In the two DTM races at the Norisring, there were a manageable number of sports penalties and investigations compared to the usual conditions on the Nuremberg street circuit. Nevertheless, over the weekend there were literally queues in front of the sports commissioners’ office next to the pit lane. The stewards’ decisions arrived with great regularity from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon.
The racing on the track was fine, but the dress code off the track was not. Crazy: The stewards had to impose a total of eight fines because representatives of various teams had not adhered to the clothing regulations in the pit lane!
Norisring: 10,500 Euro fine for incorrect pit lane clothing
Over the weekend, a tidy sum of 10,500 euros was collected for the penalty fund. The prudent race director Sven Stoppe does not necessarily take full action in such incidents, but first points out the wrongdoing to the affected team ‘free of charge’ in the case of minor offenses. At the Norisring, however, Stoppe must have had enough at some point when three teams broke the rules in the free practice sessions.
On Friday, the Abt Sportsline, Schubert Motorsport and Dörr Motorsport teams were each fined 750 euros because one of their team members was seen in the pit lane without the required protective helmet. While race disqualifications were previously the order of the day at the Norisring because drivers outside the points rankings had ‘forgotten’ to weigh in, it now appears that violations of clothing regulations are becoming very fashionable…
Expensive DTM visit for Hans-Jürgen Abt
On Saturday, the Audi team Abt was once again caught breaking the rules and had to pay 1,500 euros because a team member was not only not wearing a helmet, but also not wearing fireproof racing overalls in the pit lane. There were rumours in the driver’s quarters that it was the dedicated boss Hans-Jürgen Abt himself, who briefly supported his team at the command post.
According to the Sporting Regulations, all persons in the pit lane work area must wear at least a flame-retardant suit and a helmet. Except for persons who are only in the pit wall and communication stands area.
The teams had obviously learned little from this, and things continued as normal on Sunday: After the morning qualifying, Dörr-McLaren had to pay another 750 euros, and Emil-Frey-Ferrari and Manthey-Porsche were also fined the same amount. One employee each was not wearing a helmet in the pit lane, although this is strictly required for safety reasons.
SSR-Lamborghini is washed
But the Munich team SSR Performance took the cake, and was later able to celebrate Nicki Thiim’s first DTM victory at the home race. The racing team, which is known for its absolute meticulousness in the team garage, was fined 4,500 euros. The reason: two team members were not wearing helmets during qualifying, and two others were wearing neither helmets nor overalls.
“This is a safety aspect, so the penalty is absolutely justified,” SSR team boss Mario Schuhbauer wanted to respond to a question from Motorsport-Magazin.com Don’t even bother trying to talk your way out of it.
In defense of SSR and Co., it should be noted that the unusual weekend format at the Norisring contributed to the safety regulations being overlooked on several occasions: Only on the street circuit were the qualifying sessions held in two groups in order to allow the 20 drivers as many free laps as possible on the 2.162-kilometer-long course. In the heat of the moment after the Group 1 qualifying session, one or two drivers apparently missed the opportunity to have a second group on the track immediately afterwards…
Jack Aitken received a much more painful punishment than the fines at the Norisring after his collision with Kelvin van der Linde. You can read about the controversial situations surrounding the Abt driver in this article: