No definite results before Oschersleben
The results for the DTM race at Zandvoort will not be official before Friday July 31st. The DMSB analyzed the data and laptimes from the race at Zandvoort and wants to give Audi and their drivers the opportunity to react to their findings.
In order to save money, all parties involved have decided to have their discussions on the Friday ahead of the race in Oschersleben. The verdict from the DMSB will follow ahead of the qualifying session on Saturday.
What kind of penalty could follow is unclear. Even though the regulations clearly state that “Team orders which interfere with the race result are prohibited” in article 20.2 of the sporting regulations, there is no description of the penalty that could follow.
Even if the DMSB knows what kind of penalty they are going to inflict, there will still be the matter of who should be penalized. The question of who is the guilty party is not easy to answer.
Of course, if there in fact have been orders, Audi would have given them. But Audi can’t be punished, since there is no manufacturers championship.
The drivers can hardly be blamed either. It’s not forbidden to drive slower than you can, like Jarvis and Prémat did. Ekström can’t be blamed, because which driver wouldn’t overtake another driver if he was slowing down.
And finally, as the regulations speak of “team orders”, it’s hard to punish the teams as well. Ekström is driving for the Abt Sportsline team, whereas Jarvis and Prémat are driving for the Phoenix team. When drivers are not in the same team, it can’t be a team order.
Most likely, if the DMSB can proof that there have been orders, they will only give out a warning to Audi. In the unlikely event that they exclude a team or driver from the championship Audi will most likely appeal to that decision. In that case the results from the Oschersleben race will be provisional as well.
