Beginning this 12 months, the pitlane is successfully closed each time a FCY or a security automotive is deployed within the DTM, with any pressing go to to the pits made throughout that interval not counting in the direction of a driver’s necessary cease.
The aim of this new regulation was to create a extra honest contest, as beforehand any driver who had pitted beneath inexperienced situations earlier than the FCY/SC was left at an obstacle to those that modified tyres beneath the warning interval.
Nevertheless, in each races at Oschersleben, just a few drivers had been in a position to peel into the pits simply seconds earlier than the FCY was deployed and return to the observe with a giant hole to the remaining. Since they had been already within the pits by the point the FCY was activated, their pitstops had been thought-about legitimate by the sequence.
Within the first race of that weekend, Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann leaped from seventeenth to first by finishing his necessary cease whereas others had been working at lowered speeds – and he would have possible received the race had his M4 GT3 not suffered a fuelling challenge.
Sunday’s race was no completely different, besides Grasser Lamborghini’s Luca Engstler was really in a position to take the chequered flag and take an unlikely win over Winward Mercedes’ Maro Engel, who additionally benefitted from the timing of his pitstop beneath the FCY.
HRT Mercedes driver Luca Stolz, who finally took third, would have had a robust shot at successful the race had his two rivals not been in a position to pit in fortuitous circumstances
Naturally, staff boss Ulrich Fritz was sad with how the brand new regulation determined the end result of the race.
“You possibly can’t depart the rule as it’s as a result of no spectator understands it,” he instructed Autosport’s sister title, Motorsport-Complete.com.
“Once I sit in entrance of the TV, I’m wondering why an exciting battle on the entrance all of a sudden turns right into a lead for a driver who really had nothing to do with it because of full-course yellow.
“We have had the identical downside twice now. That should not occur. It isn’t good for the game.”
The purpose of the brand new rule was to stop groups from speculating an FCY section so as to acquire time at their cease, a purpose that has been achieved in line with Abt Sports activities Director Martin Tomczyk.
That is as a result of there may be solely a 10-second countdown till the pitlane is closed for FCY – that too just for security causes – which, in concept, is simply too little for a staff to react and produce their driver into the pits.
“Hoping that I will probably be precisely on the pit lane entrance through the ten-second countdown is way too imprecise and too dangerous,” he stated.
Nevertheless, he believes that the consequences of the change in laws had been underestimated by the sequence.
“I do not suppose it really works the best way it was meant,” he stated. “Particularly on quick circuits, the issue is that the race director can by no means time it so that everybody has pushed previous the pit lane exit.
“It is much more tough if he cannot wait till he begins the countdown as a result of a automotive is on fireplace or one thing.
“If you happen to’re in the correct place, you may make your necessary pit cease and everybody else cannot.”
“There is no such thing as a race in any respect”- Fritza
Whereas till 2023 many of the grid was in a position to reap the benefits of a FCY section, just one or two drivers benefitted from the brand new rule at Oschersleben this 12 months.
Describing the impression of the present rule as unfair, he stated: “I assumed final 12 months’s answer was even higher. “Not less than that made for an thrilling race, as a result of 50 per cent had been already within the pits and 50 per cent weren’t but. And at the very least there was nonetheless a race after the security automotive. However now there is no such thing as a race in any respect!
“One or two are glad – if issues go effectively, there is likely to be three – and the remaining are simply victims.”
Tomczyk additionally took a important view of the state of affairs, saying: “Luck is a part of it and a little bit of variability is required in motorsport, nevertheless it should not degenerate into sporting unfairness.
“If somebody is correct behind the sector all weekend and leads the sector by 40 seconds by likelihood, then that does not swimsuit the DTM.”