Wittmann was main Saturday’s opening race of 2024 when his Schubert Motorsport-entered BMW M4 GT3 all of a sudden started to decelerate with 4 laps to go, earlier than coming to a halt firstly/end straight.
The 2-time DTM champion had tactically made his pitstop moments earlier than the Full Course Yellow was deployed to help the restoration of Ben Dorr’s stranded McLaren, which allowed him to leap from outdoors the highest 10 into the lead of the race.
Within the closing levels, the German was efficiently conserving the Emil Frey Ferrari of Jack Aitken at bay, however was cruelly denied a primary DTM win because the 2022 finale at Hockenheim when his BMW quickly misplaced energy within the run-up to the chicane.
“We analysed the state of affairs and decided that it was a mistake when refueling. We’re after all very aggravated, however that is how it’s now,” Bjorn Lellmann, Head of BMW M Buyer Racing, defined.
“We should additionally not neglect that Sheldon van der Linde got here fourth and Rene Rast got here seventh. Accordingly, we scored vital factors. As we at all times say: we win collectively and lose collectively.”
The BMW stopped on observe as a result of no extra petrol was flowing contained in the combustion chamber. There are two potentialities that led to this situation: both there was a technical failure/leak someplace or the workforce merely did not put sufficient gas in his automobile to make it to the end.
“You probably have misfires and too little gas stress and the engine stalls, then it might be [that there was too little fuel in the tank],” stated Wittmann.
“However it is also the pump, it might be the [fuel] line. We have now to analyse that. In any case, it was decisive for the race, which is after all bitter.”
Schubert Motorsport is without doubt one of the high groups within the DTM and is now BMW’s solely consultant on the 2024 grid following the demise of Mission 1.
Requested to clarify the issue, workforce chief Torsten Schubert advised German broadcaster Ran: “We have now to see whether or not a pump has failed or whether or not it was a mistake by the workforce. I can not clarify it in the mean time.
“The quantity of petrol was predetermined, as was the case with the others, and we additionally had a security automobile part. So it might hardly have been too little.
“If we’ve made a mistake, then I can perceive that, then that’s our challenge. However I do not assume we made a mistake. I hope that the expertise by some means received in the best way.
“In any other case, if we made the error, then we’ve to reply for it and that may be the largest disappointment I’ve at the moment.
“We have now to take duty for that and see how we take care of it. However first we’ve to analyse whether or not we made the error or whether or not one thing else went mistaken.”
Wittmann has been going by a tough patch within the DTM in the previous few years, largely as a result of his earlier groups not having the sources to finish as a lot testing as its rivals.
This yr, BMW positioned the 18-time race winner in an expanded three-car Schubert workforce, giving him full parity with fellow manufacturing facility drivers Rast and van der Linde.
Wittmann appeared visibly livid after returning to the paddock following his DNF, however had regained his composure by the point he spoke to the media.
“That is a shitty feeling,” he stated. “We had misfires, so I misplaced two or three positions at first. Then the vehicles got here from behind within the final sector and I rolled out firstly/end.
“We nonetheless need to see what the issue was. However to let victory slip out of your grasp a couple of laps earlier than the tip, that is annoying. I am completely disillusioned. It is brutal for the workforce.”