The Abt squad gets by in the DTM without a warm-up lap in qualifying: How this is possible according to sporting director Martin Tomczyk and what role the driver plays
Warming up the unheated Pirelli tires in qualifying is once again tipping the scales in the DTM this year. And one team is causing the competition’s heads to spin. “How does Abt do it?”, puzzles a member of another DTM racing team.
While almost all drivers do a warm-up lap at the beginning of qualifying and then come back to the pits to warm up the tires from the inside via the heated brakes before things get serious, the Audi team from Kempten manages without the so-called “heat soak”. What’s behind it?
“We drive straight out because we have learned over the winter and found out that this is the better option,”
“There are routes where that might not be the case “
He adds, however, that there are also routes where this approach is not used. “That’s the work we did in the winter: finding out where it makes sense and makes sense for us,” says the former champion. “There are tracks where that might not be the case. We know when that applies to us and our drivers. That’s why we are prepared.”
The Norisring qualifying is a bad example because all the teams rely on unusual strategies on the atypical circuit. But even before that, Abt has consistently dispensed with the so-called out-inlap so far this season in order to bring the system up to temperature – while other teams even fight for minutes after returning to the pits with special devices to ensure that not a single degree of temperature escapes
What role does the driver play?
But what is Abt’s secret? And how Kelvin van der Linde and Ricardo Feller handle the Pirellis, which are difficult to get up to temperature, after leaving the pits.
“The driver also gives his input on how to get into a better rhythm, what suits him better,” Tomczyk does not deny. “It’s a combination of many factors. And we took the trouble to really work this out in detail over the winter. “
Other factors that play an important role, according to Tomczyk, are the temperatures, the asphalt and the track characteristics. “You have to evaluate that to see what is best for the respective vehicle concepts,” says Abt’s Sports Director.
Different strategies at BMW and AMG
The Mercedes-AMG and BMW teams in particular struggle to get the Pirellis up to temperature in time with their front-engined cars as long as the tire allows the best lap times. Interesting: In contrast to the brand with the three-pointed star, the Schubert squad also repeatedly dispenses with the “heat soak” with the BMW, but nobody has been as consistent as Abt so far.
The strategy seems to have paid off so far for the only Audi team in the field: Van der Linde and Feller are in second and seventh place at the halfway point of the championship, with the duo starting from the top 5 in more than half of all races. van der Linde has taken the only Abt pole so far at the Lausitzring.
