Jamie Green: “I’m prepared to challenge for the title”
The 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season starts this weekend at Hockenheim, home track of the series. Jamie Green is ready to take on the assault for the championship, after being runner up last year
Green starts his 12th season in the DTM, and the fourth one with Audi Sport, as part of Team Rosberg. The Briton became a father for the third time earlier on the week and feels motivated and encouraged.
“To have become a father and know that all is well is an additional bonus coming into the season, and one less worry,” said Green to TouringCarTimes. The Briton also joked about Dieter Gass’ assertion that he would be half a second slower: “If I had lost half a second for each child, that would mean that I was really, really fast when I started, and that would be excellent news!”
Green had a strong start of the season last year, winning at the premier in Hockenheim, and also a good end of the year. Despite scoring four wins, he lost in the championship battle against Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein. “Last year we had two especially difficult weekends in Norisring and Spielberg, where I had to retire when I was in the lead. If I had had those points, I would have been the champion at the end of the year”, said the Audi driver.
“This winter we have focussed our preparation on the technical side, seeking to extract more from the car despite the frozen development. I think we will have a positive year and that we will be in the title fight”, added Green.
Audi Sport finished 2015 empty-handed, and Mattias Ekström hinted at the team having supported too many drivers as a reason for not being able to clinch the title. Jamie Green disagrees and thinks Audi Sport’s strategy was correct: “If you look at last year, six out of eight Audi drivers were race winners, and we won ten out of 18 races. That shows that we have a strong team and a good car, and that Audi supports us, which is a different picture than just having one guy at the front whilst the rest struggles. I think not winning the title was down to other issues, but not because of driver management.”
The 2016 DTM season kicks off this afternoon at 17:00 CEST for the first free practice session.
