While DTM switched to GT3 rules in 2021, it introduced the success rule ballast, according to which the top three finishers in each race would receive a weight penalty for the following races.
Importantly, as part of this year’s rule improvements, the third-placed rider will now only gain 5kg in the next race, compared to 15kg in 2021. The second-place rider must carry 15kg of ballast instead of 18kg, while the race winner continues to be subject to the 25kg extra weight limit as last year.
This led Rust to come up with an ingenious way to get around the successful ballast rule, suggesting that a scoring race win could be due to the consequent weight loss, actually proving to the driver’s Championship challenges are harmful.
“Probably the best strategy at the moment is to always finish third,” the Abt Audi driver told Sportradio Deutchsland.
“In DTM you also have to know that for every win you gain the weight for the next race – in this case, if you win, you gain 25kg. Then the next race Races don’t usually go so well.
“If you finish third, you only get five kilos. So I’m actually quite satisfied. If you finish third a lot of times and you’re only five kilograms, you still have a chance to go to the next race. That brings points, but also a good chance to go to the next race. ”
Rene Rast, Team ABT Sportsline
Photo: Alexander Trienitz
Rust finished third at the Norisring twice and moved up to third in the championship, just behind 10 points for Lamborghini factory driver Mirco Bertolotti, who has yet to win a race but regularly finishes in the top 10.
Announcement on Tuesday that he will be parting ways with Audi is very exciting Likely to join McLaren in Formula E, 2022 could be the German driver’s last race at DTM.
When asked about his championship aspirations, the 35-year-old The player said: “When you have the slightest sense of a championship, those of us you want to win, no doubt about it. But we have a lot of other competitors who want the same thing.
“I hope we at least stay put. But if you have four bad weekends right now, theoretically maybe not even the top 10 will be enough.
” So we have to go with the flow – hopefully we have four good weekends. “
The 2022 DTM season will take place at the Nürburgring on August 27-28 after the mid-year break, with the final four rounds only taking place over seven weekends, a quick Championship fight.
Rust thinks DTM will have a visit to the track in the second half of last season to his advantage.
“All the tracks that are coming out now It’s actually pretty cool,” he said. “We now have the next Nurburgring, and it’s one of my favorite tracks because I’ve had a lot of success there. “
“Then we have Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium – a historic, very famous track with a lot of cool parts like Eau Rouge and so on, and then the Red Bull Ring in Austria – Also another nice track – and Hockenhe I, the last episode, I actually liked it a lot too. “
At 17, Oeverhaus becomes the youngest DTM driver at the Nürburgring
