How much progress David Schumacher made in his first DTM test for Winward and how Rosberg is trying to make up for last year’s shortfall
This week, a number of DTM teams started their pre-season preparations at the GT private test in Portimao, which runs from Tuesday to Friday and is also the venue for the season opener at the end of April: The Mercedes-AMG teams Winward, HRT and GruppeM, BMW Team Schubert and Audi Team Rosberg were among them.
And there were some premieres – first and foremost the test debut of rookie David Schumacher, whose Winward team was active from Wednesday with no less than three AMG cars and team returnee and champion Maximilian Götz as well as Lucas Auer.
But how did the 20-year-old fare, who also saw action in torrential rain on Thursday? “The tests here in Portimao have helped me a lot,” said ex-Formula 3 driver Schumacher, who has little experience with the more cumbersome GT3 cars.
“Feel more and more with every kilometre how you have to drive “
Apart from getting used to his new team and the challenging and completely unfamiliar hill-and-dale track, he is slowly feeling his way to the limit of the Mercedes-AMG GT3. “With every kilometre I feel more how you have to drive the GT3 car to be fast, and the many tips from Luggi and Max are a great help,” he says, thanking his teammates, a DTM winner and the reigning champion.
“We simulated everything during the three days of testing – qualifying with new tyres and little weight, long runs with a lot of fuel at the beginning and degrading tyres. Plus the performance pit stops, where it’s important to approach your stance with centimetre precision,” he said, describing his programme.
What conclusion does he draw from this? “The DTM is a pretty complex affair where many details have to fit to be successful,” he says. “That’s why I will take every opportunity between now and the season opener to work through as many of these details as possible. I’m really looking forward to it. “
Winward team boss on Schumacher: “Speed is there “
Even though it was hardly possible to read anything out of the test times, as several drivers shared a car, team boss Christian Hohenadel gives a thumbs up: “David has made good progress, the speed is definitely there. “
Testing continues for Schumacher next week on Tuesday and Wednesday at Imola, where once again the Mercedes-AMG teams will be testing.
How else did it go for the Winward team? On Wednesday there was a technical defect to complain about: However, a completely new car was affected, which was subjected to a shakedown. Lucas Auer and Maximilian Götz focused on finding a good basic set-up for the season over the three days.
“We worked a lot on the set-up and collected valuable data,” said Götz, who knows that with the enormous power density in the DTM, details are crucial. “If something doesn’t fit 100 per cent, you can forget about a good placing. “
Many kilometres at HRT and GruppeM with new drivers
In addition to Winward, Götz’s ex-team HRT was also active with the new pilot duo Luca Stolz and Arjun Maini. The squad, which only completed a full day of testing on Thursday and Friday, was unlucky with the weather, as the first day was completely rained out and it was also changeable on the final day. Nevertheless, they managed to complete a total of over 400 laps without any problems.
The GruppeM team, which already tested for the DTM on Tuesday and Wednesday and thus avoided the weather capers, did not have any problems either. DTM returnee Maro Engel and Canadian DTM rookie Mikael Grenier were used. In total, the two completed a whopping 228 laps in one car.
Birthday boy Müller: Wish for tests granted
And how did it go for Rosberg and for Schubert? The Rosberg team, which tried out the new Evo package of the new Audi R8 LMS for the first time ahead of the Abt squad, was active on all four days with Nico Müller and Dev Gore, making them one of the busiest teams in the Algarve.
This was important because after the problem with the distorted test data that affected the whole of last year’s season, Müller, who turned 30 on Friday, demanded, “The testing you could kick the bucket, you have to make up for it somehow. A good basic set-up doesn’t come for free. It has to be driven. I think that’s the most important thing: testing in the winter.”
Sheldon van der Linde and Philipp Eng took turns in the BMW M4 GT3 of DTM newcomer Schubert, which had a similar livery to the one used at the Dubai 24 Hours, from Tuesday to Thursday. Conspicuously the highest top speed in the field on the first few days was 275.5 km/h, indicating that Torsten Schubert’s team was running the car at the performance limit.
