Finn Wiebelhaus made it onto the podium again at the Norisring, even though he went into the weekend virtually unprepared: Why the Ford rookie is now dreaming of victory
Surprise rookie Finn Wiebelhaus has lived up to the high expectations set after the strong DTM season opener: The 20-year-old HRT Ford driver secured third place at the Lausitzring, marking the Ford Mustang GT3’s first-ever podium finish in the DTM—and two weeks later, he returned to the podium with a second-place finish at the Norisring.
“We can be happy with second place, but we were so close to first. That’s definitely the next goal,” said the youngster, eager to claim the top spot after his duel with winner Nicki Thiim. “We need to analyze what was missing—and hopefully fix it by the next race.”
What makes the performance of the Ford Mustang driver—coached by DTM legend Manuel Reuter—all the more impressive is that Wiebelhaus had absolutely no prior experience on the street circuit, which poses a major challenge for many rookies due to its bumps.
“Learned Lap by Lap”: How Wiebelhaus Got Faster and Faster
This became evident over the course of the weekend, as Wiebelhaus—who finished 17th in Friday’s practice and sixth in Saturday’s race—got faster and faster. “I learned lap by lap,” he says. On the first day of racing, he still “had trouble finding the limit,” but by Sunday he was already fully in the groove.
“I went full throttle—and I think I’m familiar with the track now,” says the seasoned youngster, who was faster on Sunday than his teammate Arjun Maini. The Indian driver, who finished third on Saturday, is considered an absolute Norisring specialist.
What makes the track so difficult? “Every mistake is punished,” replies Wiebelhaus. “On a normal track, if you go slightly into the gravel, it’s not too bad, but here you’ll crash into the wall if you misjudge your line even slightly.” Aside from that, he says, you need “a lot of confidence to drive right up to the walls.”
Why Wiebelhaus Didn’t Prepare for His Norisring Debut
And the ABS, which suddenly kicks in on the bumps, and the brakes, “which always start to deteriorate at some point,” are also an issue.
The fact that Wiebelhaus made such progress on the Nuremberg street circuit might also have had something to do with the fact that he had hardly any opportunity beforehand to prepare for the track by studying onboard footage. Above all, the—as Thiim puts it—“strange” line choice due to the bumps has already been the undoing of many a rookie.
“I went for a jog around the track once on Thursday morning,” Wiebelhaus says, describing his preparation with a shrug. “That was actually it.” The usually meticulous Wiebelhaus had no time to prepare beforehand due to the packed GT3 schedule, as the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race was on the calendar the weekend before.
Oschersleben as the Biggest Challenge for the Mustang
“I came straight from Spa; before that, we had the Lausitzring, and then I was on the road the whole time,” he says. “I considered doing some simulator work, but this time I wasn’t really prepared because I didn’t have the time.”
This coming weekend, Wiebelhaus—who sits in twelfth place, 54 points behind DTM leader Thiim at the halfway point of the championship—will have his next chance to make his dream of a first victory a reality.
On the twisty circuit in Oschersleben, however, the starting position for the long Ford Mustang GT3 Evo is—at least on paper—more difficult than in Nuremberg, as the track is considered the biggest challenge for the V8 race cars from the U.S.
