Nick Catsburg’s late pit stop is due to a radio problem – Yet the connection worked perfectly before and after!
One thing was certain in this race: Jesse Krohn drove his short stint in the ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring on Sunday with a door that was closed. Nick Catsburg had previously slammed it into the lock in full frustration during the driver changeover.
It was clear to everyone that the BMW team had lost the race at that moment. Because the pit stop was 49 seconds too late. 49 seconds that should have been served by means of a stop-&-go penalty. Schubert didn’t do that at all, but gave up the race directly. Jesse Krohn and Nick Catsburg left the track in a flash.
A radio problem at the worst conceivable moment ended the race, which had been going so well for the BMW M4 GT3 20 until then. The BoP frustration seemed forgotten for a moment when Catsburg led the race after his strategy coup in qualifying. Instead, there is now more frustration in its purest form.
Marcel Schmidt, team manager of the team, can’t believe it. “Everything worked great before and after. But exactly when I wanted to bring Nicky into the pits, the problem occurred. In that one lap we had – for whatever reason – no communication.”
Catsburg adds on social media, “A wise man once said, ‘If NASA can talk to the damn moon, how come we can’t talk to the other end of the track?””
Why a pitboard is ruled out as Plan B
The communication problem caught the team completely off guard, as Schmidt continues: “We were still discussing tyre pressures and set-up changes the lap before. Everything was working. We have to analyse where that came from. We’ve never had problems like this before.”
It was also too late for a Plan B: “It was too late to keep a pitboard out because the window was already closed by then.” But shouldn’t you have a back-up board as a plan B, just in case?
Schmidt replies: “If I keep the pit board out and show ‘three more laps’, ‘two more laps’, ‘one more lap’, then I’m showing every competitor what kind of strategy we’re driving. That’s not the point either. “
“In hindsight, of course, you can say that if you drive to the end [of the pit stop window], you can do that. But in the end it was just too late. “
Mies: Probably wouldn’t have passed
Up until then, the race was going like clockwork for Schubert Motorsport. Although Catsburg had to fend off a few attacks from Sven Müller in the 22 Allied Porsche (Müller/Sturm) in the opening laps. But after a short time he drove himself free. The Porsche would probably not have posed a threat in the second part, as Joel Sturm was involved in various battles with degrading tyres.
“Overtaking is difficult and the BMW is fast on the straights. We’re a bit more nimble in the first sector for that.”
“That’s why overtaking is so hard, because I can’t take advantage in the corners when I have a car in front of me and I can’t place myself the way I want to. And on the straights the BMW is just so fast. That’s why I could have pulled over, but certainly not overtaken. “
Schmidt is also sure: “I think we could have definitely been right up there. You could see that the Porsche behind us was already a bit slower and held up the Audi, which played into our cards.”
“I think without the Porsche in between, the Audi would have put us under a lot of pressure. That’s why we stayed out as long as we could to keep that gap after the stop.” That’s exactly what ultimately doomed Schubert.
