The opening race at the north-east German venue on 25 May falls on the same day as the two semi-finals for the Ice Hockey World Championship, which are also being broadcast by DTM’s German broadcast partner ProSieben.
As such, a decision has been made to deviate from the DTM’s standard 1:30pm kick-off time, with the start of the race pushed back until 5pm.
This means that the first Lausitzring race can now be shown in full in the DTM’s home market in Germany, bookended by the two semi-final ice hockey matches taking place just across the border in the Czech Republic.
“We were looking for a solution because there is a clash with the Ice Hockey World Championship at the Lausitzring on Saturday,” explained Alexander Wolffing, Head of Service at ProSieben’s online service Ran.
“That would have easily clashed with the DTM race if we had kept the classic times. That’s why we will start the DTM race on Saturday at 5pm, directly after the [first] ice hockey semi-final.
“Of course, we hope that the German team will be in the semi-final, just like last year, and that we can boost the DTM with the corresponding coverage.
“We will broadcast qualifying live on ProSieben in the usual slot [of the DTM race] at 13:30.”
The second race of the weekend will take place as scheduled on Sunday, 26 May, at 1:30pm, following qualifying earlier in the morning.
However, this could pose a major challenge to the teams, with the window between the first race on Saturday evening and qualifying on Sunday morning shortened by several hours.
This means in the event of a mechanical problem or a crash in the opening race, mechanics may have to pull in an all-nighter in order to get their cars ready for the second leg of the weekend.
It’s why the teams are lobbying the ADAC, the promoter of the championship, to make further changes to the schedule.
“We announced this [the Lausitzring schedule] at the team manager meeting and everyone can live with it,” ADAC Motorsport boss Thomas Voss said.
“However, they asked that qualifying on Sunday be pushed back a bit.
“We’re currently looking into that, but I can imagine that qualifying won’t be until around ten o’clock so that the teams have a little longer to work on the cars if they come out of parc ferme relatively late on Saturday.”
