A difficult first day for WWR at Imola
Disappointment at the DTM’s Italian round: Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD Racing fails to score in the Saturday race.
The first day of the third 2022 DTM race weekend at Imola falls into the “character-building” category for Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD Racing. On the 4.9-kilometre Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Bologna, none of the German-Texan team’s three Mercedes-AMG GT3 made it into the top 10. While Maximilian Götz (36, Uffenheim) and David Schumacher (20, Salzburg) finished 20th and 21st, Lucas Auer (27, Kufstein) had to park his car six laps from the end with overheated brakes.
A difficult race weekend for the Mercedes teams had already emerged in morning qualifying. Auer was the best-placed representative of the three-pointed star in ninth in the KNAUS car with number 22. In the race, however, the Tyrolean struggled with heavy oversteer early on and could not hold his place in the points for long. “We were simply too slow today,” was the sober analysis of the season-opener winner. “We now have to analyse the day properly and see what we can do better tomorrow.”
Maximilian Götz was frustrated with a botched qualifying that only gave him 20th on the grid. The defending champion also struggled on his first set of tyres in the BWT car. “The tyre pressure wasn’t optimal, the car understeered heavily,” reported the Franconian, who only came to the WWR pit for his mandatory stop at the end of lap 20. “We had gambled on a safety car, but unfortunately it didn’t come. On the second set it went really well, I had a very good feeling in the car. Unfortunately I was stuck in traffic and couldn’t use my pace, because overtaking is extremely difficult on this track. But that second stint makes me confident for tomorrow.”
Like Götz, youngster Schumacher had also brought his Ravenol Mercedes-AMG GT3 with number 27 in late (lap 19) for the mandatory tyre change. But although his race pace was on the level of his fellow Mercedes drivers, the DTM rookie could not make a decisive impact from 25th on the grid. “The pace wasn’t there, and the heat didn’t make it any better. We were clearly below the level we had imagined,” said Schumacher.
WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel did not beat around the bush: “That Imola would not be the best track for our car didn’t come as a complete surprise to us. Like all Mercedes teams, we couldn’t match the pace of the leaders today. In the race we struggled even more than in qualifying because we had to deal with high tyre wear over the distance. And yet the long run is actually one of the strengths of the Mercedes-AMG GT3. We now have to put our heads together and think about how we can optimise our package for the second race. I think there is still untapped potential. In any case, it wasn’t down to my team’s performance in the pit stops or the drivers in the race.”
The second race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari again starts at 1.30 pm tomorrow, Sunday. ProSieben broadcasts live from 1 pm, and on grid.dtm.com DTM fans can find all the information about practice and races of the popular series.