Gerhard Berger: “It’s no secret, I hate the ballast system”
The chairman of DTM promoter ITR, Gerhard Berger, has hit out at the performance weight strategies which, in his opinion, have marred the regulations and the spirit of the competition.
The performance weight rules that were changed for the third round of the season at Hungaroring to focus on race performance, rather than qualifying performance. However, teams’ strategies to slow their average lap, in order to minimise their weight penalties, led to new regulations just ahead of the fifth round of the season in Moscow, only to be ditched after just a few hours.
Whilst most drivers are against any weight penalties being applied, with the likes of Mercedes’ Gary Paffett and Audi’s Mattias Ekström very outspoken about it, it is the manufacturers that are still pushing for a system to penalise the fastest cars and level up the field performance.
“I think it’s no secret, I hate the ballast,” said Berger. “I’m still pushing (for the rule abolition). It’s not really the ballast that’s the problem, it’s that the consequences of it.”
The ITR chairman pointed at the controversy arisen after Norisring: “As (the teams) make strategies to not get the ballast, so you don’t go as quick as you can, so you’re steering a bit the sport.”
Berger is in favour of a competition where the fastest wins, with no intervention on the cars’ performance beyond the technical and sporting regulations: “I’d love to change it, but it’s not about the ballast. From a sport perspective, we need to do it, but in the year you need to have everyone agree, but everyone has different interests.”
Other championships, including touring cars, have different ballast systems. At the suggestion of following a TCR-style success ballast, where set weights are allocated to the highest scorers in the weekend or to the best-placed drivers in a race, Berger said: “I wouldn’t even consider that. The DNA of DTM should not be weight or ballast, it should be professional motorsport, only the best should win.”
