Mercedes expected to up their game for 2015

The 2014 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season finished last Sunday at Hockenheim and, on Monday, the 2015 campaign began. It hasn’t been a good year for Mercedes Benz, despite clinching three victories. But things are about change, with a commitment from all those involved to improve both the structure and the car for next year.

Mercedes started 2014 on the back foot, reducing their expected eight-car operation to just seven, despite an agreement with fellow manufacturers in the DTM, Audi and BMW, to field eight cars each. This has angered the competitors, who have made the financial and logistic decisions to keep their commitment to the structure of the championship.

The Sttutgart manufacturer has been balancing their motorsport operations for years and finding dominance in Formula 1 has led to a struggle in DTM, a very important exposure window for the manufacturers involved.

Totto Wolff recognized their problems to keep it fair, from a financial point of view, to Motorsport Total: “Motorsport is a tough business, because permanently, the benefit will be evaluated. It must match. This is the environment in which we operate. There is an economic reality and, as responsible for the manufacturer I represent, I will consider it in all decisions, nothing more, nothing less.”

The Mercedes DTM effort was split between two teams this year. Mücke Motorsport took charge of Daniel Juncadella and Vitaly Petrov, whilst HWA  managed all five remaining cars. Should an eighth be introduced for 2015, it would imply that a new structure should be brought to support the manufacturer.

Wolff commented on the situation: ”We need an additional deployment team and more resources. Moreover, we are discussing just how we can manage it the best possible way. A lot of teams have applied, really good teams with whom we have worked together in the past. We want the best value for money. A decision will be made in the coming weeks.”

As well as expanding their DTM involvement to what has been agreed with fellow manufacturers, Mercedes needs to make a step forward in terms of performance. From the start of the 2014 season, it was clear that the C-Coupé DTM was behind its competitors. Still, it managed to achieve three wins, thanks to Christian Vietoris in Oschersleben, Robert Wickens in Norisring and Pascal Wehrlein in Lausitzring.

Vietoris sported a new aero package in Zandvoort, which was introduced in all seven cars for the last round at Hockenheim. Many expected this would make the Mercedes into winning cars, but Paul Di Resta’s fourth place was their best result at the DTM finale. The Scot, in the post race press conference, felt optimistic: “The car is very different than it was in May. We were under extreme pressure to improve the car, but now we see what we can do when we work together. 2015 has already begun.”

Gary Paffett felt equally upbeat about the possibilities of the evolved C-Coupé DTM, becoming also the first confirmed driver by Mercedes for next year: “It would be asking for too much to achieve everything on a race weekend. Other manufacturers had a full season to learn their packages so we continue to work on the car, it has already improved. And over the winter we can safely extract even more. There are definitely good reasons to be optimistic.”

It will be a hard working winter for Mercedes, in order to get their car and structure up to speed for 2015.