“Don’t think they’ll allow that”

Porsche romped to a DTM championship treble in solely its second season within the class final 12 months, because it swept the drivers, groups and the producers’ titles with Thomas Preining and the Manthey EMA workforce.

The feat was notably spectacular as Porsche confronted all three of its principal German rivals, Audi, BMW and Mercedes, plus Italian supercar producers Ferrari and Lamborghini, in a six-way battle for glory.

The outcome additionally marked a successful begin to Manthey EMA’s foray into the DTM, having joined the ADAC-run class at the beginning of 2023 to exchange SSR Performance as Porsche’s major workforce.

However Manthey founder and advisor Olaf Manthey doesn’t assume a repeat of its 2023 success is feasible this 12 months, as he hinted politics may play a task in figuring out the end result of the championship.

“I do not assume we’ll be allowed to do it once more,” the 69-year-old informed Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Whole.com. “It all the time needs to be effectively blended.

“That is the thought of the BoP [Balance of Performance], to carry the totally different makes collectively so that you’ve a superb sporting present the place everybody can participate and that is the proper factor to do.

“Nevertheless, we’ve got to watch how issues develop over the course of the 12 months. After which we’ll should see the place we find yourself.”

Final 12 months, Porsche was represented by a complete of six automobiles within the DTM, as Manthey EMA, Staff Bernhard and Toksport WRT all entered a pair of 911 GT3 Rs for a mixture of manufacturing unit and non-factory drivers.

Nevertheless, following Toksport WRT’s withdrawal and Staff Bernhard’s choice to focus solely on one-make championships, Manthey EMA is left as the only real Porsche workforce within the 2024 DTM season.

Which means there will probably be simply two automobiles from Stuttgart model this 12 months, one for defending champion Preining and the opposite for Ayhancan Guven, who has moved throughout from Staff Benhard to exchange Ford-bound Dennis Olsen.

Requested if Porsche faces a political drawback by having just one workforce and two automobiles within the class, Manthey mentioned: “A number of different producers have just a few extra automobiles within the championship.

“And as it’s the similar in different championships with BoPs, I imagine that you just wish to combine it up effectively and that everybody has a flip [at winning].”

Manthey’s feedback comply with repeated allegations that Porsche obtained a beneficial BoP within the DTM final 12 months, particularly on the Hockenheim finale the place Preining gained each races to seal the title.

Specifically, former Formulation 1 and DTM driver Ralf Schumacher, whose son David raced for Winward Mercedes final 12 months, claimed Porsche was “higher off than it ought to have been” within the title decider.

However the Manthey founder refuted these allegations, saying: “Perhaps it is best to go into the lap time evaluation, what we drove at what time and what the others drove at what time.

“Then you’ll be able to come to a typical denominator comparatively shortly and may’t really make such statements if you happen to use your head, as a result of I do not actually assume it is smart to simply toss something into the room like that.”