Mercedes AMG DTM driver—and 2005 DTM Champion—Gary Paffett told Motorsport.com that BMW Motorsport won the manufacturer's title despite having the "worst car" of the three DTM marques in 2015. By the way, three BMW drivers finished ahead of Paffett in drivers' points.
He went on to tell Motorsport.com, "Performance weights are a big subject. No offense to BMW, but they won the constructors' championship with the worst car this year - so, you know, it doesn't really tell the full story."
The DTM series has a very strict rule book to help create close, exciting racing for the fans. One way they do that is by balancing performance by the addition or subtraction of performance weights throughout the season. Here is the explanation of the performance weights from the DTM Sporting Regulations:
Performance weights have been used since the beginning of the 2014 season. The season kick-off at Hockenheim will be contested by all the cars with a weight of 1120kg. Depending on the results, a driver has to take aboard a maximum of 20kg and mustn’t get rid of more than 15kg.
The performance weights are assigned according to the following format: the race winner and all the drivers that are racing for the same manufacturer and made it to the top 10 will have to take an additional 5kg aboard, while those drivers racing for the same manufacturer who didn’t make it to the top 10 will have to cope with 2.5kg performance weight, for the next race meeting. For the vehicles of the second-best brand, the weight will remain unchanged. Those drivers of the third-best brand who made it to the top 10 may get rid of 2.5kg and those who didn’t make it to the top 10 may contest the following race weekend with 5kg less aboard their cars.
Should all the three brands make it to the podium, in a race, the weight assignment remains unchanged. The results of the two races of a weekend will be cleared and added respectively and the performance-weight result will come into effect only on the following race weekend.
BMW scored a majority of their points in two rounds, Zandvoort and Oschersleben. For both of those race weekends, most of the BMW Motorsport cars were running at the minimum allowed 1105kg.
Head on over to Motorsport.com to read the complete story.—Nate Risch
