Robert Wickens: “Some teams take their tactics a bit too far”

Last Sunday, Wickens claimed his first victory of the season and a second success at the Nürburgring, having won a DTM race there for the first time in 2013. The Toronto native and Paul Di Resta climbed on the podium after both races of the Nürburgring meeting.

Wickens, the driver of the No. 6 Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM entered by Team HWA now lies 9th in the drivers’ standings with 100 points with two races, four rounds to go.

“It was an amazing weekend. Going into it, I was pretty optimistic, but in the DTM you can never really expect to have a weekend like we had,” said Wickens of his races at the Nürburgring.

“We were pretty fortunate with the weather on Saturday, because we thought that we would actually not be that strong in dry conditions. I think, the fact that it rained all day Saturday was a major factor behind our result - a one-two-three-four and all six [Mercedes] cars in the points. That was an amazing day for the brand. On Sunday, in dry conditions, we followed it up with a more or less similar performance. As a team, that shows how far we have come and that we are constantly pushing. We have put behind us the bad news that we are stopping at the end of 2018 and are now determined to show that we are still fighting hard and we're not giving up. A double podium weekend in DTM is nearly impossible to come by, and the fact that I have done it twice this year shows how strong a team we are.”

The Canadian is just 36 points behind the man on top of the standings, Mattias Ekström, the driver of the No. 5 Audi RS5 DTM. With four rounds to go, does he have any thoughts about this year’s title?

“I don't really want to think about the championship, to be perfectly honest,” he replied. “I'm racing for the passion and for the enjoyment of being in the DTM. Ahead of the Nürburgring weekend, the championship was far out of my mind. I just wanted to enjoy it, but it was a fantastic weekend that put me straight back into the hunt. All season I've had a mental thought process of just going race by race and taking everything day by day. I haven't looked too far into the future, because I can only control what I do and what my team does. It's an amazing season, and the fact that there are ten drivers all with a very good shot at winning the championship is unheard of. The fact that there are ten drivers who - within one weekend - could mathematically take the lead of the championship is amazing and unbelievable. During my entire time in motorsports, I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it.”

Questionable race tactics

After Sunday’s race, several competitors complained about the disputable tactics being used by some teams. This is nothing new. During the Moscow race earlier this summer, Audi driver Nico Müller was accused of holding back a group of drivers that pitted early in the Sunday Moscow race, with rivals suggesting he was intentionally slowing up and helping his fellow Audi drivers, led by Mattias Ekström, to catch up.

Weeks later in Zandvoort, Ekström was criticised by Mercedes driver Gary Paffett for brake-testing when the Swede had Muller acting as a tail gunner to protect his position. At the Nürburgring this past weekend, Müller was involved in another incident, where another late-pitting strategy left him having to defend from Glock and the pair made contact during braking.

After the race, Glock, who received a warning for the incident, accused Audi of "manipulating races" repeatedly during the season, saying that the team "likes to sacrifice its drivers".

“Judging by my own experiences, things usually get tougher at this stage of the season,” Wickens declared. “Last weekend, I was affected by the strategies applied by Audi. I'm sure other drivers might see it differently, but from my experience, when I was leading after the pit stop and caught Duval and Müller, I thought both of them took their team tactics a little bit too far, especially given that I wasn't a direct threat in the championship. They were just trying to slow everyone down to help Audi's main title contenders. I understand it's a part of DTM, but I think at Mercedes we can hold our head up high, because we are not doing any of that. We are trying to give the fans the best show possible and give them fair and real racing. The fight that Marco (Wittmann) and I had was just a pure old-school fight the whole race. In my mind, it was very entertaining, and I enjoyed it very much. It was a lot of fun.”