DTM 2014 Season review
DTM 2014 has season started at Hockenheim on May 4th and ended on October 19th with a race at the same venue, after a total of ten races. One change had to be made in the original calendar because the race in Guangzhou, scheduled for the end of September, was canceled due to problems with the circuit and was replaced with Zandvoort.
Marco Wittmann
Marco Wittmann, driver of BMW Team RMG was the new champion. That was his second season in the competition and he triumphed in great style. German driver finished with the margin of 50 points ahead of Mattias Ekstrom (Audi RS5 DTM) from Sweden and 84 more than his compatriot Mike Rockenfeller, also a driver of Audi RS5 DTM, who was the defending champion.
Wittmann won four races at the road to the title – Hockenheim, Hungaroring, Spielberg and Nurburgring, while he was second at Zandvoort. He clinched the title two races before the end of the season claiming sixth place at Lausitz. The only other driver with more than one victory was Ekstrom who was fastest in last two races, at Zandvoort and Hockenheim, and those were only victories for Audi in DTM 2014 season. Third placed Rockenfeller failed to win a single race, but he was runner-up at three races.
Other drivers who managed to win a single race in DTM 2014 season were Wittmann’s teammate Maxime Martin and drivers of AMG Mercedes C-Coupe – Robert Wickens, Christian Vietoris and Pascal Wehrlein, a talented German who earned the place as a test driver at Mercedes F1 team with some good performances.
“I am sure it will take a while for me to fully comprehend what my team and I have achieved. I won my first DTM race at the start of the season and now here I am as the new champion. I could never have dreamed of that before the start of the season. However, sometimes dreams come true. I fulfilled my dream with BMW Motorsport”, were Wittmann’s impressions after the end of the season.
With a total of 23 drivers in DTM 2014 season, only one failed to earn a single point, and that was Vitaly Petrov. Russian driver was one of three former drivers in DTM 2014 season who had experience in Formula 1 races. The other two were Paul Di Resta and Timo Glock.
In manufacturers’ championship, Audi won the first place with 411 points, BMW was second with 380, while Mercedes finished third with 219 points, while in teams’ overall standings, BMW Team RMG won the first with 203 points. Second was Audi Sport Team Sportsline with 138 and Audi Sport Team Phoenix was in third with 116 points.
At the end of the season, former DTM ace Tom Kristensen announced his retirement from the sport. The 47 years old Dane was one of the most successful Audi drivers from 2004 to 2009 managing four victories, nine pole positions and 18 podiums, but in that period, he also had the most serious crash in his career which forced him to take shorter spell out of racing.
