Aston Martin driver suffers bizarre Pirelli gaffe in DTM round

Aston Martin DTM driver Nicki Thiim suffered a bizarre disadvantage at Oschersleben last weekend, when Pirelli mounted the wrong tyres to the wrong wheel rims.

Danish driver Thiim, who races for the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin team in the DTM, endured a nightmare Oschersleben weekend.

He recovered from 18th on the grid for Race 1 to finish 12th, before finishing 13th from the same starting position in the second race.

After the Oschersleben round, he sits second in the standings on 124 points, with Mercedes’ Maro Engel leading the way on 145 points.

Already unhappy with his Saturday at Oschersleben, Thiim then suffered an odd setback in qualifying for Sunday’s race.

‘This cannot happen at this level…’

DTM tyre supplier Pirelli mounted rear tyres onto his front wheel rims, while putting the front tyres on the rear rims.

The result was a car that didn’t behave properly when he would have been looking for an improvement due to a Balance of Performance tweak after Saturday’s racing.

“This morning, to put it professionally, Pirelli put the front tyres on the rear rims, and vice versa,” Thiim told Ran.de.

“I’m glad it’s over, to be honest; a weekend to completely write off.

“A mistake like this simply should not happen at this level. This obviously has a big impact on our championship. It’s not the team’s fault.”

However, Max Gotz, a former DTM champion, doesn’t quite buy Thiim’s defence of his Comtoyou team, believing that it should have been able to spot Pirelli’s gaffe.

“It cannot only be Pirelli’s fault,” he protested.

“The mechanics have the tyres in their hands. They have to see something is not right.”

Tyres are fitted by Pirelli at the brand’s in-paddock tent, with each tyre and wheel catalogued.

Because the dimensions of the tyres are different, it completely threw off everything on the car.

“The problem is that the tyres differ in height and rolling circumference,” the team’s sporting director Mario Schuhbauer explained.

“If I have tyres from the rear on the front axle, my whole car no longer works. My rolling circumference is different; I have different wheel speeds.

“The car is crooked. The ABS no longer works. My differential gets too hot because I have different speeds at the wheels.”