– Did the Emil Frey Ferrari team lose a possible title win in the pit? For the Italian Matteo Cairoli, who had secured a commanding victory on Saturday at the Nürburgring, both tire changes went wrong on Sunday. At the first stop, where he was in a promising position in second place, the crew took a staggering 24.8 seconds. But the second stop also did not go smoothly, taking nine seconds, which resulted in him finishing only 13th.
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“We threw away a very good opportunity, considering what happened to my main rivals in the championship,” Cairoli, who is sixth in the overall standings with a 33-point deficit, refers to the retirements of the Mercedes-AMG drivers. Considering that even a win would have been possible, the strong DTM rookie would now be fully in the title fight.
“It felt like an eternity,” Cairoli describes the situation in the cockpit as the seconds passed. But why did everything go wrong on Sunday with the otherwise strong Emil Frey crew?
“Today we would no longer use the locking ring”
“During the pit stop, a wheel nut came off because of a suspension that was not tightened strongly enough,” explains team boss Lorenz Frey-Hilti about the problem at the first pit stop. “The same spring then caused us problems again at Matteo’s second stop.”
Accordingly, the crew did nothing wrong – they were victims of a technical problem. This is also confirmed by Emil Frey technical director Jürg Flach. “The wheel nut jumped out of the safety ring,” says the Swiss, who is particularly annoyed by the matter.
“That was at the tolerance limit,” admits Flach. “The clamping effect was no longer as good as it should have been. With today’s knowledge, you might no longer use this locking ring. Before, it still felt somewhat okay, but now there are measures. They are now regularly checked.”
Postscript: “We check so much, are so meticulous. That this happened to us now annoys me to death.”
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Why the second stop also took longer
The left rear wheel was affected. “The mechanics pulled a wheel off. Everything was still fine then. Then they put the new wheel on. And when putting it onto the hub, there was probably a slight contact. This contact between the hub and the wheel nut caused a longitudinal force that made the wheel nut jump off,” he describes the problem.
Just as the mechanic was about to use the impact wrench, the wheel nut came loose and rolled away, causing a huge loss of time.
At the second stop, the safety ring was no longer in the rim as intended, but on the wheel hub. “Therefore, the person holding the wheel had to remove this ring first before they put the new wheel on,” explains Flach the renewed time loss – and believes that Cairoli at least lost a podium place.
Emil Frey pit crew changed before Nürburgring
Interestingly, the Emil Frey team had to reorganize the pit crew before the Nürburgring weekend: The Ferrari team had poached two strong mechanics from Winward before the season – and parted ways with one of them after the Oschersleben weekend.
Despite the unexpected situation, they found a replacement at short notice. “We never practiced with him until Thursday before the Nürburgring,” Flach says. Nevertheless, the stops during Cairoli’s win on Saturday worked excellently. “Try to find a new man during the season with whom you can do stops in 6.2 seconds,” the Emil Frey technical director is impressed.
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The Ferrari team is not giving up the title fight yet. “We must not make any mistakes in the next two weekends, otherwise it will be an impossible task,” Cairoli knows.
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