Abt and Grasser harshly criticize the Balance of Performance after finishing outside the top 10: Is the problem with the trucks or the ADAC GT Masters?
After Saturday, there is incomprehension and great frustration in the Lamborghini camp at the DTM at the Lausitzring: Although the best Huracan GT3 Evo2 only finished 13th in qualifying, the Balance of Performance (BoP) was not changed for the race, in which Jordan Pepper, the best Lamborghini driver, could not finish higher than eleventh. For Abt and champion Mirko Bortolotti, it was only enough for 13th place (race report).
“We saw that we didn’t stand a chance with the Lamborghini this time,” said Abt managing director Thomas Biermaier, shrugging his shoulders. An analysis is unnecessary, he said, because the problem is obvious: “When you’re being overtaken on the straights on both the left and right, you have to ask yourself whether everything has been classified correctly.”
Biermaier, who is standing in for sporting director Martin Tomczyk this weekend due to his involvement at the Nordschleife, hopes “that people see that and that we get a competitive car tomorrow. Because racing is absolutely no fun like this.”
Lamborghini pole in ADAC GT Masters cause of BoP?
Biermaier wasn’t the only one wondering why the Lamborghini didn’t get a better classification for the race, unlike the Porsche and Ferrari, which were further ahead in qualifying.
GRT team boss Gottfried Grasser has an explanation for this – and refers to discussions with Lamborghini officials, who are in contact with BoP service provider SRO: According to this, the ADAC GT Masters pole time (1:19.957) set by debutant Finn Zulauf in the Paul Lamborghini, which would have put him in third place on the DTM grid, was the reason for the unfavorable BoP!
Apart from the nine kilograms of camera weight in the DTM, the youngster drove a 26.728 in the twisty first sector with the same SRO classification. This put him absolutely on par with the Lamborghini works drivers in the DTM. Proof that weight is not a problem?
Grasser: “That’s nonsense.”
“They told us we had to improve in the first sector because the ‘Lambo’ was so good in the ADAC GT Masters qualifying,” Grasser reveals. “But that’s because the GT Masters races right after the trucks, and the rubber on the track offers so much more grip immediately afterwards. They obviously didn’t take that into account.”
Apart from that, Zulauf is “a fast guy” and Paul Motorsport “knows how to set up the ‘Lambo’ well,” Grasser adds, giving further reasons why it would be a mistake to draw conclusions for the DTM classification from the ADAC GT Masters results. “That’s nonsense.”
In fact, this year’s Lamborghini is 25 kilograms heavier at the Lausitzring DTM compared to last year – and has to make do with a restrictor that is one millimeter smaller.
Lamborghini half a second slower than in 2024?
“The 25 kilograms account for three tenths on this track, the restrictor two,” calculates the Austrian. “So we would be half a second faster and would be right at the front with all the ‘Lambos’,” he points out, referring to the fact that Nicki Thiim, the slowest Lamborghini driver in qualifying, was 0.527 seconds behind. “So I don’t think it’s down to our performance.”
So does he want the Lamborghini to be classified as it was in 2024? “That wouldn’t be fair, of course, because we’ve also learned a lot, but it shows that something isn’t right,” he says, putting it into perspective. “Our cornering performance is ruined by this massive weight – and on the straights, nothing works anymore.”
