DTM – Stars and Stories from the race weekend at the Dekra Lausitzring

• First DTM outing for the new Cupra Formentor VZ in Lusatia
• European champion Thomas Helmer sets the DTM field underway
• Paddock runs for good cause in BWT World Water Run

Former football international Thomas Helmer visits the DTM ahead of the Euros
The defender enjoyed great success in the Bundesliga for just under 20 years, mainly playing his trade for Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Helmer’s greatest achievements include winning the European Championship with the German national team, for whom he made 68 appearances. Following his first DTM visit at the Norisring last year, the man from Herford attended the event at the Dekra Lausitzring, where he was a busy man. Helmer took Schaeffler’s DTM Innovation Taxi out for a spin on the Saturday, before sending the field into the race. On Sunday the former international presented the trophy to the winning DTM team. “This is my second visit to the DTM, and I really love this friendly atmosphere,” he said. “After my taxi ride, I now have even greater respect for the racing drivers.” He believes the German football team has a good chance in the European Championship. “The French have the best individual players. However, if we start the tournament well, there could soon be a degree of euphoria here in Germany. Then anything is possible.”

BWT World Water Run gets the paddock up and running
An unusual sight at the Lausitzring: instead of the racing cars, it was the drivers, team members, partners, media representatives, organisers and marshals taking their place on the start/finish straight. Under the motto “Run for you and planet blue”, the ADAC and BWT invited the paddock and guests to a charity run around the 3.784-kilometre circuit on Thursday evening. The participants were faced with two tough laps. However, the effort was for a good cause: for everyone taking part, BWT donated six euros to help supply communities in Gambia and Tanzania with clean drinking water. BWT, the Dekra Lausitzring and the DTM rounded the total sum up to € 5,000. The runners received a special edition of the BWT Climate Bottle as their reward. “It is nice to see the whole paddock come together for a good cause. The run was a lot of fun and it was funny to go up against Sheldon van der Linde and Mirko Bortolotti on the track without their cars for once,” said Nicki Thiim from the SSR performance team.

First outing for the new Cupra Formentor VZ
The brand-new Cupra Formentor VZ made its DTM debut at the Lausitzring. The system performance of this special edition has been upgraded from 333 hp to 400 hp, courtesy of an upgrade from Abt Sportsline GmbH. In total, Cupra has provided six Official Cars in the DTM. As well as the safety car and medical car, they also include the lead car, which the 20-car field follows onto the grid at the start of every race in the iconic series.

Track cycling world champion Emma Hinze presents trophy
Emma Hinze from Hildesheim is a multiple world and European champion in the sport of track cycling, and also won silver in the team sprint at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Together with her trainer and partner Maximilian Levy, who has also won several world and European titles and three Olympic medals, Hinze attended the DTM event at the Lausitzring on Sunday. “There is a cool atmosphere here. Wandering through the paddock is really enjoyable. We track cyclists are not exactly slow, but that is nothing compared to these super-quick cars. They brake extremely late and then accelerate flat-out when exiting the corner. Even just experiencing that kind of thing in the race taxi is incredibly intense.” Hinze was on hand to present the trophy to the third-placed driver after Sunday’s race.

Cycling star Tomáš Bábek from Brno knows the smell of petrol
Tomáš Bábek is a former European track cycling champion and won both silver and bronze at the world championship in 2017. However, the Czech grew up with motorsport, as the famous Automotodrom Brno, which hosted DTM races for several years, is located on the western edge of his home city of Brno. “As a track cyclists, you hit good speeds of 80 to 90 km/h. However, the DTM cars are three times as fast as that. It must be hard to keep that pace up for an hour without making any mistakes. We have a great racetrack in my home city of Brno, and I have been to watch a lot of MotoGP races there. However, I am more of a fan of cars, so the DTM is exactly the right place for me.”