The 2022 season of the DTM has not yet started, but we continue to talk about what happened at the end of the 2021 one.
The controversial aftermath does not seem to disappear and doubts also lighten on the new vintage that the German series is preparing to face, the second with the GT3s.
To return to the topic of the controversial episodes of Norisring is Kimmo Liimatainen, head of Team Rosberg, who at Motorsport.com expressed his opinion on the behavior of the drivers of the Mercedes motorized teams, all united and ready to step aside to ensure success to Maximilian Götz.
According to the Finnish Team Principal, this goes against the spirit of the championship and of the ‘customer racing’ concept adopted by those who use GT3s, which as we know should be cars managed solely by the teams and not by the brands. But in the end they put a hand in it anyway …
“The way I see it, I found it very stupid that a manufacturer intervened again deciding a season finale – Liimatainen tells our newspaper – The sportsman in me is clearly against all this and the DTM should be a championship that sees one team against another, driver against driver. “
“Personally I have nothing against team orders for the good of the team, but here we are talking about something else because suddenly we had seven cars of a brand ready to get involved for it.”
Nico Müller, Team Rosberg, Audi R8 LMS GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
As is well known, the behavior of the standard bearers of the Stuttgart Star did not go down at all to all the other teams, with criticism and animated discussions that inevitably spoiled what was to be only a pure sport result.
The ITR promoter has pointed out that he will no longer tolerate certain attitudes on the track, but Liimatainen also turns up his nose in the future.
“There have been discussions, but it must also be said that the commissioners are powerless when it comes to certain tricks. Let’s say a driver suddenly returns to the pits, or slows down ‘by chance’ during a pit stop, let alone a withdrawal … what should be done? “
“In Formula 1 they had banned it, then we saw scenes like ‘Fernando is faster than you’ communicated over the radio. How can you prove that someone stopped on purpose and sacrificed his race for another? It’s very difficult.”
For his part, Liimatainen is shown instead calm for what is the brand he represents, namely Audi Sport.
“I understand both sides and I can understand them. Fortunately, it is not a decision that concerns me, because I simply have to defend Audi’s actions.”
“They didn’t say anything about it, even though Kelvin Van Der Linde was still fighting for the title, no one came to tell us to behave one way or another.”
“They simply told us: you are independent teams and free to race. This is the Audi philosophy. Other manufacturers may have a different opinion, that’s okay.”
“On the other hand, the more financial support there is from them for their respective teams, the more power they have. That’s why I knew it would be like this, when someone gives you a lot of money then expects something in return. Of course this is speculation. , because I don’t have this problem. “
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