The DTM 2007 Season Review

To describe the 2007 DTM season as 'wide open' doesn't really do it justice. Never before had there been so many cars and drivers capable of running at the front, and the final championship table was evidence of that, as Mattias Ekstrom finished the year with by far the lowest championship-winning points score in the history of the series.

The season was difficult to keep track of as it unfolded, but with a little bit of time to reflect, it's easier to pick out the issues from each race that proved to be key in the long run, starting with that explosive season opener at Hockenheim.

Hockenheim 1

Audi went into the first race of the season talking up their chances, which seemed strange considering that they hadn't won at the circuit since 2002.

A clever strategy from Audi enabled Mattias Ekstrom to overhaul Bruno Spengler, who led much of the shortened race. Around half an hour of the original race time was lost due to a huge crash involving Tom Kristensen on the first lap, and with live TV having the final say, the race clock kept ticking while the race was stopped.

It led to some bizarre strategies, including Mercedes leaving Paul di Resta out until the closing stages before making the first of his two stops. Audi had done the reverse with Ekstrom though, and the Swede had taken full advantage of the resultant clear track.

Ekstrom took the victory that Audi had waited so long for, but they were given a bonus as Martin Tomczyk completed a 1-2 by passing a struggling Spengler right at the end. That was the least of Spengler's worries though, as power steering problems meant that he fell into the clutches of Timo Scheider as well.

The pair collided towards the end of the final lap, sending Scheider into a spin, while Spengler hobbled home in third. However, the stewards blamed the Canadian for the clash, and he was handed a 50-second time penalty after the race. It seemed a bit excessive, as a drive-through penalty would have been far less.

While Mercedes didn't agree with the decision, their motorsport boss Norbert Haug admits that they had to take a hard look in the mirror after the clash, which he felt at the time could be title-deciding.

"We can say what we want about the penalty, but in some ways we brought in on ourselves," he says. "If there hadn't been a problem with our car, then Bruno would not have been battling with Scheider at the end and the situation wouldn't have arose. We have to remember that."

Oschersleben

Superficially, the second round of the season appeared to have little influence on the title, even though the race at Oschersleben made history.

But beyond Gary Paffett's remarkable first win for an old car, and the fact that older cars locked out the podium, there was a crucial twist to the title, and again it involved Spengler.

Power steering problems struck the brand-new Mercedes C-Class for the second race running, robbing him of the chance to compete for victory at a circuit where he had again been competitive, while Ekstrom and the other 2007 Audis struggled with their Hockenheim success ballast.

But all eyes were on series returnee Paffett during the race, as the 2005 champion wrestled his one-year-old Mercedes around in spectacular fashion.

It is often said that if it looks spectacular, it probably isn't fast, but Paffett combined the two masterfully on that day. Despite a difficult season, he still takes heart from that victory now that the year is over.

"Looking back, I won a race in a 2006 car, so my year has been a success," he says. "There were times where it was really tough, especially with the success ballast, so I take a great satisfaction from the fact that we took that opportunity when it was there."

Norbert Haug added: "Obviously Gary wasn't happy about getting the older car, but we already had four drivers in the new cars that we wanted to stay loyal to. They had done a good job. So I just told Gary 'Shut up, sit in your car, and drive it. You can win in this car.'"

Lausitz

Everyone in the paddock eventually gave up trying to work out what exactly went on in the third race of the season. The bare facts were that the safety car was so slow that Mika Hakkinen and di Resta were able to pass it while making a pit stop, and as officials sent it out again later in the race to restore the correct running order, it picked up the wrong car.

There were very few drivers who felt that their finishing position was their actual position, but even the teams admitted that they couldn't really work out what the result should have been.

Officials eventually decided that the best way to deal with the situation was to award half points, but all that achieved was angering those that had finished in the top eight, particularly race winner Hakkinen.

"We worked hard in the early races, and at Lausitz we finally got it right," he says. "Then we found out that because they made a mistake with their calculations, we don't get our points.

"It's history now, but the message is still the same. This championship is very short, and every point counts. We would have been not so far from the lead, instead we were 10 points adrift towards the middle of the season."

While Hakkinen, who was very strong at times this year, can point to Lausitz as one of the reasons that he wasn't in contention for the title later in the year, the race had a bearing on those that would eventually fight for the title as well.

Ekstrom was ordered to make a third pit stop because he entered the pits while they were closed under the safety car, and he eventually finished ninth, so he was not hurt by the decision. Meanwhile, Spengler had his first points of the season reduced from six to three - the amount he would eventually lose the title by.

