ralf Schumacher, whose son David raced for Winward Mercedes final yr, claimed Porsche was “higher off than it ought to have been” within the title decider.
However the Manthey founder refuted these allegations, saying: “Possibly it is best to go into the lap time evaluation, what we drove at what time and what the others drove at what time.
“Then you’ll be able to come to a typical denominator comparatively rapidly and may’t really make such statements when you use your head, as a result of I do not actually assume it is smart to only toss stuff into the room like that.”