The DTM series has announced a few changes for the 2018 season.
The series has got a new TV deal in Germany, so SAT.1 will broadcast the races instead of ARD, and that will make some changes to the starting times of the races.
From now on it will be fixed to 13.30 CET. That makes it easier for the TV channels to have the opportunity to plan their schedules through the full season well in advance, where times previously has been swaying from 13.30 until 18.25.
But is no rule without some exceptions. The final race of the season at Hockenheim in October will start 15.05, so it will be the very final race of the weekend. Therefore it’s possible to invite the spectators onto the track, so they can celebrate the Champions, like in previous seasons. That is not possible to do on all the other race days, since the support series will run some races after the DTM race.
And then we have one exception more. At the Misano round in Italy, the race will be held during the evening – or what some might call, at night.
The races won’t start until 22.20, making those two rounds the first DTM races in the dark ever. The track has flood lights installed, so there won’t be any visibility problems. The DTM cars only have styling lights on the cars, and not real head lights.
The races in Great Britain at Brands Hatch will be run at 12.30 local time, and that makes it 13.30 central European time.
The DTM series has run the shorter track layout at Lausitzring. The reason was to make the spectators see the cars more often. But the shortened version was very twisty, making it very hard to overtake. By going back to the longer back stretch, which is a part of the oval, the cars will have two long straights more per lap, hopefully resulting in more overtakings.
The DTM season starts at Hockenheim on 5 May.