Quote:
Originally Posted by Akrapovic
I don't think DTM belongs in that list at all lol. I think DTM wishes it was in that list, but it isn't even close.
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I think part of the problem is he's not totally wrong either. DTM
used to be in that list some 30 years ago. Wild, diverse touringcar racing on wild backcountry tracks, still some airfields and proper racetracks as well, paired with some glam and bliss.
For more then a decade it has been fragile&expensive silhouette cars & for long periods two manufacturerers racing themselves on not so much charming backcountry tracks but mostly failed track developments in the german backcountry, enriched by quite a number of questionable destinations across europe for a series that carries "Deutsche" in their name and rounded up by F1-eske gimmickery to make things even more stupid.
Basically, it became the opposite of what made it great. Yet for some reason it's been kept alive ever since.
The brand has been all they got for two decades now and they pumped money out of that alone for much too long. That finally ended because people eventually realized they were fooled.
Instead of pretending to be what they have long stopped being, I would reboot myself to the classic USP: Reckless sprint formats of consumer segment cars. Electric only, since TCR kind of covers that already. Get the OEMs in, don't emphasize on the eco-green aspect and avoid turning your series into an ethic lecture, have an orange Jägermeister ID3GTX ramble it out with an adidas-JSP EQA and see where that goes. Large stadiums aren't packed because some robotics professor explains the tactics, either, but because there's competition, booze and from time to time mayhem.
Rallying went from Group B to 1.6 l turbos but hasn't lost it's core brand (in fact created one, WRC) by keeping close to what the series meant. Endurance Classics very well do the same for a century now. Yet all of them respect their individual core, their niche, and are successfull by doing so.