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 crew.
The feat was significantly spectacular as Porsche confronted all three of its foremost German rivals, Audi, BMW and Mercedes, plus Italian supercar producers Ferrari and Lamborghini, in a six-way battle for glory.
The end result additionally marked a successful begin to Manthey EMA’s foray into the DTM, having joined the ADAC-run class at first of 2023 to switch SSR Performance as Porsche’s main crew.
However Manthey founder and guide Olaf Manthey doesn’t suppose a repeat of its 2023 success is feasible this yr, as he hinted politics might play a task in figuring out the result of the championship.
“I do not suppose we’ll be allowed to do it once more,” the 69-year-old advised Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Complete.com. “It all the time must be properly blended.
“That is the thought of the BoP [Balance of Performance], to carry the totally different makes collectively so that you’ve got a great sporting present the place everybody can participate and that is the fitting factor to do.
“Nevertheless, now we have to look at how issues develop over the course of the yr. After which we’ll should 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 unit and non-factory drivers.
Nevertheless, following Toksport WRT’s withdrawal and Crew Bernhard’s determination to focus solely on one-make championships, Manthey EMA is left as the only real Porsche crew within the 2024 DTM season.
Which means there will likely 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 switch Ford-bound Dennis Olsen.
Requested if Porsche faces a political drawback by having just one crew and two automobiles within the class, Manthey stated: “A couple of different producers have just a few extra automobiles within the championship.
“And as it’s the similar in different championships with BoPs, I imagine that you simply need to combine it up properly and that everybody has a flip [at winning].”
Manthey’s feedback comply with repeated allegations that Porsche acquired a beneficial BoP within the DTM final yr, particularly on the Hockenheim finale the place Preining gained each races to seal the title.
Specifically, 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’s best to go into the lap time evaluation, what we drove at what time and what the others drove at what time.
“Then you may come to a standard denominator comparatively shortly and may’t truly make such statements should you use your head, as a result of I do not actually suppose it is smart to only toss something into the room like that.”