After a mediocre start, Rene Rast came up trumps in third place on Sunday: How the set-up made the breakthrough and why he is now confident for the DTM
Rene Rast left Portimao with zero points, but third place in Sunday’s race at the Lausitzring indicates that the three-time champion now also has the GT3 DTM under control. “I’m happy with the podium, but the most important thing is what we managed to do from yesterday to today,” he said after second on the grid and third in the race.
“Yesterday the car was difficult to drive, I spun five or six times,” he said. “But today it was a completely different car that I was driving. I felt much more connected.” But how did Rast and his Abt team manage to make such a leap after eighth place on Sunday?
“The guys worked through the night,” he said. “They completely turned the set-up upside down and made big steps. So I’m very happy. “
“I was thinking to myself: I can’t rant anymore “
One of the triggers for the complete rebuild of the R8 LMS GT3 Evo II – incidentally, Rast uses the chassis that Sophia Flörsch used last year – was also the many collisions on Saturday, according to the 35-year-old. “I had damage all over my car – front, right, left, everywhere,” says Rast. “So we had to dismantle the car anyway. Then we decided to change a lot of things on the car that I can’t reveal now.”
In addition, he says he was not quite in control of his emotions during Saturday’s race. “I was really ranting more than driving during the race,” he grins. “That’s when I thought to myself: I can’t rant so much anymore. “
“We went for a completely different philosophy “
So Rast doesn’t want to reveal what exactly brought about the breakthrough. But the changes were definitely fundamental. “We focused on a completely different philosophy,” he reveals. Among other things, it was about “finding a way that suits me and my driving style better”, says Rast.
Is it also about the balance? “Yes, balance is of course also an issue,” he answers. “But the question is whether the car then automatically becomes faster when you get to grips with the balance, or whether the car is simply more driveable. We don’t want to slow down, of course. What we are looking for is performance.”
If that makes the car harder to drive, “then I’d rather have a slow car that’s nice to drive,” Rast clarifies. “If you could combine both, that’s the ideal case, of course. “
With the sudden jump in set-up, Rast, who was best Abt and best Audi driver on Sunday, is now fully motivated for the upcoming races after a tough start to the season. “Now we have a good basis for the coming weekends,” he is convinced.
“I feel much more comfortable in the car. I still have to do some fine tuning here and there, but we have seen that the direction is right. That’s why I’m confident. “
Rast ruled out sudden podium finishes on Saturday
Interestingly, Rast was still convinced on ‘ran.de’ on Saturday morning that he would not suddenly find himself on the podium after a mediocre start to the season with a retirement and twelfth place in Portugal. “That won’t be the case anymore,” he predicted. “The GT3 DTM is simply a completely different series to the DTM we were used to in the past.”
He added that he had already become more accustomed to the GT3 cars, but there will be no more dominance like in the Class 1 DTM: “I think we all know that.” He says his goal is to be on the heels of his teammates Kelvin van der Linde and Ricardo Feller, who have more experience with the R8. “If I achieve that and always drive consistently where they are, then I think I’ve done a good job. “
