There’s a laborious cap on the quantity of personal testing allowed within the DTM this yr, with groups not allowed to freely run their GT3 automobiles outdoors of race weekends from the start of this month.
Though the precise particulars in regards to the restrictions imposed by the ADAC haven’t been made public, Motorsport.com understands that every group can be permitted 5 days of testing per driver. Sanctions for any violations are but to be decided.
Till final yr, the DTM’s high outfits had been spending as a lot as a 3rd of their funds on personal testing, with a few of them working their automobile on each monitor on the calendar besides the Norisring avenue circuit.
Double champion Wittmann, whose earlier groups Mission 1 and Walkenhorst may solely full a restricted variety of take a look at days as a consequence of funds constraints, feels it was necessary for the ADAC to maintain the price of working a DTM programme in test because the collection enters its fourth season of GT3 rules.
“I feel it is a good plan,” the German advised Motorsport.com. “I do not know the complete end result but and what’s behind it, however generally it is a good matter as a result of we nonetheless have buyer racing, it is not pushed by the manufacturing unit groups or by the producers.
“That you must scale back the testing as a result of at one stage we are going to face the issue that each one the groups will step out of the DTM as a result of the prices will explode to the moon.
“It is a good matter to deal with, and if we are able to discover a solution to have a good window with some take a look at days however restricted to the quantity of exams they run, it could assist so much.
“It could assist the championship, it could assist the groups and it’ll scale back the prices.”
BMW dream group
Wittmann will transfer throughout from the now-defunct Project 1 team to Schubert Motorsport in 2024, forming an all-star line-up alongside fellow champions Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde.
It follows calls from Wittmann to be given the identical instruments as different manufacturing unit drivers Rast and van der Linde, having felt he couldn’t compete on the entrance with the underfunded Mission 1 outfit final yr.
The 34-year-old feels having three top-line drivers in a single factory-supported group will push BMW ahead this yr because it goals to wrest again the crown in 2024.
Marco Wittmann, Sheldon van der Linde, René Rast, Schubert Motorsport
Picture by: BMW AG
“It is good to be within the DTM once more,” he mentioned. “The final two years weren’t very straightforward for me. Now we’ve the identical situations, I want to completely push.
“We now have a powerful line-up. We carry loads of expertise to the group. We will additionally assist the group to go ahead, possibly to enhance the set-up work, or we are able to even share set-up work and so forth in testing or while you put together for the race weekends.”
Wittmann recorded his worst-ever DTM marketing campaign in 2023, failing to muster a podium all season and ending up a distant thirteenth within the championship with simply 91 factors on the board.
It was a far cry from the type of outcomes he used to realize within the Class 1 days of the DTM, when he led BMW’s full-factory assault on the collection with numerous iterations of the M4.
Requested if he may now replicate the shape he loved through the golden, manufacturer-heavy period of the collection, he mentioned: “I hope so! I hope so. That is all the time the aim.
“The final two years had been tough so I did not actually have expectations on this. Now clearly the purpose is to go, undoubtedly to make once more a step ahead in comparison with the final two years, after which we see.
“Clearly nonetheless looking for wins and for podiums. My want is to repeat the success from the Class 1 instances, so I’ll give my finest.”