Preview: Full throttle in the Alps at the Red Bull Ring
The DTM heads to the Red Bull Ring for its penultimate race weekend of the season, with Audi’s Mattias Ekström leading one of the most open battles for the title in recent seasons.
The Red Bull Ring is popular among the drivers because of its postcard setting in the Austrian Alps, offering a challenging and fast layout. The 4.318-kilometre track presents seven left-hand corners versus two right-hand ones, with a 12% uphill incline leading to Turn 2, reaching speeds of 250 km/h. The circuit was resurfaced last year, with kerbs made flatter ahead of the MotoGP visit this season.
Ekström leads the championship with 136 points and has a chance of taking his third crown at the Styrian track, a however unlikely possibility with 16 drivers still in mathematical contention, in a season with 10 different winners in 14 races.
“I love Spielberg!” said the Swede. “The setting is unique and you feel the high quality standards everywhere. Racing at the Red Bull Ring is always a fantastic experience. The rhythm and the vertical differences of the track are huge fun and the extreme braking ranges allow thrilling overtaking manoeuvres.”
The Team Abt driver will face fierce competition from Mercedes’ Lucas Auer, just nine points adrift, with the Austrian pumped up ahead of his home track: “I think the circuit is pretty much the best in Europe, where everyone can feel comfortable. From a sporting perspective, we’ll have to wait and see how things work out for us. With the new cars and tyres this year, it’s difficult to make any forecasts. I’m feeling confident, though, despite the fact that it was difficult for us last year.”
Audi’s René Rast is third in the standings, 12 points behind Ekström, with the German from Team Phoenix making his DTM debut at the Styrian track.
Reigning champion Marco Wittmann is fourth for BMW, 21 points behind Ekström. Both drivers have been the maximum exponents of regularity, scoring points on 11 occasions each, but with no victories for neither of them.
Audi drivers Jamie Green and Mike Rockenfeller are 23 and 26 points behind the Swede respectively, with BMW’s Timo Glock and Maxime Martin still in contention 26 and 34 points adrift.
The Austrian round of the championship will be the first since the abolition of the performance weights, with all cars now running at 1,115kg, which will be a significant change for BMW, who put on 18kg in respect to their weight at Nürburgring.
Audi Sport boss Dieter Gass thinks the competition will be more exciting without the weight penalties: “Now the sporting competition has taken centre stage again. In the DTM, the Red Bull Ring is the track with the largest proportion of full-throttle driving. It’ll no doubt be a very thrilling event.”
Although Mercedes hasn’t won at the Red Bull Ring since the series return in 2011, the Stuttgart-based manufacturer hopes the momentum gained after their strong weekend at the last round at Nürburgring will continue, posing the final challenge for the title. Mercedes trails Audi by 52 points in the manufacturers’ table, with BMW 48 points further behind.
“We still have three drivers in contention for the title,” said Mercedes DTM boss Ulrich Fritz. “The surface is smooth with very few irregularities. That tends to play to the advantage of our opponents. But I have the utmost confidence in our engineers to identify a good setup.”
Timetable
Friday 22nd September
16:45 – Free Practice 1
Saturday 23rd September
09:20 – Free Practice 2
11:40 – Qualifying for Race 1
14:48 – Race 1 (55 minutes plus one lap)
Sunday 24th September
09:25 – Free Practice 3
12:00 – Qualifying for Race 2
15:18 – Race 2 (55 minutes plus one lap)
