DTM performance weight rules to change for 2016

Around a base weight of 1120kg, 2.5kg blocks are added and removed each weekend, according to manufacturer and driver results, within a window spanning 1105kg and 1140kg.

It has had a bearing on results, particularly at Zandvoort, where BMW entries weighed 1105.31kg on average compared to 1126.86kg for Audi and 1128.75kg for Mercedes, and swept the top seven in Saturday's race and the top five on Sunday.

In the last round at Oschersleben, BMWs again tipped the scales 24.69kg lighter than Audi and 18.13kg lighter than Mercedes, and the brand swept the top four each day.

From seven events in 2015, only once - at Moscow Raceway in August - has the same brand not won both races.

"It is clear that we need to work on the system," Mercedes chief Ulrich Fritz said.

"The seesaw effect is just too high at the moment.

"This is what we, the manufacturers, and also the sanctioning body agreed to do after the season, and from there find a new solution.

"The first step could be to adapt weights between Saturday and Sunday, but maybe we also need to do other things."

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Audi has consistently been the heaviest manufacturer, but the performance of its RS5 is such that Mattias Ekstrom, Edoardo Mortara and Jamie Green are all in the championship top four.

With points currently paid down to 10th, Ekstrom would rather weights were calculated on something other than race results.

"I don't mind having a weight rule, as long as it's not compromising race results," he told AUTOSPORT.

"[If you] drive around in the race thinking, 'Oh, it's good that I'm not going to finish in the points because I get weight out', I think that's really stupid.

"I think there needs to be a new system where your race finishing position doesn't influence your weight, because when you go racing, the aim should be to fight for every single position.

"I would like to have points from first to last, and I would also like to have no weight from race results.

"They can calculate it from laptimes, they can calculate it from qualifying, but not the race result, because that sucks when you have to be happy to finish out of the points."

Green suggests the DTM take a lead from Super GT, to minimise the risk of performance weights deciding the title.

In the Japanese series, the accrued ballast is halved for the penultimate round, and then removed completely for the finale.

"I think that's probably not a bad compromise," he said.

"It allows people who maybe don't have a great car to still compete throughout the year, but the people who win the championship should be the people who are the quickest at the end.

"By having that kind of approach, it brings it back to reality, if you like, definitely for the final weekend and partly for the penultimate weekend."