While DTM may have changed much in the past couple of years, Audi's Rene Rast and Nico Muller are once again title contenders. 📝 james_newbold spoke to their engineers to find out how they stack up.
“It’s a different championship compared to what I was used to before,” says three-time DTM champion Rene Rast of the series’ GT3 era. “These cars have ABS, they have traction control, they have less aero, more weight, completely different driving style.”
, with Muller a further 17 behind in fourth after a pointless weekend at the Norisring – where Rast survived the chaos to claim two third places. Muller also has a win to his name this year, the Swiss breaking through in Portimao as Rast drew a blank on his return. “He was pushing to check data himself and to be able to speak the same language [as the engineers],” Fechner says of Muller. “Then he is very linked to his mechanics, so he builds up a relationship which makes the team motivated the extra 10%. After a session, if you ask for a smaller change which takes a lot of time, they will do it without any questions or any bad feelings.”
“In the end, if you see Rene working, you don’t need to hide to have lost against him,” reckons Fechner, who believes that Abt splitting its points between Muller and team-matein 2020 – the Dutchman finishing third and taking points off Muller at key intervals in a season where Audi and BMW agreed not to use team orders – proved crucial as Rast overhauled Muller’s early points lead.
“In my experience before him, drivers were staying one, maybe two hours and at 8pm going back to the hotel. Rene was the first driver I met that was pushing the limits, looking at the data of all the Audis and all the onboards available. “They have slightly different needs and slightly different natural driving styles, so they ask for a bit of different stuff, but they are both clear which direction they would like to take. They have a clear goal and they can give really detailed and good feedback if you are getting there, if you are getting closer [to the desired set-up].”
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