Photo: DTM Media

The 2016 DTM season preview: all ready and raring to go

The 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season is back this weekend, with Hockenheim traditionally hosting the season premier, after one of the longest off-season breaks in recent years.

Audi Sport, Mercedes AMG and BMW Motorsport will complete a field of 24 cars, eight per each manufacturer, with only one driver change: Esteban Ocon will make his debut in the series, replacing 2015 champion Pascal Wehrlein at Mercedes AMG, now pursuing a career in Formula 1.

All the squads involved feature reshuffles in their line ups, but the money is on continuity, after a very competitive season with the whole field often within a second, and with no less than 13 winners in 18 races.

It has been a quiet winter in Germany, with manufacturers more focussed on the end of the homologation freeze, scheduled for next year, but with the new 2-litre turbocharged engines now delayed until 2019.

The main novelties in the DTM for the 2016 season affect the sporting regulations, specifically the performance weights, the use of the DRS and the running track time distribution during the racing weekend.

The performance weights became highly controversial last year, after the series returned to a two-race weekend format. After much consideration and input from all parts concerned, a new system has been devised, according to which the performance weights will be allocated before each race according to the qualifying results, with all drivers of the same manufacturer getting equal weight penalties. All manufacturers will start the season on their base weights, 1,120 kilos for Audi and Mercedes and 1,112.5 for reigning champion BMW, and there will be 17 calculations along the season.

Also, in a bid to avoid the DRS becoming a system that creates ‘trains’ of just faster cars, the number of activations per lap remain at a maximum of three, but with a limited number of activations depending on the length of track and the race duration, thus forcing drivers to manage their DRS usage depending on their race strategy. At Hockenheim, there will be a maximum of 39 activations for the 40-minute race, and 57 on the longer Sunday race.

Hans Werner Aufrecht, Chairman of ITR e.V., the series promoter, explains:”The changes in the DRS mean drivers will have to opt for a far more strategic approach and the excitement certainly will be increased. As far as the performance weights, we hope that this solution will not only result in even closer racing and battles but also will represent a fair solution for everybody.”

The weekend format has also suffered alterations, with the traditional Friday rollout and the Sunday morning warm up being scrapped in favour of a 30-minute third free practice session, to take place on Sundays before the qualifying for Race 2.

The Baden-Wüttemberg track is ‘home’ of the DTM, and will host the season premier, barely a month after the official ITR collective pre-season tests took place at the same spot. The 4.574-kilometre circuit combines a mixture of medium and high speed corners with two tight corners, featuring the complicated Sachs Kurve at the iconic Motodrom.

The DTM agenda will also be complemented with the second round of the World Rallycross Championship, with Audi Sport’s Mattias Ekström competing on a double programme this weekend.

Timetable

The DTM on track time table for the first round of the season is as follows (all the times are CET):

Friday 6th of May

– 17:00 – 17:30: Free Practice 1.

Saturday 7th of May

– 11:20 – 11:50: Free Practice 2.

– 13:50 – 14:10: Qualifying for Race 1.

– 16:00: Race 1 (40 minutes plus one lap).

Sunday 8th of May

– 10:00 – 10:30: Free Practice 3.

– 12:30 – 12:50: Qualifying for Race 2.

– 14:30: Race 2 (60 minutes plus one lap).