Winward's mechanic made a banal mistake ruining Gounon and Engel's race
Expensive accident for Mercedes-AMG Winward: Maro Engel and his team colleague Jules Gounon received a penalty round during the Sunday race DTM at Lausitzring for breaking the rules for pit stops.
During both stops the same mechanic could not safely keep the wheel in place. The five-second penalty dropped Engel from fifth to tenth place and ended up seventh.
As a result, he now stands by a point behind the head of Matteo Cairolim in overall order and shares the second place with Lucas Auer. But how did this mistake happen?
"Unfortunately, we have two times today that during the first stop one of the two delays basically pulled the wheel against the tibia," explained team manager Steve Buschmann for motorsports-total.de.
This is prohibited, however, because while the front wheels can be laid flat on the asphalt in the working lane before the pit stop, the rear wheel must be stabilised "with at least one hand using muscle force" and must not be laid flat on the ground. This is explained in DTM rules in Article 39.1, paragraph f.
The so-called "plug-in" is a mechanic that attaches a tyre to a car during a pit stop after using a tipper. "He basically put his bike down and modified his glasses because of the heat and all the sweat in his eyes. This rule is controversial because it does not contribute to security."
The incident took place with Gounon and four rounds later with Engel, with the same mechanic participating. Engel was then cleared in 6.2 seconds, which was even the fastest stop in the boxes of the day. According to Buschmann, the situation was completely harmless: "The cars were far away, it had absolutely nothing to do with the pit stop itself.
The rule is controversial because it does not really contribute to security, but it has been in place for several years, everyone knows about it, and today one of the cameras in the boxing alley was right across from us. I don't want to accuse anyone of anything, but I imagine it happened several times today in the alley because of heat and external conditions. "
The rule was introduced before the opening race of the 2023 season in Oschersleben, when the mechanic from Manthey, who modified his suit, did not hold the tire of his hands, which resulted in Thomas Preining getting the penalty round. It was subsequently modified. The rule makers wanted to prevent the wheel rolling and being hit by a car.
How did Engel react? "It's a pity we got the punishment for stopping in the boxes. But rules are rules. The team is working tirelessly to give top performance at every pit stop, but mistakes can happen in motorsport. The key is that we stick together as a team."