Why Rast is the best driver outside F1

Why is Rene Rast a cut above the rest? It's a question asked often in the DTM paddock, and even those close to him are usually at a loss to answer. The numbers are startlingly good: two titles in just three years in the DTM, winning 11 of the past 22 races and taking seven of the past 16 poles in a series where consistency is difficult to find and still more difficult to maintain.

So in short, he's exceptional. He's arguably the best outside Formula 1 - his DTM track record, and ability to jump into other categories and cars and immediately impress, makes that claim justifiable.

Rast's first DTM title came against the backdrop of his employer Audi supporting Mattias Ekstrom as its primary championship hope, and yet still the ever-popular Swede missed out. In 2018, Rast had the third-best car on the grid and came so close to defeating the dominant Mercedes of Gary Paffet and successfully defending his crown. This year was his first with a dominant car and he convincingly took the title.

There was no lower-key adaptation period for Rast in the DTM, unlike Jean-Eric Vergne when he had to face the reality of a post-F1 career in Formula E (although he did take pole on his FE debut). While Rast has yet to establish the longevity that the likes of Scott Dixon or Sebastien Ogier have had in IndyCar and the World Rally Championship respectively, he adapted far quicker in a series that puts a premium on experience; Rast has only had the machinery to match his ability in one season.

But figuring out what exactly makes Rast another level clear of his rivals in one of the strongest fields in international motorsport is a far more difficult prospect.

"I have to say, the only guy that is really outstanding [in the DTM] is Rast," DTM boss Gerhard Berger says of the 32-year old. "If today you have, three, four, or seven [winners in a season] it's fantastic and it's how racing should be - but it's just bloody Rast!

"I said earlier this season that if he was younger he would be in Formula 1 - he sticks out. The way he works, the way he controls the game in the race, the strong mentality. It's rare he makes mistakes. He's a strong package and if he didn't have the [relatively older] age, he has Formula 1 qualities."

Rast's average finishing position in 2019 - skewed by reliability problems at the Lausitzring, Zolder and Hockenheim - is a deeply impressive 4.4286

All season long, Autosport has spoken to key individuals at Audi, those close to Rast, and the driver himself to try to work out his advantage. The response has usually been a long exhalation and little in the way of a clear answer, but a picture is now building that gives insight into how Rast has effectively shaped Audi around him.

What's apparent is that Rast is an undisputed qualifying master, as his record shows. But it's not as simple as being blazingly quick over one lap.

The two-race DTM weekend format, and limited practice that precedes both qualifying sessions and races, mean that drivers have to find a set-up that works right away. The 2019 Class One regulations and the subsequent increase of power and tyre wear have made previous banks of knowledge irrelevant. If that sounds difficult enough, parc ferme conditions between qualifying and the race put great emphasis on balancing one-lap and race-distance set-ups for a perfect compromise.

It's why so often this year, Rast's main title rivals Marco Wittmann and Nico Muller would star on one day - sometimes beating Rast - but lose points in the other race as Rast edged out a growing championship lead by performing well across a whole weekend.

"If you have a run like he has, you have a good self-confidence as well - you know the limits and [are] not so much driven to overdo it," says Audi motorsport boss Dieter Gass.

Rast's average finishing position in 2019 - skewed by reliability problems at the Lausitzring, Zolder and Hockenheim - is a deeply impressive 4.2000.

Compare that to Muller (4.2500) - who has the best reliability of all in the title race - and Wittmann (5.7857) - who had a similar amount of setbacks to Rast - and the Audi Team Rosberg driver's advantage is clear.

Rast race finish averages

Muller race finish averages

Wittmann race finish averages

Rast's race-position advantage stems from qualifying, an area Muller repeatedly told Autosport had become a focus for him in his battle to at the very least match Rast. While Wittmann put in virtuoso performances, one after another, to haul a heavier and difficult-to-set-up BMW M4 DTM into contention.

"If you look at his qualifying, that's his strength," Rast's team-mate Jamie Green tells Autosport. "In this championship, most people are quite up and down.

"For example, I was ninth [on the Saturday at the Nurburgring] and pole [the next day]. I saw that with [Mike] Rockenfeller in Assen - 16th on Saturday, and second on Sunday in qualifying and then wins the race.

"That's Rene's strength, his consistency in qualifying. You get points for that. It makes racing easier."

"At the end of the day, there are no big differences, only big results because he is so consistent" Dieter Gass

In truth, Muller could have found an early-season qualifying breakthrough and Wittmann's BMW could have matched Audi and it would likely have made no real difference.

