DTM : who's impressed you so far

[alesi95]

A mixed bunch this season but who are your stars so far and who are your dissapointments?

STARS

1. Aeillo: Give him the right car and he'll get the job done, France 94, Germany 98, Britain 99 and maybe Dtm 2002

2. Alesi: Studied the master Schneider has payed off big time. Jean says that at Hockenheim following Bernd for the first half a dozen laps was paromount to his DTM education. He has learned quickly and kept his cool.

3. Tomcykz: Audi young gun who maybe be the fast driver over one lap. Has given Aiello a run for his money in qualifying, but as Zolder has shown lacks eperience and racecraft

4. Scheider: Opels equivelant of Tomcykz. Bartels and Reuter may have stolen the limelight at Zolder and Donnington but boyish Scheider has been the most consistent of all opel runners so far this season


DISSAPOINTMENTS

1. SCHNEIDER: Its early days yet but Bernd has already started to show ruffled feathers in his side of the AMG garage. The attention in the Garage has shifted to superstar Alesi and Jean has admitted that he gets on better with swiss driver Fassler than german Schneider.
Consistent but Donnigton showed the speed was there but he's loosing his head.

2. ALZEN: DTM bad boy Uwe has little to show in the way of results this year. At the start of the season Schneider, Alesi , Fassler and Alzen were specially allocated New model mercs whilst Dumbreck, Albers and Maylander were reduced to year old machinery. Alzen has yet to prove his worth shunts at Hockenheim didn't improve this situation and going off in qualifying for Donnington didn't help.

3. WINKELHOCK: Joachim truely does have terrible luck but amount of shunts hasn't helped his cause. barrel rolls at Zolder and Donnington aint much fun and a startline shunt with fellow bad boy Alzen mean that there may not be a car for him next time out. Winkelhock really does need something in the way of results, the victories of 2000 are now becomming a distant memory.

[pink69]

I agree with you on that lot. I have been unimpressed with menu, however, he was unfortunate at Donnington.

[Speedworx]

Champs:

Aiello, Ekstrom, Abt, Tomczyk

Chumps:

Mercedes, Maylander, Huisman

[alesi95]

Thats a little unfair.

Mercedes do have two victories to their name.

Maylander and Huisman are running last years car.

Maylander has qualified the old car in the top 10 on severel occasions.

[SolemHill]

To say Mercedes are amongst the Chumps is more than a little unfair! Maylander's a bit of a star, but then so is JW. Schnieder deserves the attention that Alesi is getting though, glad to see him as a guest of BMW at Monaco, could anyone see him getting a test?

[hunttheshunt]

Remembering they are a priate team ABT have done a fantastic job with the Audi's.

Opel's problems seems race pace-they are quick in qualifying but no one consistently can score like Aiello is.

Mercedes are (thankfully) the slowest of the three and look like staying there.

Scheider, Aiello and Alesi are my tips to be top for each of the three makes at the end of the season.

[SJ Spode]

Aiello and the Audi team in general

Alesi with his drives at Donington, but he didn't fair too well in the last rounds

[JP]

The first three rounds probably weren’t truly representative (due to the use of the mickey mouse circuit at Hockenheim, the weather at Zolder and the wet qualifying, the startline shunt and the stop-go fever at Donington). Sachsenring showed the way forward with all the marques in the top three in qualifying and race. With the whole field now so closely matched, the slightest set-up problem for one of the marques can relegate their entire squad to the back of the field in qualifying. It was apparent at Sachsenring that Schneider and Fassler were both far quicker in the latter stages of the race than the Opels they were racing with, and only Aiello could out-pace them. I’d expect Mercedes (and Schneider) to be winning regularly again soon, but probably not soon enough to overturn Aiello’s advantage.

I would imagine that Mercedes aren’t too worried by their temporary loss of form – the long term health of the series must be far more important to them than winning every round and they must have been concerned by Opel’s dismal form last year possibly leading to a pull-out. Unlike the other marques, Mercedes don’t really have the option of competing in a “lesser” touring car category if the DTM should collapse again.

As I see it, the DTM has three main problems at the moment, all attributable to the desire to ape F1 procedures. The standing starts haven’t added much to the spectacle, and deprived us of seeing two of the most spectacular drivers in action at Donington (and have contributed to the frustrating number of stop-gos being dished out).

Following the fashion for introducing compulsory pit stops into races that don’t need them breaks up any interesting battles from the first half of the race, and provides yet another excuse for those stop-go penalties.

Finally, the F1 points system is fine for a series that only has, at the most, six competitive runners, but the DTM currently has 21 drivers capable of a podium finish. The series would be much better served by a points system that covers the top 20 places.

[Speedworx]

I did prefer the old points system, I never like the top 6 just getting points. Why not use the points system CART uses?

[alesi95]

Yeah. Old points was definately better.

[BootsOntheSide]

I say they should use the CART points system. We don't need an 'F1 of Touring Cars'