After finishing third in the championship, Rene Rast feels that it was not possible to win his fourth title with the pace of his Audi in the 2022 DTM season
Rene Rast was competing for the title on his return to the DTM after a year’s break. But from the 35-year-old’s point of view, the crown was never really within his grasp. With the Abt team’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, the three-time DTM champion scored one victory, six podiums and three poles over the course of the 16-race season.
In the end, Rast missed out on a fourth DTM title in his final season as an Audi driver. He finished third in the final 2022 DTM standings behind new champion Sheldon van der Linde (BMW) and runner-up Lucas Auer (Mercedes).
“Our last victory for Audi came at Imola,” said Rast after the title decision. “That was five race weekends ago. We were always somehow up front, but were never competitive enough to win races on our own. That’s a bit frustrating, of course. “
Rast sees cause for defeat not in own area
The fact that they were unable to follow up afterwards was not down to his Abt team, however. “But I think we did everything we could do. We got the points, we didn’t make any silly mistakes. I never lost the thread and made the right decisions in terms of strategy. In the end, it wasn’t enough, but that’s how it is sometimes,” said the three-time DTM Champion, for whom his time as an Audi works driver has come to an end after twelve years.
After Rast had only finished fifth at the last race weekend of the season at Hockenheim on Saturday, there were serious complaints from Audi about the Balance of Performance (BoP). “A farce” was how Chris Reinke, head of Audi’s customer sports programme, put it on Saturday.
Rast shows understanding for BoP officials
Audi was then granted a different air restrictor for the final race on Sunday. At the same time, the BoP for Mercedes and BMW was changed to their disadvantage after Saturday’s podium finishes.
Asked if the BoP change was enough to improve Audi’s prospects for Sunday’s race, Rast replies: “I think it was pretty obvious.”
However, Rast also shows understanding for those responsible for dealing with the BoP issue in the DTM: “It’s not easy for the decision-makers to always have the right measurements. So you can’t say they did a bad job. They also try their best. “