DTM 2016 Season Preview – Who Can Overthrow Mercedes?
- Matt White - Touring Cars editor
- May 1, 2016
- 3 min read
With last year’s champion Pascal Wehrlein moving onwards and upwards to F1 with Manor, Touring Car Editor Matt White takes a look at the challengers for this season’s title.
DTM is back for another season in 2016 and if last year was anything to go by, it should be just as entertaining and unpredictable as it was in 2015.
Mercedes took the drivers’ title last year with Pascal Wehrlein, but the champion only won two races (Norisring R1 & Moscow R1). He only managed three further podium finishes, but the youngest ever champion in series history was helped to the title by the inconsistency of the others behind him.
Audi made the strongest start to the year, with Brit Jamie Green winning three of the first four races, but he had to wait until the Hockenheim finale to win again.
In fact the 18 races in 2015 produced 13 different winners across the year, with Mercedes winning both driver and team championships, yet only winning the 3 races – two for champion Wehrlein and one for Robert Wickens at the Norisring.
BMW won five races in 2015 yet their highest placing driver in the championship standings, Bruno Spengler, was unable to win a race.
With Wehrlein moving on, 2015 GP3 Champion Esteban Ocon joins Mercedes – the only driver line up change. BMW and Audi remain unchanged.
Mercedes Benz
(2) Gary Paffett & (34) Esteban Ocon - Mercedes-Benz DTM Team ART
(6) Robert Wickens & (12) Daniel Juncadella – Mercedes Benz DTM Team HWA 1
(3) Paul Di Resta & (84) Maxi Gotz – Mercedes Benz DTM HWA 2
(8) Christian Vietoris & (22) Lucas Auer – Mercedes Benz DTM Team Mücke
Audi
(5) Mattias Ekström & (48) Edoardo Mortara – Audi Sport Team Abt
(10) Timo Schnider & (99) Mike Rockenfeller – Audi Sport Team Phoenix
(17) Miguel Molina & (51) Nico Müller – Audi Sport Team Abt
(27) Adrien Tambay & (53) Jamie Green – Audi Sport Team Rosberg
BMW
(7) Bruno Spengler & (18) Augusto Farfus – BMW Team MTEK
(11) Marco Wittman & (16) Timo Glock – BMW Team RMG
(13) António Félix da Costa & (100) Martin Tomczyk – BMW Team Schnitzer
(31) Tom Blomqvist & (36) Maxime Martin – BMW Team RBM
Audi are yet to win the drivers' title since the rule change to the current specification of car arrived in 2012, but did top the official pre-season test at Hockenheim with Mike Rockenfeller.
There have been a few changes to the calendar for 2016. The Spielberg moves from round five to two and the Hungaroring is back after being dropped for 2015. It replaces Oschersleben in September.
Hockenheim - 7/8 May
Red Bull Ring - 21/22 May
Lausitzring - 25/26 Jun
Norisring - 25/26 Jun
Zandvoort - 16/17 Jul
Moscow Raceway - 20/21 Aug
Nurburgring - 10/11 Sep
Hungaroring - 24/25 Sep
Hockenheim - 15/16 Oct
Each weekend will still feature two races: a 40 minute sprint on Saturday; and the traditional pit-stop race on Sunday.
The support bill will again feature the German Porsche Carrera Cup and Audi TT Cup with the FIA European Formula Three series joining at five of the nine rounds.
There has been a rule change over the off-season regarding the performance balancing between manufacturers.
For the 2016 season, all performance weights will be calculated based on the best theoretical lap from each manufacturer in qualifying. The base weights for the three brands were announced a couple of weeks ago, with Audi and Mercedes at 1120kg and BMW at 1112.5kg.
After each qualifying session all cars weights will be calculated based each brands best lap in that session. 0.1 and 0.2% increments of weight change will be given, 0.1% is equal to 2.5 kilos.
Each 0.1% jump represents a 2.5-kilo performance weight. Therefore, if the second and third fastest manufacturers remain within 0.1% of the fastest theoretical lap, no cars will be allocated or deducted any weight.
This should hopefully see the end to drivers and team alike bemoaning the system throughout the season, for which all three brands have at various times during the previous few seasons.
BT Sport will continue to show live coverage in the UK across their network in 2016 beginning at Hockenheim this coming weekend and View From Pit Lane will keep you fully up to date with the happenings from Germany and across Europe.
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