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Audi believes drivers will play bigger role in 2013

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Audi Motorsport chief Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich believes the driver will be even more important in this year’s DTM title battle.

With the regulation changes introducing a more compact race weekend format, Formula 1 style DRS and option tyres which are expected to last five to seven laps, Ullrich believes driver skill will play a larger part in the outcome of the race and Audi – given its 2013 have all visited the podium at least once in their careers – are the best prepared of the manufacturers to do this.

“We’re expecting it [the drivers] will [play a larger role] – that’s why we rely on drivers who have all been on the DTM podium at least once,” said Ullrich.

“I think we have the strongest squad we’ve ever had in the DTM.”

Ullrich also believes the Ingolstadt manufacturer is in better shape for 2013, considering the regulations surrounding the technology of the DTM cars was “frozen” at the end of last season. Audi struggled to adapt to the technical changes for 2012 and won just two events, with their best placed driver, Mike Rockenfeller, finishing fourth in the championship.

Rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW won three and five respectively, with Bruno Spengler winning the title for the latter.

“It’s true that last year didn’t go the way we had expected,” he continued. “We were forced to catch up during the season – that’s difficult in a championship which is on such a high level.

In 2012, we didn’t squeeze the optimum out of the things we developed and installed in the cars during the season.

In winter, we tried to improve the usability of the things that are available to us within the constraints of the regulations.”

Despite targeting a win around the Norisring with new arrival Jamie Green, Ullrich has played down talk of a title challenge.

The Norisring is somewhat of a home race for Audi, with the factory some 60 miles away, and over the last five years, the Brit has won four from five races around the former Nazi party rally ground.

However, it has been 11 years since Audi scored their last victory there in 2002, courtesy of Laurent Aiello in an Abt prepared TT-R.

“Jamie has gelled with the team quite superbly,” said Ullrich. “He was positively received and fits really well with Audi. Maybe we’ll finally manage winning at the Norisring again with him too.
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“The aim at Audi is always to be in contention for victory,” he continued. “We intensively worked toward this aim throughout the winter. Of course this doesn’t mean you automatically win the title.”