Thomas Preining endured a frustrating turnaround at the DTM opener in Spielberg, describing his Sunday performance as a “huge disappointment” after winning the opening race just a day earlier.
The Manthey Racing Porsche driver followed up his Saturday victory with only 14th on the grid and 13th in the race, unable to replicate his earlier pace.
“On the one hand it’s incredibly close, but on the other, the track suited us extremely well yesterday,” Preining told Motorsport.com's sister title Motorsport-Total.com. “Today the track was back to how it was on Friday — and that shows where we are.”
The key difference, according to the 27-year-old, was grip. “There was much more grip yesterday,” he explained. “You could already see in qualifying that we lost more compared to the competition than we did the day before. The track was probably two tenths faster.”
Preining believes this was partly due to rubber laid down by other series racing at the Red Bull Ring, including ADAC GT Masters, ADAC GT4 Germany, Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and Formula Regional European Championship.
Midfield start proves costly
However, the main issue was his starting position. “Yesterday we were able to run our own race from the front,” Preining told ran.de. “That’s where we can play to our strengths in the corners.
“But when you’re stuck in the midfield, you’re always behind someone in the corners, and on the straights we don’t have the performance to make up ground.”
The result saw the 2023 DTM champion lose the points lead to Maro Engel.
Sunday’s race, he admitted, was “a huge disappointment.” Starting from the midfield made overtaking extremely difficult, while leaving him vulnerable on the straights.
Qualifying compromised by traffic
Qualifying proved decisive. According to Manthey race operations manager Patrick Arkenau, traffic played a significant role.
“Thomas wasn’t ideally positioned,” Arkenau explained, revealing that Preining had to abort two flying laps. “That makes it difficult. Even with 20 cars it’s tricky, especially given our position in the pitlane.”
Manthey is located at the start of the pitlane, making it easier for rival teams to react to their track position. “They moved out ahead of us, which isn’t a criticism,” Arkenau said. “It’s a strategic tool and completely legitimate. But it makes things harder for us, because whatever we do, someone can always react.”
As a result, Preining was caught in traffic and unable to properly prepare his timed lap. “It wasn’t ideal, but we still need to analyse how big the effect really was,” Arkenau added.
Team admits it must improve
Despite the external factors, Manthey acknowledged it also needed to look inward. “Yesterday we maximised everything, today it was more difficult,” Arkenau said. “That’s something we need to analyse. It’s homework we have to take away.”
He dismissed the idea that Balance of Performance played a role, noting there had been no changes. He also pointed to a solid showing from Bastian Buus, who qualified sixth and finished 10th.
“That shows it wasn’t down to BoP,” Arkenau said. “It was on us — we didn’t manage to extract our performance.”
Only minor set-up changes were made compared to Saturday, making a fundamental setup error unlikely. “It’s sport,” he added. “Even at the highest level, you don’t always perform the same on two different days.”
Focus shifts to Zandvoort
Attention now turns to the next round at Circuit Zandvoort, where tyre wear is expected to play a bigger role with the new Pirelli compound.
“We’ll really see when we get there,” Preining said cautiously.
“But I think qualifying there could suit us, with a bit more grip from the new tyre,” he added, hoping for a stronger starting position to return to fighting at the front.
