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Audi: We'll likely have to "commit" to one title contender
Audi DTM boss Dieter Gass concedes that the manufacturer will probably have to soon focus on a single driver as its lead contender for the DTM title in 2016.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Edited: Aug 20, 2016, 12:37 PM
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Audi has last won the DTM drivers' title with Mike Rockenfeller in 2013, losing out to BMW's Marco Wittmann and Mercedes' Pascal Wehrlein in the years since - the latter's championship campaign marked by a row over the use of team orders.
The Ingolstadt marque's top drivers took P2 and P3 in the standings in both 2014 and 2015 - and, after five rounds of 2016, Audi duo Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara are making up the top three behind Wittmann.
"I think so far we have seen quite a strong season, again, from Audi - I only hope that we don't end up like the last seasons where we always won the most races and we didn't win the championship," Gass said.
"We had that in '14, we had that in '15, now we have again won as many races as the opposition together and we're not in the lead of the championship, so that's somewhat worrying.
"For the remainder of the season, we still have two contenders. Which in some way is good, because you're not so vulnerable to mishaps with one of your drivers, so if something goes wrong, you still have the other one.
"But you always have the risk as well that, if they take each other's points away, the might miss at the end of the season. I think at one stage, we will probably have to commit, but so far we haven't."
Lack of favouritism not to blame for '15 defeat
Three Audi drivers - Green, Mattias Ekstrom and Mortara - finished within 26 points or fewer of last year's champion Wehrlein, with Ekstrom suggesting afterwards that Mercedes' strategy - and points being "well-shared" within the Audi camp - contributed to the outcome of the title fight.
Gass, however, reckons Audi "couldn't have done much differently" last year.
"We did look at the situation very closely over the winter, as you can imagine," he said.
"Even looking into the situation again, at the end of the day I had come to the conclusion that we really couldn't have done much differently in terms of supporting one driver. And the situation is very similar this year.
"If you have one driver who sticks out, you will for sure choose to support him - and this is, if you want, some kind of a disadvantage if you are in a position like that, because you're vulnerable, only having one driver, if you have to support him from that beginning.
"But if you are in that situation, we do it as well - as we did in 2013 when it was visible quite early that Mike was our only championship contender. So the approach hasn't really changed in that concern."
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