Criticism of the Balance of Performance is common practice in today’s GT3 sport and also in the DTM, which has been competing with this vehicle category since 2021. Usually, dissatisfaction with the respective classification is expressed ‘in a roundabout way’ in order not to risk any possible disadvantages in the future.
However, the Emil Frey Racing team did not beat around the bush after the DTM race weekend at the Lausitzring. ‘Emil Frey Racing will be slowed down at the DTM at the Lausitzring due to the BoP regulation,’ the team made a more than clear statement in the headline of its press release for the second round of the 2024 season.
Lorenz Frey-Hilti: “What a frustrating weekend”
SRO, the company of ‘GT3 Pope’ Stephane Ratel and long-time partner of the ADAC, has been responsible for the BoP in the DTM since 2023. In Lausitz, the BoP makers clearly drew the wrath of the Swiss racing team led by team boss Lorenz Frey-Hilti. Oschersleben winner Jack Aitken and teammate Thierry Vermeulen were mercilessly behind in qualifying (Aitken with two 16th starting positions, Vermeulen in P18 and P15) and there was not much to gain in the races either.
Aitken and Vermeulen finished the rainy Saturday race in 16th and 17th place, while on the dry race Sunday they only managed to score a few points with P13 (Vermeulen) and P14 (Aitken). “What a frustrating weekend,” said former racing driver Frey-Hilti in the team statement. “Unfortunately, we already knew a week ago when the BoP classification was published that we would not be competitive. Unfortunately, it took two qualifying sessions and one race to get to a decent level.”
Emil Frey Ferrari “not competitive because of BoP”
During the weekend, the SRO made two changes to the classification of the Ferrari 296 GT3 to bring it into line with the competition. On Saturday, the weight was reduced by 10 kilograms and the boost pressure was increased by 0.02 bar at 6,000 rpm and in the higher rev range. For Sunday, the turbo engines were allowed to increase their revs by a further 0.04 bar at 6,000 rpm.
There were no changes between the season opener in Oschersleben and the start of the Lausitzring event. “A weekend to forget,” said Emil Frey technical director Jürg Flach. “We had no problems with the cars or the setup, but we were not competitive from the start due to the BoPs. The first adjustment was so small that you hardly noticed anything and the second for the race on Sunday allowed us to keep up reasonably well, but not to attack.”
Ferrari half a second too slow at the Lausitzring
While Flach insisted that the necessary lessons should be learned from this “so that we can find our way back to the good performance we deserve in the coming races,” Frey-Hilti noted: “If you are just half a second too slow per lap, then unfortunately you won’t achieve anything in this strong DTM field. We had hoped that it could help us in the rain chaos on Saturday, but with such an inferior vehicle we had no chance there either.”
Neither Emil Frey driver escaped unscathed in the closely contested midfield: On Saturday, Aitken spun after a late collision with Ayhancan Güven’s Manthey Porsche. In Sunday’s race, the Briton collided with Christian Engelhart, for which the GRT Lamborghini driver received a warning. Engelhart later also clashed with Vermeulen and Clemens Schmid, with Vermeulen being cautioned as the person responsible for the collision.