On Sunday evening, there were rumours in the paddock about a DMSB check of DTM leader Thomas Preining’s Porsche engine: What’s really behind it
Excitement in the paddock around 5pm after Sunday’s DTM race in Spielberg. “Preining’s Porsche has just had the engine removed,” whispers a team boss. The information spreads quickly, the question is whether a protest by another team against the car of the new DTM leader, who finished in third place, is the reason.
In the Manthey-EMA pit you can actually see the jacked-up “Grello”. In the rear of the Porsche 911 GT3 R only the struts are left – the small boxer engine lies dismantled behind the car on the floor of the pit.
The responsible DEKRA technical inspectors are in the pit and monitor that nothing is changed. Interestingly, one pit further on at Abt, Ricardo Feller’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II is also jacked up – and the engine is also missing.
DMSB checks the engines of the top 3 in the championship
But what is the background to why the engines have to be removed? and found out that there is no specific reason for this. In fact, the DMSB, which ensures the legality of the cars in its capacity as the rule-keeper, had already decided before the weekend to have the engines checked externally after the penultimate weekend of the 2023 season….
Before the title finale at Hockenheim, the engines in question are those of drivers Preining, Mirko Bortolotti and Feller, who are in the top three positions in the championship.
Tomczyk: Timing “involves a certain risk “
“We found out on Sunday when we were dismantling,” “My people weren’t entirely happy to put another two hours under the car, but regulations are regulations.”
The engine, which was sealed by the manufacturer, will now not be investigated at the DMSB but directly at the manufacturer. So Preining’s engine is opened up at Porsche in Weissach under DMSB supervision, disassembled, checked and professionally reassembled.
At Audi, this takes place in the engine department in Neuburg. “Doing that four weeks before the last race of the season always involves a certain risk,” Tomczyk points out that any irregularity in the reassembly could have consequences for reliability and that would be particularly tricky in the title fight. “But we have no problem with that at all. “
“Routine check without concrete reason “
Preining’s Porsche was loaded into the Manthey-EMA truck shortly after 7pm without the engine and taken to the team workshop in Meuspath near the Nürburgring to repair any damage and replace parts.
A spokesman for the DMSB confirms that taking the engines with them is “a routine check without any specific reason”. Nevertheless, they want to check the engines before the title decision.
By the way, there were similar checks in the Class 1 era of the DTM, when sometimes entire cars were taken along. Several times a year, the DMSB carried out random tests to check whether the standard parts submitted in advance corresponded to the parts actually used.
