Thomas Preining, former DTM champion and Porsche driver, has expressed his frustration after finishing in ninth place in the race held on Saturday in Nuremberg. Preining has denounced that the current situation of the championship is far from being sportsmanlike, referring to the Balance of Performance (BoP) as a major issue. “Our speed is catastrophic. It’s not fun. I’m counting the days until I go on vacation,” declared the 27-year-old driver.
The driver has hinted that he might be considering his retirement from DTM, saying: “I’m really close to saying: this doesn’t make sense anymore, I’m retiring.” This statement has arisen from his recent performances, where the competition has been overwhelming.
During the Sunday race, Preining, who had renewed hopes after a weight reduction of his Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, only achieved an eleventh position on the grid. Again, he finished ninth in the race. This performance does not meet the expectations of the driver, who is looking to win his second DTM title.
One of the most frustrating moments of the race was when, after a pit stop, he fell from fourth to ninth place in a cut. “This is absolute madness!”, he complained, indicating that even the slower drivers could easily overtake him.
One of the major obstacles for the Austrian driver is the lack of straight-line speed, labeling his vehicle as one of the slowest on the track, with a difference of up to 10 km/h compared to the leading Ford Mustang vehicles.
After a promising start to the season, where he achieved a victory, Preining has been unable to adapt to the pace of the competition. According to him, the modifications to his car have not improved performance as expected. “All of this is useless. We’ve been at the bottom all season. At Red Bull Ring we were lucky, because the others were inactive,” he concluded.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
