Nicki Thiim was furious after starting 18th in Oschersleben: The Comtoyou Aston Martin driver, who lost the DTM lead by finishing twelfth in Saturday's race, complained that Thomas Preining's threat to quit aimed at the Balance of Performance (BoP) and Marco Wittmann's BoP critism at the Norisring had apparently had an effect.
"Right now I'm letting out the frustration, but we had fun reading all the articles with Mr. Wittmann and Preining - we're quitting and so on," Thiim rants to ran.de. "Maybe I should do that too - quit. Then maybe I'll get 50 kilos taken out here and more power. But yes, sorry - I'm just frustrated right now."
He feels it is unfair that the BoP is now working against him after his two wins at the Norisring. "You're being punished for delivering a good performance on a track where you simply need big balls," he says, referring to the street circuit in Nuremberg, which particularly suits him.
"I don't feel like doing this anymore - then I'll get more power!"
"It's not my problem that the guys there can't somehow get around and that a conclusion is drawn from that and we are completely slowed down. Yes, now of course I'm the one who suffers. Now I'm standing here and saying I'm quitting," he now also resorts - albeit sarcastically - to threatening retirement.
"I don't feel like doing this anymore. Then I'll get more power to the wheels and so on," he says, seeing a connection between Preining's threat to quit in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com after Saturday's race at the Norisring and the BoP for Oschersleben.
Although the classification of the Aston Martin was slightly improved after 18th place in Saturday qualifying, 0.803 seconds behind Preining, Thiim did not really make progress in the race either, which is why the halfway-point champion fell to third place in the overall standings behind Mercedes-AMG drivers Maro Engel and Lucas Auer.
"Kiss my ...": Thiim also felt disadvantaged in the race
After starting from 18th place, Thiim had already moved up to 15th, but then got stuck behind Emil Frey Ferrari driver Matteo Cairoli. The duo was moved up to eleventh and twelfth by the retirements.
"Made up some good positions at the start, but kiss my ... - that was a hard race," Thiim says after the checkered flag to ran.de. "I was also the fat one in the class today with the 20 kilos. And a car that is already very disadvantaged compared with the others," he repeated his dissatisfaction with the BoP.
"A few points are the maximum we could take away. In terms of pace, absolutely nothing was possible today. Now we'll sit together in a circle, sing a few songs and work for tomorrow," Thiim relies on gallows humor.
Why the Aston Martin was even heavier in the race
Despite a BoP change, Thiim's car was actually 15 kilograms heavier in the race than in qualifying. That is because, as a result of the BoP change, the Comtoyou team was allowed to remove five kilograms of ballast from the weight box in the cockpit, but had to load 20 kilograms for the race. This is the success ballast for Thiim's victory at the Norisring.
In return, the boost pressure of the turbo engine was increased slightly - almost across the entire rev range. In the low rev range it was allowed to be turned up by 0.02 bar, and in the higher range by 0.03 bar, which has a positive effect on engine performance.
The Aston Martin was not the only car to benefit from the adjustment: The boost pressure was also increased on the BMW M4 GT3 Evo - by 0.05 bar across the entire rev range, apart from the very highest range. By contrast, there was no change for the Ferrari, whose classification the Emil Frey team had already criticized before the weekend.
