Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich apologises for radio message to Timo Scheider

The second race of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the Red Bull Ring, held this afternoon, had a sour ending when Audi’s Timo Scheider nudged Mercedes’ Robert Wickens, hitting Pascal Wehrlein and saw both C63 DTMs into the gravel trap and out of the race.

A radio message to Timo Scheider was broadcasted, in which Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Sport and in charge of operations this weekend in the absence of Dieter Gass, Head of DTM, said “schieb ihn raus”, which literally means “push him out”.

Ullrich realised how unfortunate his words were, but explained he had no intention of the message becoming a team order, as he thought he was off air: “What was done with Timo was not the proper way to go about things. But it was most definitely not my intention that Robert (Wickens) and Pascal (Wehrlein) end up in the gravel trap.”

“I’m sorry that I shouted, ‘Timo push him out’ in my initial emotion at the command post. I do not communicate with the drivers by radio during the race and did not know that the radio was open. This was not an instruction for Timo by any means. I can only apologise to Mercedes for this remark. An expression like that does not reflect my idea of motorsport, but was strictly due to the adrenaline at that moment. I’m a racer and was fuming about the way Timo was dealt with. It’s a shame that due to this incident a shadow has been cast on the impeccable performance delivered by Mattias and the entire Audi squad”, concluded Dr. Ullrich.

The stewards of the meeting are still looking into the incident, and no decision has been released yet.