Brands Hatch

Spengler and Ekstrom had a rather quiet time in the UK in June, but the race did them both a favour as it brought one of the thorns in their side back down to earth.

Paul di Resta was hailed as 'The Lewis Hamilton of the DTM' by Norbert Haug after the race at Lausitz, where he initially left with an eight point lead in his two-year-old Mercedes. His lead was cut to four by the half points decision, but he still headed to his home race as the championship leader.

However, the Scot's remarkable season fell apart in just one weekend. Despite being a consistent frontrunner in the first three races, di Resta missed the cut at the end of the first qualifying session, and he would start the race from 15th position.

An off on his first lap in the warm-up set the tone for Sunday, as his race would only last two corners before he was caught up in a multi-car accident.

"It was typical that it happened at my home race," said di Resta, "but there was nothing we could do. We knew we were going to struggle at times with the old car, so we just had to make the best of it wherever we went."

Reigning champion Bernd Schneider threw his hat into the championship ring with a win at Brands Hatch, and the German would even lead the standings after the next race at Norisring, but more importantly, the street race gave Spengler's season the kick up the backside that it needed.

Norisring

In the middle of the 2006 season, Bruno Spengler came alive with his maiden DTM victory, which he would follow up with another three before the season was out. The race marked his coming of age in the series.

A year later, Spengler won at the street circuit again, although this time it would prove to be his only win of the season. However, it was just as important.

The pre-season title favourite went into the race eighth in the standings, 13 points adrift of the championship lead. Norisring would mark the halfway point of the season, so if he didn't get a result there, he would be running out of opportunities to use the 'there's still time' excuse.

But Spengler did the job he needed to do. The timing of his pit stop (seconds before the safety car was deployed) was fortunate, but he had been leading the race prior to that anyway, and at the end of the race he had halved his gap to the championship leader.

"In the first four races I was always close but we couldn't quite get the win," he said. "This one put me back in contention for the championship. Even after those first four races I was still thinking that I could win the championship though, because I never give up."

Norisring dealt another blow to di Resta's hopes of causing an upset as his race was hindered by a first lap collision again, while Schneider had moved ahead of Ekstrom and Tomczyk in the standings with his second place.

Mugello

Audi appeared to have made the step that they needed as the DTM returned to Mugello for the first time since the mid-1990s in July. The A4s dominated qualifying, and an Audi win seemed inevitable. Yet somehow, Mercedes came away with another winner's trophy.

Audi could look back at Mugello as a pretty disastrous weekend, yet on reflection it didn't do them any harm in the championship. They were disappointed that accidents had dropped Tomczyk and Timo Scheider out of contention, while Tom Kristensen was delayed in the pits.

But despite the shambles of a race from the lead Audis, Mattias Ekstrom had rescued the day with a second place finish to Mika Hakkinen.

Hakkinen had lacked speed all weekend, but he got his payback for the safety car dramas earlier in the year when he was the only car to have pitted before the race was neutralised.

He took the lead as every car peeled into the pits, and he then held off Ekstrom to win a race that he really shouldn't have. So what was the blessing for Audi?

Mugello marked the weekend that Hakkinen lost his way with the 2007 Mercedes, and by that stage his own title hopes were narrowing. So Ekstrom had beaten his title rivals, and avoided accumulating more success ballast for Audi ahead of Zandvoort, where they were expected to thrive.

It all looked quite convenient with hindsight, but neither driver had been thinking about the weight permutations while scrapping for the lead.

"We wanted to win, there was nothing else," said Ekstrom. "The track had so much gravel on it though that it was difficult to pass. But Mika did no mistakes, and we got the championship lead, so we couldn't ask for too much."

Hakkinen added: "When you are fighting for a win you are not thinking about the weight for the next race, you think about the 10 points you can get by winning. You can't approach a season like that."

Zandvoort

Just like at Mugello, the fast sweeps of Zandvoort were going to suit Audi more than Mercedes. But before the two races Mercedes would have hoped that they would travel to Zandvoort with a more favourable weight situation, which didn't arise.

Instead, Audi got a second chance to dominate a race, and this time they converted a 1-2-3-4-5 in qualifying into a 1-2-3-4 in the race. At the same time, they proved just how determined they were to win back the title from Mercedes, as Alexandre Premat and Timo Scheider pulled over just before the finish line for Tomczyk and Ekstrom respectively.

