DTM season review: An unexpected leader

It was too easy to dismiss Timo Scheider's pre-season form as meaningless in the early weeks of 2008. But as test after test went by with the black Audi at the top of the times, he became difficult to ignore.

Test after test then became race after race. The Scheider steam train showed no signs of running out of pace as he led a four-way battle mid-season, and it was only a late charge from Paul di Resta that kept the title battle alive to the Hockenheim finale.

By that time, Scheider was no longer considered as a journeyman that had lucked into a few good results. He was a fully-fledged front-runner, who had proved on several occasions that he could handle race-long pressure at the front of the field, despite not having a race win to his name in seven previous DTM campaigns.

Surprise winner

So why did he come alive this year? Even the man himself isn't entirely sure, but it seems that this year's brand new Audi A4, which blitzed the Mercedes challenge in the early part of the year, had different characteristics to many of its predecessors. It rewarded Scheider's smooth style, rather than the more aggressive, oversteering style of some of his teammates.

Timo Scheider (Abt Audi) leads Paul di Resta (HWA Mercedes-Benz) during the season finale in Hockenheim © XPB

Scheider's title bid was one built on speed and consistency though, as aside from a shortened qualifying session at the Nurburgring, he always qualified in the top five. He frequently set the pace from first thing Friday morning to the chequered flag on Sunday, but it was because of that dominance that the blips in his season stand out. Were it not for a few slip-ups, he could have had things wrapped up a lot earlier.

There was only one time that Scheider was completely at fault for throwing away a lot of points. He jumped the start from pole at Mugello, allowing Mercedes to take a 1-2 with Jamie Green and di Resta. While there were some catastrophic blunders from the team, in a battle as close as this year's Scheider could have ended up ruing the races at Hockenheim and Zandvoort, where he was the class of the field all weekend, but missed out on victory to Mattias Ekstrom.

But in reality, if Scheider had lost this title, a lot of the blame could be placed with his team, or more accurately their weather forecasters. Prior to the race at the Nurburgring, Audi were convinced that a few spots of rain were going to turn into a big shower, so they put their lead cars on wets. That shower came eventually - but only in the closing stages of the race, nearly an hour after Audi expected. Scheider salvaged fifth place, but there was one more bad call to come, and this one was even more outrageous.

Mercedes had made a similar blunder before the penultimate race at Le Mans, and with Scheider out front and di Resta down the back of the field due to his extra stop, the title was in the German's hands.

Di Resta didn't give up - consistently lapping more than one second a lap faster than anyone else. It all seemed to be futile, but then as Scheider came to make his final stop, rain was falling.

There were a few laps of the pit window to go (which Mercedes used well), but Audi called Scheider in... for slicks. Even though the driver pointed out the rain, the team opted for slicks. After pitting again for wets, a late attack from Bernd Schneider dropped him from fifth to sixth, and di Resta was just two points adrift going to the finale.

The chasers

For a while this year, it was a four-horse race at the top of the standings. Di Resta's season really came together later on, with four seconds and a win from the final five races, but he and Mercedes could pin-point one key race that cost him points.

As the Audis dominated the season-opener at Hockenheim, di Resta led the Mercedes charge, and was doing his best to try and snatch a podium. But that all went wrong in the pits, when confusion caused by a clutch problem dropped him out of the points. In the end, it proved key.

Mattias Ekstrom (Abt Audi) at the Lausitzring © XPB

The other two challengers, Ekstrom and Green, fittingly ended their title hopes by clashing multiple times on the final lap at Barcelona. Were it not for that and Mercedes' pit calls pre-race at Le Mans, Green's charge might have lasted as long as di Resta's.

As for Ekstrom, he was a match for Scheider often enough, and was able to out-race the German in a straight fight, but he lacked the consistency to turn that into a third title.

King of the oldies

Former champion Gary Paffett had a one-year-old car for the second year running, but he wasn't able to repeat his historic first win for an old car from 2007. The reason for that was simple - Audi and Mercedes raised the stakes with their new cars.

Paffett had to settle for scrapping in the lower reaches of the top ten most of the time, but he got the most out of the car after spending the first couple of races getting his head around it. He was the only driver of a one-year-old Mercedes to really give the 2007 Audis any trouble, as the A4s seemed to have a clear edge.

Paffett offered a solid benchmark for DTM newcomer Ralf Schumacher though, and surprisingly, the German's performances seemed to trail off rather than improve as the year progressed. He spent the early races occasionally out-qualifying the 2005 champion, but as the season went on he slipped further back, qualifying last on the grid twice. He constantly pointed out that he'd enjoyed his first season, but unsurprisingly, he hasn't made up his mind regarding a second campaign.