Jamie Green calls for consistent rules
Audi’s Jamie Green has called for consistency in decision making from the DTM’s organiser, the ITR, following the four wheels off the track rule which was put back in place as of yesterday’s practice session at Brands Hatch.
According to Green, the rule was re-instated following an appeal made to the organisers by Audi as a safety measure, after a number of the RS5 cars took damage to their front splitters after Turn 3. Subsequently, the splitter on Mattias Ekstrom’s car was seen to be covered in tape at various points during the session
Despite being happy with the decision made by the ITR, Green – on the back of Hockenheim where he incurred numerous penalties as a result of putting four wheels off the track – has called for the ruling to run throughout the rest of the season, and not just at Brands Hatch, for the sake of fairness.
Additionally, Green is not the first driver to call for consistency, as Gary Paffett criticised the ITR for failing to punish reigning champion Bruno Spengler at Hockenheim for passing the Mercedes with all four wheels off of the circuit between the Spitzkerhe and the Mercedes Arena
“I can understand the decision behind it,” Green told TouringCarTimes. “But it just has to be consistent.”
“Some of our cars had damaged splitters, so that was the reason why Audi said “look, you need to control the track limit” because when we run off track, we’re damaging the cars.
“I think that was a logical thing and I can understand the reasoning behind it, but the key is consistency [in decision making from the ITR].
“If the goal posts always move, it’s unfair if you’re penalised for something just once, so if the rule is four wheels on the track, it should be everywhere for the rest of the year.”
The Abt Sportsline driver also believes poor driving from two of his rivals was the cause of his 17th position grid slot, as the pace of the RS5 was good enough for a top-six position. Green demonstrated this in Q1, before his time was disallowed as he failed the meet the cut off time for Q2 by one 10th of a second.
“Some people came out of the pits in front of me and I wasn’t able to get a clear lap in early enough because of that. It’s inexcusable really, because when someone is on their out-lap, they should look in their mirror and let someone who is on their flying lap go past.
“I think it’s a bit unfair as if it’s your out-lap, you should get out of the way of someone who is on their quick lap which two people didn’t do today.
“The knock on effect of that was that I had to do a time at the end of the session, and on my second to last lap someone went off at the second to last corner and there was a yellow flag.
“I slowed by half a second which is part of the rules, and then because I’d given more time away there, I crossed the line too late, by one 10th [of second].
“It’s not worth getting that revved up about, to be honest, because I drove the session as I should have done.”
