19-year-old Finn Wiebelhaus from Hesse stunned with second place on the grid in his DTM debut: why his team-mate was overshadowed and went backwards in the race
Hessian Finn Wiebelhaus was the discovery of the DTM weekend in Spielberg: The 19-year-old HRT driver, who had his experienced team-mate Arjun Maini under control on his DTM debut, almost took pole in the Ford Mustang GT3 Evo, 0.085 seconds behind, and made a sensational start from the front row.
In addition, Wiebelhaus, who finished eighth in the final race report, impressed in the first lap with a tough wheel-to-wheel duel over four corners against runner-up Lucas Auer, including several contacts. “He drove great all weekend, especially in qualifying. And in the race, too, it felt like he was very experienced,” said Auer, showering the rookie with roses. “He’s going to have a great career.”
Wiebelhaus also enjoyed the duel against the Mercedes-AMG works driver. “It was a cool duel,” he says. “We drove side by side, exchanging paint. That’s fun, that’s what the fans want to see.”
Wiebelhaus after debut: “DTM toughness is different”
In the end, the Landgraf-Mercedes driver came out on top because he was on the inside of the penultimate corner. The HRT driver, who won the ADAC GT Masters title last year and is only in his third GT3 year, was aware of the much tougher pace in the DTM in Spielberg.
“The toughness in the race is different to that in the GT Masters or in the GT World Challenge,” “I was certainly a bit surprised yesterday. I think I held up quite well today and can’t really blame myself. If things continue like this, I wouldn’t be surprised anymore.”
However, Wiebelhaus was not squeamish on Saturday either when he pushed Ricardo Feller’s Manthey Porsche on the approach to turn three – and was lucky to escape a penalty.
Teammate Maini clearly in the shade: Was it the car?
How does he compare to Maini, who was still one of the strongest Mercedes-AMG drivers in 2024 and is already in his sixth DTM season? In the first qualifying session, Wiebelhaus in 13th place was 0.165 seconds faster than the Indian in 16th place; in the second qualifying session, he took 0.406 seconds off Maini, who only finished 15th.
And Wiebelhaus’ fastest race laps were also faster than those of his team-mate on both days: by 0.072 seconds on Saturday and 0.145 seconds on Sunday.
It is reported that Maini has been struggling with the performance of his car since the DTM test in Spielberg and is currently unable to get the maximum out of it. “We have the feeling that there is a lack of power – whether from the gearbox, the engine or the drivetrain. We are currently looking into this,” explains HRT Team Principal Ulrich Fritz. Wiebelhaus’ debut was “mega”, “but what we saw on Sunday is certainly not the normal performance gap between Finn and Arjun.”
Why Wiebelhaus was unable to maintain second place in the race
But why did Wiebelhaus drop from second to eighth place on Sunday? On the first lap, he positioned himself on the unfavorable outside lane on the approach to turn four and had to let the eventual winner Maro Engel pass him, four corners later Auer also passed on the inside, which meant Wiebelhaus was fourth.
“Then the tires went a bit and we lost important track position after the first pit stop,” explained Wiebelhaus, who delayed his first stop for a long time, on ProSieben.
The HRT youngster was in seventh place behind Nicki Thiim and Jules Gounon before the second stop – and the attempt to get back to the front via strategy did not work out either.
Need to catch up in the pit stop phase
“I gave the call to go in early and hope that the others would fight hard or lose time if I could set a good pace for a few laps in free air,” he said, taking matters into his own hands. But instead, McLaren youngster Ben Dörr also slipped through.
A look at the stopwatch shows that the HRT team also has some catching up to do when it comes to pit stops: While the Emil Frey squad dispatched their cars in less than seven seconds, Wiebelhaus needed 8.8 and 8.6 seconds.
On the other hand, the youngster still has to improve on the lap from the pits on cold tires: He lost 0.9 and 0.4 seconds on Maini, and even more than two seconds on the absolute leader. “But that’s normal,” said team boss Fritz, pointing out that tires are not changed in the ADAC GT Masters. “He’s doing this for the first time and simply has to learn how to deal with the cold tires.”
