– Nicki Thiim was furious after starting 18th in Oschersleben: The Comtoyou Aston Martin driver, who lost the DTM lead after finishing twelfth in Saturday’s race (race report), complained that Thomas Preining’s threat of retirement aimed at the Balance of Performance (BoP) and Marco Wittmann’s sharp BoP criticism after the Norisring had apparently taken effect.
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“Right now I’m letting out the frustration, but we had fun reading all the articles with Mr. Wittmann and Preining – we’re quitting and so on,” Thiim rages on ran.de. “Maybe I should do that too – quit. Then maybe I’ll get 50 kilos out of here and more power. But yeah, I’m sorry – I’m just frustrated right now.”
He finds it unfair that the BoP is now negative for him after his two victories at the Norisring. “You get punished for performing well on a track where you simply need big balls,” he refers to the street circuit in Nuremberg, which suits him particularly well.
“I’ve had enough – then I’ll get more steam!”
“It’s not my problem that the guys can’t get around there somehow and that a conclusion is drawn from that and we are completely slowed down. Yes, now of course I am the one suffering. Now I’m standing here and saying I’m quitting now,” he now also resorts – albeit sarcastically – to the threat of retirement.
“I’ve had enough. Then I’ll get more steam on the chain and so on,” he sees a connection between Preining’s threat of retirement in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com after Saturday’s race at the Norisring and the classification for Oschersleben.
Although the Aston Martin’s classification was slightly improved after finishing 18th in Saturday’s qualifying, 0.803 seconds behind Preining, Thiim didn’t really move forward in the race either, which caused the half-time champion to drop to third place in the overall standings behind Mercedes-AMG drivers Maro Engel and Lucas Auer.
“Kiss my ass…”: Thiim also felt disadvantaged in the race
After starting from 18th place, Thiim was already 15th, but then got stuck behind Emil-Frey-Ferrari driver Matteo Cairoli. The duo was then pushed up to eleventh and twelfth place due to retirements.
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“Got good places at the beginning, but kiss my ass… – that was a tough race,” Thiim says after the checkered flag on ran.de. “I was also the heavy one in the class today with the 20 kilos. And a car that is already very disadvantaged compared to the others,” he repeated his dissatisfaction with the BoP.
“A few points are the maximum we could take away. Absolutely nothing went well in terms of pace today. Now we’re sitting together in a circle, singing a few songs and working for tomorrow,” Thiim resorts to gallows humor.
Why the Aston Martin was even heavier in the race
Thiim’s car was even 15 kilograms heavier in the race than in qualifying, despite a BoP change. This is because, although the Comtoyou team was allowed to remove five kilograms of ballast from the weight box in the cockpit due to the change, they had to load 20 kilograms into the car for the race. This is the success ballast for Thiim’s victory on Sunday at the Norisring.
In return, the turbo engine’s boost pressure was slightly increased – almost across the entire rev range. In the low rev range, it was allowed to be turned up by 0.02 bar, in the higher range by 0.03 bar, which has a positive effect on engine performance.
The Aston Martin was not the only vehicle to benefit from the adjustment: the boost pressure of the BMW M4 GT3 Evo was also increased – by 0.05 bar across the entire rev range, apart from the very high range. The Ferrari, whose classification the Emil-Frey team had already criticized before the weekend, on the other hand, saw no change.
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