'Push him out' row: Audi's Scheider and Ulrich banned
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Audi driver Timo Scheider and team boss Wolfgang Ulrich have been given bans after Scheider obeyed an instruction from Ulrich to ‘push out’ two of their Mercedes rivals in the second race at the Red Bull Ring. Scheider will not be allowed to compete at the next round, Moscow, and Ulrich will be barred from the pit lane for the rest of the season.
Audi has also had all its constructor points docked from the Red Bull Ring event and given a €200,000 fine.
The judges considered it proven that Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich has in his capacity as Head of Audi Motorsport boss sent in the last round of the DTM race at Spielberg via radio an invitation to Audi driver Timo Scheider, to entangle another driver in a collision. Since such behavior damages the reputation of motorsport in public massively, the punishment had to be correspondingly tough.
Here’s the DMSB’s announcement: http://www.dmsb.de/active/detail-view/news/dmsb-sportgericht-verurteilt-unsportliches-verhalten/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=bcc1b97ee3eb25396bbdd0c1b5bc5b29
@keithcollantine, what is your opinion on the punishment? I find it a bit overkill.
@xtwl I agree with it entirely. Having drivers deliberately take their rivals out is completely unacceptable.
I wouldn’t have objected if Scheider’s ban had also extended to the end of the season and if they’d also confiscated the other Audi drivers’ points from Austria too.
I agree with the penalty. Such offences are unacceptable and that should be made completely clear as you can easily imagine how the series would look like if similar “strategy” was adapted by Mercedes and BMW and if all manufacturers regularly used it.
On the other hand, I also do not think the punishment should be even harsher. Firstly, every manufacturer is represented by four teams and eight drivers and even though they are connected, it would be unfair to punish the Audi teams and drivers that were not involved in the incident. Secondly, Audi is one of only three players in DTM and if they felt the damage was too big and decided to leave, it would be a huge blow to the series. Thirdly, it looked like the team order was issued in the heat of the moment, unlike in Singapore 2008 where everything was carefully planned beforehand.
I must say that when I first read about it, I though that it could have easily been harder on Schneider and taken more points from Audi, like Keith mentions. The fact that Audi is one of only three manufacturers surely influenced the penalty, but that does not make it fairer, just inevitable that it cannot be punished more, to avoid the series breaking down.
The act was dangerous and completely unsporting. I think Ulrich should really now announce that he sees it as his own moral failing and that he has asked the Audi board to accept his resignation, because having someone who would even consider this thought leading a proud racing heritage like Audi Sport just feels wrong.
I think its a fair penalty. While the driver shouldn’t have done it, I don’t think he had a lot of time to mull over his decision while in the heat of a tighlty contested battle.
On the other hand, the call itself is just downright blatant and stupid. He should resign, that level of stupidity and lack of ethics is beyond reason in a sport where millions of dollars are spent trying to play the game by a strict set of rules.
I don’t believe it was Ullrich himself who gave the order via radio. Why would he be in contact with Scheider? My CFO for example is not telling me what to do. Ullrich himself possibly might have nothing to do with the entire order but as a leader he took the responsibility. Asking for his retirement is ridiculous, the man means so much for Audi and has done and will in the future do so much for them. This is not football where coaches and traines can be changed every other weekend.
My first comment was perhaps badly worded as I do feel Audi should have been punished more as a team not so much banning Ullrich or Scheider or fining them 200k, those are just random things to make it look like they were punished ‘hard’ while in fact they lost points for one round and Ekstrom still gained from it massively. The act was done to increase a points lead in the drivers but I don’t see how it would ever be accepted they took those away from drivers that were not directly involved.
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