Audi drivers expect this weekend’s British round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters to be a busy one, as the German series makes its annual visit to the shortest circuit on the calendar.
The 1.929 kilometre circuit in South East England will feature a record 22 DTM cars this weekend, with Sunday’s race scheduled to run for 90 laps. In 2011 the entire field qualified within one second of the fastest driver, and it is expected to be even closer in 2012.
Despite showing strong pace so far in 2012 – including taking pole position in the opening race – Audi have yet to win a race this year. Swede Mattias Ekström has come closest, taking a third placed finish in the season opener.
“Our aim is to get back – preferably as early as at Brands Hatch – to where we were in all the years, which is being in contention for victory,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “That’s why between the Lausitzring and Brands Hatch we’ve got two intensive weeks of hard work that we’re making optimum use of. Clearly, at Brands Hatch, due to the short track, the field will be even closer together than at the first two races.”
Audi have only taken one podium so far in 2012, having been outclassed by first Mercedes-Benz and latterly BMW on race pace on Sunday, something Team Director of Abt Sportsline, Hans-Jürgen Abt, is all too aware of.
“We made a step in the race at the Lausitzring – and we want to continue this way at Brands Hatch,” said Abt. “Team performance was very good at the first two races, the squad made no mistakes. That’s a basis to build on. We continue to be motivated and will try everything we can to take Audi back to the very front again.”
Ekström himself is confident of finding race-winning pace again this weekend, having tasted victory at Brands Hatch in 2006.
“We analyzed the first two races and now we’ve got to try and find the thread again that we lost somewhere along the way,” said Ekström, equal third in the championship. “You can find something again as quickly as you can lose it. So finding is the task now. In general, Brands Hatch is a fun track that I’m looking forward to.”
Former double champion Timo Scheider believes that there is still plenty of work for Audi to do in order to regularly challenge for wins in 2012.
“We’re going to put our heads together even more intensively,” said German Scheider. “At the Lausitzring we had a positive trend in the race. We tried out some things there which gave us a bit of performance. But naturally that’s not enough yet by a long shot. We’ve got to work hard in order to manage another step.”
Portugese Filipe Albuquerque explains that the Brands Hatch Indy circuit on which the DTM races has its own special character on the calendar as the circuit is so short – a mere 1.929 kilometres in length. With an increased number of cars on the grid this year, it is something that the 26 year-old is very aware of. In qualifying in 2011 the entire field were covered by eight tenths of a second in Q1.
“Brands Hatch is a very small track, so that’ll definitely be interesting this year,” said Albuquerque. “Everyone will probably be within two tenths of a second. Especially in qualifying you’ll probably need a bit of luck too. Also, finding a free lap will be anything but easy with 22 cars on a little less than two kilometers. In any event, it’ll be interesting for the spectators to watch. And I’m hoping that the short break will help us get a better understanding of the car and the tires.”
Round 3 of the DTM takes place on Sunday 20th May 2012 at 1400 Berlin time (1300 GMT).