The head of Audi Motorsport, Wolfgang Ullrich, has been ordered to appear before the DMSB, the the German Motorsport sanctioning body, to answer for his outburst heard on live TV during the last DTM race at the Red Bull Ring:
"Schieb ihn raus!"
Push him out!...
Ulrich was apparently not too happy his driver Timo Scheider had just been tag teamed by Mercedes teammates Pascal Wehrlein and Robert Wickens on the final lap.
Scheider obliges with Teutonic efficiency, he leans on the back of Wickens who bumps into Wehrlein, both Mercedes drivers ending up in the gravel trap.
Scheider was disqualified from the first race, with the results of the second race of the week end still provisional.
“I didn’t hear any instruction" Scheider is quoted after the race. " Robert braked so hard that I ran into him. That was racing on the edge, something like that can happen.”
For his part, Herr Ullrich justified himself by claiming he was not aware his driver was hearing him at the time, a notion anyone with even a minor knowledge of radio systems will find amusing:
“After the move by Mercedes, I was so upset and cried: ‘Push him off’. That was out of emotion and I want to apologize to Mercedes for this. I wasn’t aware that the radio was on at that time.”
The head of Mercedes DTM, Ulrich Fritz, shot back:
“It always takes two to tango. One who gives the instruction, that was clear for everyone to hear, and one who follows it. The whole thing had nothing to do with fair racing. We don’t want to see something like that in the DTM. The overtaking move prior to that was hard, but fair.”
Audi dirty tricks? Say it ain't so, it's not like they got disqualified before for being "clever", say like when Mathias Ekström while in Parc Ferme, had his father pour a bottle of water into the pocket of his race suit to help him make weight....
And let's be honest, this controversy is probably not hurting a series once know for muscular fender rubbing, door banging action.
