Filipe Albuquerque: “This is not racing, it’s a gamble”

Audi’s Filipe Albuquerque believes the DTM series organiser, the ITR, should “not be afraid of destroying races” with the Safety Car.

The Portuguese’s comments come in the aftermath of an incident which shocked the DTM community during yesterday’s race at Brands Hatch.

Following Augusto Farfus’ retirement, which saw the Brazilian park his car on the Brabham Straight as a result of a gearbox problem, the stewards did not call a Safety Car to recover it from the verge.

Instead, a recovery vehicle was chosen to pull the stricken BMW M3 to a non-dangerous spot on the other side of the tarmac.

However, its driver almost caused a horrific accident after emerging meters ahead of a pack of cars led by race leader Mike Rockenfeller and stablemate Albuquerque, who was close behind despite having been lapped.

“I was right behind Rocky [Rockenfeller] and it was really interesting because it looked like the safety car or whatever it was, was pulling Farfus, but out of nowhere he just turned right,” Albuquerque told TouringCarTimes.

“Rocky was backing off because he was much faster than them [the recovery vehicle and Farfus’ car], so he had to brake hard. Then where I was behind, I also had to brake hard to avoid them and turn left.

“I think they should put the Safety Car out in these situations and not be afraid of destroying races whatsoever, because if it was five-seconds later, he would have collected us.”

Albuquerque also believes the rule which states drivers must slow under a yellow flag, then post a lap time at least five-tenths of a second slower than the stewards’ reference time in that sector, is “confusing”.

Due to the close nature of DTM races it is difficult for the driver to judge the time, despite the target time being shown on the dashboard.

Failure to slow sufficiently will incur another penalty of five seconds, but in this case, the driver is allowed to block the car behind.

“It’s very confusing because you need to know the time exactly before you cross the split.

“You already see the yellow flag a little bit before you cross it [the sector], but you can still go flat until you cross the line. However, you have to back off in the last corner.

“This happened today because the accident was in the middle of the third sector, so then you can go flat in the middle of the straight.

“Miguel [Molina] backed off in the third sector, but another guy passed him because he was being clever.

“He caught him [Molina] on the first sector of the next lap, so it’s not really safe, is it?

“Backing off 5/10ths is about who is cleverest and who can do it the best.

“This is not racing, because when you get yellow flags – and remember DTM is about 1000ths – some guys were backing off 8/10ths and another guy was making it just right at 5/10ths, so he’s still gaining 3/10ths per lap.

“What is this then? It’s a gamble!”

Brands Hatch near miss: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x100vod_2013-dtm-brands-hatch-close-call_auto#.UZjdk7Wkpv8 …