The squad had already performed down expectations heading into its sophomore season within the DTM, claiming that the organisers ‘gained’t enable’ Porsche to win back-to-back titles within the sequence after its 2023 success.
However so uncompetitive have been the 2 911 GT3 Rs at Motorsport Area Oschersleben that Manthey EMA drivers Thomas Preining and Ayhancan Guven might muster just one prime 10 end between them within the two races – and that too after BMW driver Marco Wittmann retired with simply three laps to go whereas main Saturday’s opener.
After cautious analysis, the squad has one reply as to why the Porsche lacked the tempo to combine with the highest vehicles in spherical considered one of eight: the journey top stipulated beneath Stability of Efficiency.
For the primary time within the DTM, the Porsche 911 GT3 R needed to run a minimal floor clearance of 101mm on the entrance axle, as per the BoP formulated by SRO.
“The very fact is that there was a serious change earlier than the race weekend in comparison with the check, specifically the entrance journey top, which modified by 5 millimetres,” defined Technical Director Patrick Arkenau in an interview with Autosport sister title Motorsport-Complete.com.
“This was the primary time that there had been such a big parameter change within the BoP. As a result of recognized check ban, we have been unable to check this and didn’t know the impact. And we nonetheless cannot clearly quantify it right this moment.
“This has an impact on the whole car.”
Every driver is proscribed to only 5 check days till the season finale in Hockenheim this 12 months, based on the brand new testing restrictions launched by the ADAC to rein in prices.
Manthey EMA did conduct a check at Oschersleben on 16 April with race drivers Preining and Guven, however that was three days earlier than the BoP for the season opener was revealed.
Therefore, all working passed off with the same old journey top of 96mm on the entrance axle, which meant it had no knowledge about how the automotive would behave with the rise in floor clearance.
Whereas a change of 5mm might sound little, it might have a huge impact on the dynamics of the automotive.
“It has an impact on the whole car,” emphasised Arkenau.
“It’s important to compensate for that and in addition go two millimetres increased on the rear.
“Which means the journey top impact is doubled on the rear axle. This additionally doubles the kinematic impact.”
Along with increased drag and lowered braking efficiency, the automotive additionally has the next centre of gravity, which negatively impacts cornering.
Preining slower in qualifying than in testing
It was attention-grabbing to notice that Preining’s finest time with the acquainted journey top was a 1m22.247s, which was sufficient to position him fourth within the classification in testing.
However within the two qualifying classes over the race weekend, after the journey top needed to be adjusted beneath BoP, the quickest Porsche lap was fractionally slower at 1m22.291, which put Preining sixteenth on the grid on Saturday – out of 20 vehicles.
The drop in tempo is much more putting contemplating the pole time was nearly seven tenths faster than what anybody had managed in the course of the pre-season check.
“Tommy was very stunned when he was instructed the place he would begin after qualifying,” mentioned Arkenau. “That was a really clear prime 5 place for him. It definitely would not have been sufficient for pole, and he was conscious of that. However there was no mistake that value him lots of time.”
Intriguingly, two separate weight reductions for Porsche between Saturday and Sunday races, totalling 25kg, had no important impact on the efficiency of the automotive.
“The image did not flip correctly, the step wasn’t there,” admitted Arkenau. “Meaning there’s one thing in there someplace that is massively distorting the image. An impact that none of us understood. For us, the one indication we at the moment have is the entrance journey top.”
The group can’t say for sure that this was the basis reason for its troubles, with the issue additionally troublesome to breed utilizing simulation instruments.
“We’ve began to analyse the entire thing and are nonetheless within the technique of doing so,” he mentioned. “We’re additionally not ruling out the chance that there’s a fault on our facet. Nonetheless, we at the moment don’t have any indications of this.”
Arkenau defined {that a} comparative check must be carried out so the group is bound of the actual impression of the change in journey top. Nonetheless, this might imply sacrificing invaluable check time as a part of the check restrictions.
“If I lose half a day of testing consequently, then I will be at a drawback in opposition to the others within the subsequent race,” he mentioned.