– Nicki Thiim was furious after finishing 18th in qualifying for Saturday’s DTM race (report): The championship-leading Comtoyou-Aston-Martin driver complains that Thomas Preining’s threat of resignation, aimed at the Balance of Performance (BoP), and Marco Wittmann’s sharp BoP criticism after the Norisring have apparently had an 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 grumbles to ran.de. “Maybe I should do that too – quit. Then maybe I’ll also get 50 kilos out of here and more power. But yes, I’m sorry, I’m just frustrated.”
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 complains.
“I’ve had enough – then I’ll get more steam on the chain”
“It’s not my problem that the guys can’t get around 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 saying I’m quitting,” he now also resorts – sarcastically, however – to the threat of resignation.
“I’ve had enough. Then I’ll get more steam on the chain and so on,” he sees a connection between Preining’s statement in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com after Saturday’s race at the Norisring and the classification for Oschersleben.
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The SRO Motorsports Group, responsible for the BoP, has now reacted to the qualifying result in Oschersleben, where Thiim was 0.803 seconds short of pole-setter Preining.
Less Weight and More Power for Aston Martin
While most of the vehicles remained unchanged, adjustments were made to his Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and the BMW M4 GT3 Evo. The Aston Martin will be five kilograms lighter, which, however, will not be an advantage in the race, as the Dane simultaneously receives 20 kilograms of success ballast from his Norisring victory into the weight box.
As a result, his car is 15 kilograms heavier than in qualifying. For this, the boost pressure is slightly increased – and almost across the entire rev range. In the low rev range, it can be increased by 0.02 bar, in the higher range by 0.03 bar.
For BMW drivers Marco Wittmann and Kelvin van der Linde, who finished 13th and 15th in qualifying at Schubert’s home race, the boost pressure is also increased – by 0.05 bar across the entire rev range, except for the very high range. For the Ferrari, whose classification the Emil Frey team had already criticized before the weekend, there is no change, however.
Read more DTM-Qualifying Oschersleben 1: Pole for Preining, Trouble for Leader Thiim!
