The conditions that title contenders Jordan Pepper and Marco Wittmann had to contend with during testing at Hockenheim and the scale of Grasser’s tour de force
The DTM teams’ test preparations for the title decider in Hockenheim in a week’s time were largely washed out: after Monday morning was completely rainy and conditions only allowed for slicks in the afternoon session, which was interrupted by a crash, it rained continuously on Thursday.
As a result, Jordan Pepper, who is the closest challenger to DTM leader Lucas Auer in the overall standings in his Grasser Lamborghini, and Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann were only able to test on a wet track. “We were more like pushing water,” “But if it’s wet on race weekend, it will be useful.”
According to the team boss, the Grasser team used the day to work on the rain setup. However, it looks as if Monday, when the competition was testing, was more productive.
Why Monday was the better test day
This is because the conditions were extremely consistent, especially in the morning when it was completely wet, which is rare on a wet track and allows many conclusions to be drawn. This could benefit the BMW Team Schubert, the Mercedes-AMG teams Winward and Landgraf, the Porsche team Manthey, the Lamborghini team Abt, and the Ford team HRT.
Even though DTM leader Lucas Auer and Landgraf teammate Tom Kalender had to use Michelin tires instead of the usual Pirelli tires in the DTM due to their exhausted DTM quotas on test days, which means that at least less can be learned about the rain tires.
“For us, it was completely mixed,” says Grasser, who was not even present at the test. “More rain, less rain, more rain.”
Why Pepper and Wittmann did not test on Monday
Nevertheless, it would not have been possible for Pepper and Wittmann to test on Monday. This is because the Grasser team was still fighting for the title in the GT World Challenge Europe sprint series in Valencia on Sunday, finishing as runners-up, and unlike teams such as Winward, they compete in all races with one team.
“The truck came home, then one car was unloaded and the other loaded, and it moved on to Hockenheim,” explains Grasser. “It was crazy that we did that at all, but in the current situation, we’re leaving no stone unturned.”
Unlike his Schubert teammate Rene Rast, Wittmann would also have been unable to test at Hockenheim on Monday, as the BMW works driver was still competing in the IMSA race in Indianapolis in BMW’s LMDh car on Sunday evening European time.
