The DTM may have the longest off-season in the motorsport calendar by a long way, but the three manufacturers and 22 drivers are raring to get back into the saddle, with two ITR tests being scheduled before racing goes ahead in May at Hockenheim.
First up will be Barcelona, between the 26th and 29th of March, followed by the final days at Hockenheim, which will take place between the 9th and 12th of April. The three newcomers, BMW Motorsport’s Timo Glock, as well as the young Mercedes-Benz rookies Daniel Juncadella and Pascal Wehrlein, who look to rack up as many miles as possible before they make their race debuts, in a bid to get up to speed as soon as possible.
The short time between both tests will give all the data engineers and technicians from Audi Sport, BMW and Mercedes-Benz the chance to make best their preparations for the oncoming 10 race calendar. There is another interesting couple of developments for 2013 that may clearly help to spice up the racing, and as I discussed with Martin Tomczyk in an interview late last year, about how the “show” can be improved for the fans.
Firstly, let’s talk tyres. The exclusive DTM tyre partner, Hankook, will be bringing a softer compound tyre that gives the drivers a chance to experiment with different strategies, as well as pushing the capabilities of how fast the lap times can really get. Second, the teams will also test a so-called DRS system, which will work in the same principle as what is currently used in Formula One. It looks as though there will be an enforced restriction on each track, so as to provide more close quarter battles and overtakes this year, so as to really throw the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons.
All those hardcore DTM fans that want to follow the Live Timing Feed, can do so via the official DTM APP, or go to the official website at www.dtm.com, so as to find out who is on the pace a the upcoming Barcelona test.
So, in just a matter of weeks, it all starts again, as the New-Era of the DTM continues….
