17 out of 21 DTM drivers were on the grid for the Nurburgring 24 Hours from May 14 to 17. Just two days later, 15 DTM pilots headed to Belgium for the official Spa 24 Hours test, before the DTM round at Zandvoort was on the agenda only a few days after that. It was a brutal week for the drivers, but also for several teams.
Only six DTM drivers did not attend the Spa 24 Hours Prologue, which was held last Tuesday and Wednesday. This means 14 drivers suffered under the triple-header strain: Maro Engel, Lucas Auer, Jules Gounon, Arjun Maini, Ben Dörr, Kelvin van der Linde, Maximilian Paul, Mirko Bortolotti, Luca Engstler, Marco Mapelli, Thomas Preining, Ricardo Feller, Bastian Buus, and Nicki Thiim.
The workload was also extremely high for a team like Grasser, as the squad handles all racing assignments with just a single crew, whereas Winward, for example, relies on different crews for the various championships.
Hard days and plenty of planning
Maro Engel, who completed the triple, explains: “Certainly, a week like this is one of the toughest you can imagine physically. But I think we managed it well. My focus was naturally on regeneration during those days.”
“The team also structured the race schedule a bit so that we didn’t have to get up quite as early on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and could travel to Zandvoort reasonably well-rested.” So the physical strain played a role in the Winward racing team’s planning, even though the mechanics are rotated across the championships.
“Of course, we celebrated the victory in style,” says Engel happily. “As everyone knows, Nurburgring victories aren’t easy to come by, and in our case, it had been ten years. So we celebrated together with everyone involved in the AMG Lounge.”
GT3 platform makes it possible
“And yet, we naturally moved straight on to Spa on Monday. So, it didn’t get too late or too boozy. It was definitely a tough week, physically for everyone. The two days in Spa were mixed in terms of weather. We couldn’t drive quite as much as planned, but it was still tough. And then it was on to Zandvoort, where the focus was on the DTM.”
Nicki Thiim was also present at all three events with Walkenhorst and Comtoyou and had to fight his way through the Green Hell, the Belgian Ardennes, and the dunes of Zandvoort. The 37-year-old felt the strain clearly: “I am getting older. Need more sleep. That is all I can say from this race. Always flat out.”
Since many championships rely on the GT3 platform, many opportunities open up for teams to use these cars in different series. However, the top drivers are the same globally, which is why their services are also in high demand. This is why such horror weeks occur for the entire crews, who have to adapt rapidly to new conditions, tracks, and details. For some drivers and teams, the GT World Challenge Europe round in Monza is already on the agenda from May 29 to 31.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