Being generous and discounting a disastrous season-opening Hockenheim round, in which Rast was blighted by technical problems, his qualifying average result is 1.7143 - which goes to 2.75 if Hockenheim is included. Muller's average of 6.00 and Wittmann's 6.9375 pale in comparison.

Rast in qualifying

Muller in qualifying

Wittmann in qualifying

But this is about more than number-crunching for the sake of it. Rast's qualifying performances, in a series that gives points to the top three on the grid, had a tangible benefit and were the catalyst for him securing the title a round early. Rast has earned 32 points in qualifying this season, to Muller's eight.

Rast's qualifying form stems from a natural ability to hit the ground running with his set-up on Friday to the point that it is not uncommon to see him set a time good enough for pole early in qualifying, and then sit out the rest of the session to conserve tyres.

That's not arrogance, just part of a deeply analytical mindset in which Rast can hit 100% swiftly, and rarely stray below it. He has an ability to extract tyre performance quickly in a series that does not use tyre warmers.

But we're still talking margins of a few tenths at best - this isn't one driver who is too good for his series.

When asked to explain Rast's dominant 2019 season, Gass wisely points out: "It's the consistency in the driving because the set-up of the cars is quite close. Everybody has a small tweak, but there is no massive difference.

"At the end of the day, there are no big differences, only big results because he is so consistent."

The difference comes in Rast's approach to his driving. He tells Autosport that after winning the Nurburgring opener last Saturday, he stayed up into the early hours studying his data. Winning made no difference as far as he was concerned.

"I think we prepare ourselves well; I do a lot of night shifts during the weekend," says Rast. "Last night I worked until 2am, even though we won the [first] race. It didn't really help [in Sunday's race, where he was third].

"I've always had to adapt myself to circumstances and I didn't really work a lot on set-up in the past. I worked more on driving" Rene Rast

"But sometimes you just look for small improvements and if you do that [you see benefits]."

That translates into race management too - even if Audi's dominance often means Rast and Muller have run with the benefit of the buffer from team-mates in supporting roles, most notably polesitter Green moving out the way at Lausitzring to allow Rast to head to victory. But it's the final piece of the puzzle where "everything fits together", as Gass puts it, built on the foundation of his work through the weekend.

Gass chooses one anecdote that sums up perfectly how Rast functions differently to other drivers.

"I will always remember when he did the first Le Mans test for us [in 2015]," he said. "He came to the garage and he was looking around. Rene said, 'OK, and where is the laptop where I can do the data analysis?' I've not seen any driver asking this question before!

"The point where he potentially makes the difference is that he's looking at that data, analysing it, and he manages to extract it for himself and put it on the track."

The Le Mans moment is pertinent as it's another footnote in a CV more varied than most in the DTM, and Rast pinpoints it as the reason for hitting the heights during an unexpected rookie title charge in 2017, from which he has never looked back.

"It's probably because I have driven lots of different series already," says Rast.

"I started in the Polo Cup, to the SEAT Cup, the Porsche Cup, LMP1, LMP2, all kinds of cars. A lot of testing, development for different race cars. I have basically known all the concepts of cars and I've always had to adapt myself to circumstances and I didn't really work a lot on set-up in the past. I worked more on driving.

"I tried to make the best out of the situation and what I have. I think that was the key to success in the first year in the DTM. I adapted quickly because I knew what I had to do. I still think it's important in qualifying, a key moment to know what I always need to do and then extract the maximum."

Momentum is an overused phrase in motorsport, but Rast has been a steamroller since 2017. This is not to make him out to be untouchable - there were areas he proved to be lacking at times in '19. The removal of electromagnetic start valves - effectively a handbrake - meant drivers were much more in control of their starts and Rast had a mixed success rate, with his Norisring start, in particular, a glaring error - even if he went on to win.

Despite having an ability to switch the tyres on quickly and strong race management, he had a blind spot at Assen when he significantly overworked a tyre into a puncture and a likely race win became a fifth-place finish. Such mistakes have been rare and once again showed that the driver who dethrones Rast in the future will have to put together a near-perfect season.

The greatest shame in this is that Rast's popularity wanes the instant you exit Germany, partly down to an unassuming laidback character - even if he assures people he's far from cool when on the track. And he lacks any desire to play mind games, bar talk of intra-Audi tension spurred by TV pundit Timo Scheider in the summer. He'll never play up to Fernando Alonso-esque soundbites to remind the world how good he is either.

And that means even if he keeps up his unreal DTM streak, that profile is unlikely to change any time soon - even though very few drivers can consider themselves his equal or better. That's unless he can somehow lose a few years and earn the F1 chance Berger believes he's worthy of.