Audi Sport customer racing hope drivers will be careful at TCR Germany opener

16 brand new Audi RS 3 LMSs have been entered for the opening round of the TCR Germany series at Oschersleben at the end of the month, and Audi hope the drivers and officials will take care about driving standards when 42 cars descend on the east German circuit.

Audi Sport have sold their best-case supply of 90 RS 3s for the year, with the car appearing in endurance and TCR championships all over the world. The car will be most represented in its homeland later this month.

“We are so happy. I expected that we’d have success with the car, but that’s such a huge success we are really pleased,” said Audi Sport customer racing’s Detlef Schmidt to TouringCarTimes. “And when you look at TCR Germany we’ll have 15-16 cars on the grid, (and also) around eight SEATs and six or eight Golfs.”

Audi, SEAT and Volkswagen will support the customer teams together at the season opener with a jointly-badged support truck. The teams will get their first official test later this month, but a concern for Audi is that the racing isn’t diminished, or their parts supply exhausted due to careless driving, which saw a number of races disrupted late last season.

“With so many cars and drivers on track, and a lot of them very young and very ambitious and with ambitious parents in the background, we have to have tough briefings and to remind them that they have a responsibility,” said Schmidt. “We can easily destroy every race in the first corner and end up running most of the races behind the safety car.”