YOU HAVE to feel a bit sorry for Gerhard Berger.
Ten times a Grand Prix winner, the laconic Austrian has always been a popular figure in the racing paddock but even hustling his sometimes recalcitrant Ferrari Formula One cars wont have been as much of a challenge as saving the DTM – the German Touring Car Championship – will be.
As head of the ITR, the organisation that promotes Germany’s top series, Berger faces an enormous challenge in rebooting a championship that has seen one of it’s last two remaining manufacturers jump ship.
Audi announced the end of their two-decade long continuous involvement in the DTM on account of their plans to focus more on their Customer Sports program and racing fuelled by other means – essentially, Formula E.
It leaves BMW as the last brand standing in a series that in the last three years has not only lost Audi, but Mercedes-Benz and four privateer Aston Martins as well.
The result is a championship floundering for direction as they attempt to shift to the new class 1 regulations that have been developed in coordination with Japan’s Super GT Championship – but if there’s no one to run cars it won’t matter what regulation is in place.
The DTM was in a unique position in that it was big enough to sustain its own set of regulations which made it unique and spectacular.
Even with recent controls on performance and costs, DTM machines were all-but Formula 3 cars with bodies, miles and miles faster than TCR or BTCC machines and comfortably quicker than our own Supercars as well.
But with that uniqueness came challenges – mainly because there was no one else operating the same set of regulations which meant if a brand or teams pulled the pin, there was a limited chance of others coming into fill the void.
While this was the reason the championship had invested significant time and money into working with the Japanese brands to develop a common set of regulations, ultimately it was a point of fragility for the championship – something now rammed home with Audi’s departure.
And if you are thinking this all sounds oddly familiar you would be right – because it is.
Supercars are in not a dissimilar position; a unique set of regulations not used by anyone else in the region, let alone the world, and operating a championship that has shrunk from five brands to effectively one in the space of half a decade.
It must be said that the DTMs challenges are certainly a more existential threat than the ones faced by Supercars – for starters, the German series operates on almost an entirely manufacturer-backed basis meaning there’s not really ‘privateer’ teams running non-factory backed outfits.
The Aston Martins R-Motorsport ran for a season were the closest thing to it – but they only lasted a season in the face of the manufacturer competition.
So it’s unlikely that the Audi’s will continue to race even without works support, which puts more pressure on Berger and Co to try and find a solution that will work next year and then something more sustainable moving forward.
We’re a bit different here because even though Holden is consigned to the ranks of Australian Automotive history, there’s every chance we’ll still see ZB Commodores racing on local tracks for at least another eighteen months, if not longer.
And it’s been proven in the past that teams can do deals with brands to put their own shape on a chassis and go racing with little or no investment (remember the Erebus Mercedes-AMGs?), so it’s a different scenario to the DTM.
What it does prove, however, is how deeply flawed the manufacturer-backed motorsport model is, now more than ever.
Championships just can not rely on brands to be a constant supporter of any given championship as the automotive world changes as quickly as the seasons. The DTM has been the first victim and Formula 1 is always on the edge of chaos: if Mercedes pull the pin and Ferrari finally live up to their persistent quit threats the championship would be in more strife than the early settlers.
And what happens if tomorrow someone develops a better alternative than electric cars? Formula E would die on its feet in weeks as brands abandoned – with no privateers to pick up the slack.
The current DTM issues are just more emphasis on how important Supercars nailing their next set of regulations really are. The championship has to engineer a set of rules that is cost effective, produces good racing and offers teams a sustainable model so they can survive the marketing-led whims of brands who will continue to come and go at their whim.
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