DTM 2015 season review - Wehrlein and BMW left Audi empty-handed

Audi was considered the main favourite before the start of 2015 DTM season, but BMW and Mercedes took the laurels in the end, leaving Ingolstadters empty-handed.

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Laurels for Wehrlein and BMW

Despite winning a total of ten races, comparing to total of eight victories of its rivals, Audi failed to win Manufacturers’ title and also missed Drivers’ title. BMW surprisingly won the title beating Audi by a margin of seven points.
Taking two wins and three podium finishes, Mercedes driver Pascal Wehrlein won Drivers’ championship becoming the youngest driver ever to take the DTM crown, leaving Audi driver Jamie Green and Mattias Ekstrom 19 and 22 points behind respectively.
In the Teams’ championship Mercedes HWA AG took the title led by Wehrlein, 19 points ahead of BMW Team RMG.

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Pascal Wehrlein celebrates DTM title with his team

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Perfect start for Audi

Season has started perfectly for Audi as Jamie Green won the opening round at Hockenheim, while Ekstrom was the fastest in the second round. At Lausitzring, Audi continued where it stopped and Green won both races. But, problems for them has started at Norisring, after the introduction of ballast system based on the results obtained in the previous race. Ingolstadt based manufacturer cars were constantly at least 30kg heavier than their rivals, which proved to be very important for them in the rest of the season.

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Edoardo Mortara, Jamie Green and Mattias Ekstrom at podium

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Pascal Wehrlein scored his first victory in race 1 at Norisring, while another Mercedes driver Robert Wickens was the fastest in race 2. Finally, BMW also scored the victory after former champion Marco Wittmann and Antonio Felix da Costa were fastest ones at the Zandvoort circuit. But, Audi managed to hit back in Austria, winnng both races at Red Bull Ring, by Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekstrom.

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Mercedes and BMW strike back

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After five weekends during which we could see double victories from all manufacturers, laurels were shared between Mercedes and Audi in Moscow. Wehrlein was the fastest in race 1 and Mike Rockenfeller  in race 2. Oschersleben was well suited for BMW, as Bavarians won both races, first by Timo Glock and second by Tom Blomqvist and that was the maiden DTM victory for the British driver.

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Timo Glock driving BMW M4 DTM at Nurburgring

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BMW’s winning streak continued at Nurburgring where Maxime Martin won race 1, while Miguel Molina won race 2 behind the wheel of an Audi RS5, leaving the championship race opened for the last weekend, again at Hockenheim. Finishing 8th in race 1, Wehrlein clinched the DTM title day before his 21st birthday, while Audi driver Timo Scheider won the race. In the last round, Jamie Green claimed his fourth win of the season, but that was just enough to finish as championship runner-up, three points ahead of Ekstrom.

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‘Push him out’

The 2015 DTM season was really exciting and we could see a lot of interesting races, but it was also marked by one of the most scandalous things we could see through the whole racing world this season. During the race at Red Bull Ring, Timo Scheider was ordered by Audi Team Phoenix official to crash into Mercedes cars in front of him.

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Video: Incident between Scheider, Wehrlein and Wickens at Red Bull Ring

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In 2016 we can expect another thrilling season as two manufacturers already confirmed unchanged driver line-ups, but it’s still uncertain if Pascal Wehrlein will defend his title as Mercedes is considering the position of a talented German who can get a chance in Formula 1.

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Fireworks during DTM season finale at Hockenheim

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Photo: dtm.com