Audi just threw away all of their sporting reputation

"Fred (FreddsterExprs)" (freddsterexprs) 08/02/2015 at 12:39 • Filed to: None

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The issue with DTM is that every manufacturer has 8 cars in the race. After the first few races, the team principals make it a team game and try to protect their best placed driver in the standing. Team orders and not very nice blocking or letting by is the result. What happened in Spielberg is far, far more worse.

Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes), current DTM leader after his P2 finish yesterday and at that moment in P8, was following the Audi of Timo Scheider who was behind Robert Wickens in another Mercedes. Up ahead, championship second Mattias Ekström of Audi was driving towards a secure victory which meant that he would take over from Pascal.

Mercedes then told Wickens to take it slow so that Wehrlein would have a chance to catch up to both of them and get a few additional points for the championship, points that could decide it all at the end of the year. Wickens complied, resulting in damage to his right rear quarter. So far, so good, and not that uncommon.

Then Wehrlein passes both cars on the inside while braking for turn 2, of course aided by Wickens holding up Scheider. Over in the Audi garage, things get a bit too hot as the live radio feed clearly lets the audience hear an instruction for Scheider while the three cars are heading for the next corner: Timo, push him out/Timo, schieb ihn raus . You know what’s happening next: Timo Scheider bumps Wickens in front of him, and he subsequently bumps into Wehrlein. Both end their race in the gravel trap. This is the worst thing a team can do, and seeing how Audi is the currently strongest manufacturer in DTM right now, it’s kinda sad to see them act this way.

Even worse than the actual bump order were the half-hearted, amateurish attempts of explanation: Scheider claimed that he didn’t hear the radio while it went out to the live feed, as only audio that gets sent to the driver does, Dr. Ulrich, head of Audi Sport, claimed that it could have been him in the background and that the broadcasting of his “emotional outburst” was a pure accident. It sure was.

BJ > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 08/02/2015 at 12:47

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In the replay you can see Timo inching up on Wickens, looking for that tap. If he had been serious about avoiding contact, he could have easily done so.

Autofixation > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 08/02/2015 at 12:48

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Wow...

Just wear your damn mask... > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 08/02/2015 at 13:38

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“Audi just threw away their sporting reputation”

Says the guy with the Mercedes reference in his name.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Just wear your damn mask... 08/02/2015 at 13:43

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Right, because liking a S-class from the sixties renders me unable to see a 2015 Audi shit show. Also, please tell me how Mercedes was unfair in Motorsports.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 08/02/2015 at 16:39

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“It can’t be me” - Dr. Ulrich.

Funny how he just said it couldn’t be him and didn’t even attempt to communicate a drive to find out where the call came from.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 08/02/2015 at 17:29

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Even funnier was that he admitted to it hours later on Facebook:

“That was obviously not a nice ending of an otherwise tremendous race. What was done with Timo was not the proper way to go about things. But it was most definitely not my intention that Robert (Wickens) and Pascal (Wehrlein) end up in the gravel trap. I’m sorry that I shouted, ‘Timo push him out’ in my initial emotion at the command post. I do not communicate with the drivers by radio during the race and did not know that the radio was open. This was not an instruction for Timo by any means. I can only apologize to Mercedes for this remark. An expression like that does not reflect my idea of motorsport, but was strictly due to the adrenaline at that moment. I’m a racer and was fuming about the way Timo was dealt with. It’s a shame that due to this incident a shadow has been cast on the impeccable performance delivered by Mattias and the entire Audi squad. Our Audi RS 5 DTM was the strongest car here, both in dry and wet conditions.”

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 09/13/2015 at 18:34

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so they acted like stereotypical Audi drivers then.

Keith > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 09/13/2015 at 19:54

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Come on- that’s the whole point of dtm. IMO- closed body race cars imply body contact is part of the game

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Keith 09/13/2015 at 19:56

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Body contact unequal pushing the championship leader out when prompted to by the box.

Keith > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 09/13/2015 at 20:01

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still part of the game.. its a crash for entertainment series- just enjoy it

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Keith 09/13/2015 at 20:19

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That's the most ignorant thing I have ever heard.

Keith > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 09/14/2015 at 01:52

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I’m sure if you concentrate hard enough you can remember something more ignorant. The action you wrote up is brow-raising, but it just isn’t alarming given the nature of that series.
The whole pit-wall coordinated “race slowest to win the most” shenanigans is exactly the point where I stop caring about one teams spilt milk over another’s. Blast my ignorance, but if they were all RACING out there, none of this would’ve happened.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > Keith 09/14/2015 at 05:38

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True, there are more ignorant things. And yeah, as I said, with 8 cars from one manufacturer alone and no truly independent teams, the danger always has been there. But there always was a difference in DTM between rough racing and blatant, NASCAR-esque crash driving. Also, crashing on purpose is not racing anymore, and I’d watch Fox Sports if I’d be into that.

Cloudhopper > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 09/14/2015 at 07:03

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I don’t take Dr. Ulrich as someone who “isn’t aware” that the microphone in front of him is live.
I can understand the order, I don’t like it (and it’s the reason i’ve stopped following DTM 20 years ago) but at least be honest about it.