Could limiting the Balance of Performance (BoP) to just one adjustment per race weekend be the solution for the DTM? This is exactly what the Manthey team has proposed as part of a dossier spanning over 30 pages, aimed at improving the DTM’s classification system in the future. Until now, three - sometimes significant - BoP changes per weekend have often been the norm in the DTM.
"The goal is to have a more consistent BoP over the course of the season. With fewer changes, because we believe it is still a sport," explains Manthey’s Racing Director, Patrick Arkenau, in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com. "If we try to create the perfect BoP for every single day and after every session, we will always be playing catch-up."
What he means by this is that conditions are constantly shifting and it is always possible for a driver to nail a perfect lap purely on their own merit. If the response to this snapshot is consistently a harsher classification for the car at the front, it will lead to a cycle of massive adjustments, causing the pendulum to constantly swing back and forth.
Manthey's proposal: A combined rating from qualifying and race
"It’s always just a snapshot," Arkenau explains. "We are in favor of making fewer changes in principle and looking more at trends. To see: Which brands perform in which window - and then react to that."
This also includes not making an adjustment after every session on race days. "Our proposal was: I take qualifying and the race together and create a single rating from them - how much I weight qualifying, how much I weight the race - using a specific formula consisting of micro-sectors and so on."
Manthey: Track differences overrated in BoP
Arkenau confirms that they have "made a very concrete proposal" aimed at ensuring there are "fewer spikes" in the future. Arkenau is also skeptical of large adjustments from one race weekend to the next based on different track characteristics.
"We don't believe that these tracks are so different that they require a completely different BoP. Instead, we would prefer to say: This is the trend over the season, because in our eyes, the development of the teams or the mix of team, driver, and car has a significantly greater effect than the differences between the tracks."
Therefore, the starting BoP should "not focus so much on the tracks, but rather look at the trend of the previous events. And then take smaller steps, react less often, and ensure that the system stabilizes," Arkenau summarizes.
Ultimately, every racing series must find the right path for itself, "but we simply tried to be proactive," he says, explaining the background of the proposal. "We don't want to complain about the BoP; we want to participate proactively in making it better. Because we have an interest in the sporting value standing above the value of the BoP."
HRT Team Principal: "If I’m the best at playing the game, I want that too"
But how is the competition reacting? With a healthy dose of skepticism. "Of course, if I’m the best at playing the game, then that’s what I want," says HRT Team Principal Ulrich Fritz, who voiced his suspicion of a BoP bluff by Manthey in Spielberg. What exactly does he mean? "If I’m the one who has figured out how the game works, then it works in my favor if changes are only made once."
He agrees with Manthey that constant changes are bad, "but if you know that there is only one change per weekend, you can act very differently politically."
"As an organizer, I wouldn't let that tool be taken away from me. Because if I allow myself to be dictated to only change once - and then something is wrong or someone has been 'playing' - then I can no longer react. And as a team, I could then approach the championship mathematically and consider where I can maximize and when I should just let it go."
BMW team demands Manthey "show their cards"
Team boss Torsten Schubert, from the only BMW team in the DTM, also senses political calculation. "In principle, I would welcome it, but I think everyone should show their cards and not suddenly have two cars driving six-tenths slower than in the first qualifying session while the other Porsche is up at the front," he says, referring to Manthey's drop in performance during Sunday qualifying in Spielberg.
"When such proposals come forward - and you hear them often from the Manthey camp - it’s not a good thing," he says.
"Mr. DTM" Bernd Schneider, who acts as a brand ambassador for Mercedes-AMG, also sees a danger: "If I make a change on Friday when everyone isn't showing what they can do, then perhaps the entire weekend is ruined for one brand and another brand benefits infinitely. That’s why it’s difficult to say: 'We’re going to do it this way now.'"
Grasser finds the proposal "great", but the timing wrong
There is fundamental agreement from team boss Gottfried Grasser. "I think the proposal would be great if all parameters were known and we had a tire that we all knew," says the head of the Lamborghini team, referring to the new DTM-spec tire from Pirelli.
"I think it’s too early for this season because there is too little data on this tire. Generally, however, I am also of the opinion that a strong performance by a driver and a team deserves more recognition and shouldn't be immediately buried by the BoP."
