Jamie Green: 2015 DTM title defeat not a missed opportunity
Jamie Green says he will not view 2015 as a missed opportunity to win a DTM title

The Audi driver won four races during the season, with eventual champion Pascal Wehrlein and stablemate Mattias Ekstrom the only other multiple winners, each with two.
Green was also one of only four multiple polesitters on his way to second in standings, ultimately only 19 points behind Wehrlein.
His title hopes unravelled during a lean run in which he scored 32 points in 12 races.
During that window - in which Wehrlein scored 133 of his eventual 169 points - Green was leading in Austria before suffering a gearbox problem, and was slowed off the line at the Nurburgring by a handbrake problem after qualifying third.
"This is a very tough championship, so to be competitive is always tough, and this year I've been very competitive," he told Autosport.
"I think from my point of view, I've done a good job, but you can only do your job as a driver.
"I'm not responsible for reliability and the things that broke on the car are not even Audi parts. They're standard parts that are on everybody's car.
"The gearbox is from Hewland, there's a small part that failed in Spielberg, I think it was a microswitch type of thing, but unfortunately it failed when I was in the lead, and then you lose 25 points from that.
"It's just bad luck, which is how I would sum up the year.
"But who knows? Next year might be an even better opportunity."
At one stage, Green went five races without scoring, and was later caught up in a pair of first-lap incidents.
He also acknowledges that his wet-weather form was a weakness.
"I think too many zero scores was the problem this year," he surmised.
"Performance in the wet for me was poor this year, we had two wet races, I didn't score points in either of those: Mattias won both of them, so clearly Audi was capable of it, but we at [Team] Rosberg didn't quite get it right.
"In this championship, if you don't get it right, you are nowhere.
"I think the four wins speak for themselves, and we are a little bit unfortunate, which is a shame."
PRAISE FROM EKSTROM
While six of Audi's eight drivers won races in 2015, Wehrlein was one of only two Mercedes winners.
It was a point highlighted by Ekstrom, who finished third in the standings.
"I think this year the best guy was Jamie," the Swede said.
"It's not because he's a team-mate, but I think that's the truth.
"He had no luck whatsoever, for those two races with technical issues, and on top I think he also had team-mates who made his life much harder than Pascal's did."


DTM could delay introduction of new turbo engines until 2019
The top 10 DTM drivers of 2015

Latest news
Bathurst 12 Hour: Van Gisbergen Mercedes leads after first quarter
Shane van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight Mercedes headed Matt Campbell’s Manthey Porsche after three hours of racing at Mount Panorama in the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Tanak scores first Puma win in preparation for WRC Rally Sweden
Ott Tanak claimed his first victory driving an M-Sport Ford Puma after winning the Otepaa Winter Rally in preparation for next week’s World Rally Championship round in Sweden.
Ranking the worst Formula 1 cars to win a grand prix
Cars that rarely looked like contenders for victory have occasionally slipped through the net to become winners of world championship Formula 1 races. But which was the worst of the bunch?
Schumacher radio criticism highlighted F1 privacy change for Russell
George Russell says that the way an off-the-cuff radio remark criticising Mick Schumacher last year became a big deal shows how he is more under the spotlight in Formula 1.
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The season just gone was a memorable one for many of our staff writers, who are fortunate enough to cover motorsport around the world. Here are our picks of the best (and in some cases, most eventful) from 2022
The plug in and play stand-ins who got their timing just right
Nyck de Vries’s Italian GP exploits weren’t the first post-eleventh-hour call-up in motorsport history, and won’t be the last either. Here are some offbeat tales from the past
The longest-serving Red Bull driver revealing F1’s true brutality
His day of days in Formula 1 came at Indianapolis in 2005, a day grand prix racing strives to forget. But Patrick Friesacher, the long-serving Red Bull lieutenant, remains active today driving a two-seater that provides ordinary people with a glimpse of an F1 car’s savage potential, including this writer...
How the DTM has come back stronger from its Norisring nadir
OPINION: Questionable driving standards and farcical team orders meant the DTM's first season under GT3 regulations ended under a cloud. But the organisation has responded firmly by banning team orders and welcomed new manufacturers, making for an intriguing season ahead as new and returning names prepare for battle
The remarkable career of a 'classy' champion who rejected politics
Over two decades as a factory driver with Audi and BMW, Martin Tomczyk earned the respect of team-mates and rivals as a hard but fair racer. After calling time on his racing career, the 2011 DTM champion sat down with Autosport to look back
The other Hamilton conqueror seeking career revival
On his rise through the ranks before reaching Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton was usually a cut above the rest. But he never truly asserted himself over a Mercedes-backed fellow Briton who traded single-seaters for touring cars and is now seeking new opportunities after a year largely spent on the sidelines
How the DTM's shambolic finale poses awkward future questions
OPINION: The scenes at the Norisring as Mercedes used blatant team orders to secure the first DTM title of the new GT3 era totally undermined the credibility of the championship. But as well as overshadowing the season, it also presents uncomfortable questions to series bosses about the direction it is headed in
How Audi's new DTM star is channeling Rast to achieve his "childhood dream"
Having learned the ropes in GT3 alongside Rene Rast, Kelvin van der Linde is in line to take up the three-time champion's baton as Audi's new DTM king. From humble origins in South Africa, it's been a remarkable journey so far for the current series leader, but he knows that the 2021 title is a long way from settled just yet
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.