As it would turn out, Ekstrom's point gained by taking Scheider's maiden podium finish didn't influence the destiny of the title, but the race took the tensions between the two manufacturers in the series to a new level.

Mercedes weren't too bothered about the team orders though. They were more concerned with Audi's tactics during the race, where there had been a fair bit of contact on track in some wheel-to-wheel battles.

"I never criticised the team orders," said Haug. "I just said that we would not do that. The issue at Zandvoort was the pushing of other cars that was not punished."

While Ekstrom had been handed third place, ahead of him Premat had given away what would have been the second victory of the year for an old car. The Frenchman claimed that it was his own decision, and for Tomczyk, it was nice to be on the other side of team orders.

"In my years racing for Audi, there have been times where I have had to go off the throttle for other drivers," said Tomczyk. "We are all professional enough to know what we have to do, and if you want to win the championship you have to play the game like that."

Nurburgring

After so many random races throughout the season, a quieter race at the Nurburgring was most welcome, especially for Tomczyk, who took his second win in a row, and this time it was well-deserved.

Spengler had to settle for a frustrating second place as he was no match for the German, while Ekstrom survived a qualifying scare to recover from 10th on the grid to third.

"When you see a big gap on the pit board and you can control your pace that is the best thing that can happen," said Tomczyk. "It was a lonely race, but that was nice."

Ekstrom received a little bit of help on his way to third, as Scheider sacrificed another podium for his teammate's cause. This time the German also had to hold up Jamie Green sufficiently to allow Ekstrom to attack, and it worked perfectly for Audi.

"We have some nice team-mates that want to bring the title to Audi," said Ekstrom. "I was faster than Timo and he let me go. When you have started in 10th, every small step you make is a dream."

It was a shame for Green, who was having one of his best races of a season that had been disappointing up to this point. But that was all about to change.

Barcelona

The Zandvoort falling out seemed a distant memory when the teams headed to Spain in September, yet by the end of the weekend the controversy in the Netherlands seemed rather tame to what unfolded at Barcelona.

Audi's remarkable decision to withdraw their cars may sound absurd when they have two drivers fighting for the title, but the fact that Tomczyk and Ekstrom were already out of the race due to incidents made the call slightly easier to make.

Their retirements also set up a thrilling three-way title fight, as Spengler's second place behind first-time winner Green hauled him right into contention for the title.

Audi felt hard done by as their title protagonists had suffered some hard hits, but both manufacturers had gone hard in Spain, and the A4s just seemed to come off a little worse in most of the collisions.

The result meant that Audi faced a far more challenging prospect at Hockenheim than they had expected, but their aim remained the same as it had been before Barcelona.

"There is never any problems between me and Mattias," said Tomczyk. "Our focus was always to beat the cars with the stars on the bonnet, and we both wanted to make sure that an Audi driver was champion this year."

Hockenheim 2

As much as everyone tried to put on a brave face about the rift between the manufacturers heading into the finale, it was clear that all was still not well between the two. However, it was a credit to all of the drivers that they saw the bigger picture, and put on a good show for the huge crowd that turned up at Hockenheim.

Ekstrom may have sealed the title, but his race was far from simple, or as he admits, enjoyable. The Swede battled an ill-handling car all weekend, to the point that he was exhausted by the end of the race.

In a race that mirrored the title battle, Spengler chased Ekstrom down, and thanks to the efforts of several other Audis that were out of sequence on pit stops, he was only able to catch his rival as they approached the chequered flag.

Ekstrom sat down when he got out of the car in parc ferme, but it was not a bizarre celebration.

"When I crossed the line I was glad it was over," he said. "I didn't enjoy it then. I tried, but then I got a strange feeling in my leg when I got out of the car and I had to sit down. It was a tough end to a tough year."

Spengler ended the season fuming about Audi's tactics, although over the course of the year older cars from both manufacturers had made their presence felt when they were out of sequence.

As for Tomczyk, after his accident with Hakkinen while leading at Barcelona, it was a collision with another Audi that ended his chances, as he was hit hard by Timo Scheider on the opening lap at Hockenheim.

The final race of the season summed up the year perfectly. Nothing was ever simple for anyone, but that's what made it so riveting. Spengler in particular can point to a few significant moments that cost him points, but nobody can question just how hard Ekstrom fought for his second title throughout the year.

He certainly deserved that little rest when he got out of the car at Hockenheim.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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