The scenes in the Zandvoort pitlane on Sunday were hair-raising, leading to both a safety and a regulatory debate. Arjun Maini’s Ford clipped a tire held by a Dörr mechanic with its rear wing while pulling into his pit box. While the wing was damaged, the mechanic luckily escaped unharmed.
Thomas Preining nearly took out an Abt mechanic when accelerating away from his stop, with the mechanic only just managing to spin away in time. On Saturday, Thierry Vermeulen struck a tire prepared by the HRT team for Finn Wiebelhaus's stop, sending it sliding toward the Emil Frey garage.
Meanwhile, Mirko Bortolotti was penalized on both days following collisions in the pitlane, despite already being in the "fast lane" and being hit by cars merging from the "working lane."
Bortolotti warns: "Risks setting a dangerous precedent"
"We were denied stronger results on both days through what we believe were questionable stewards’ decisions," Mirko Bortolotti vented after the collisions with fellow Lamborghini driver Marco Mapelli on Saturday and Preining on Sunday. "Being hit twice in the fast lane due to unsafe releases, and then receiving penalties as a consequence, is difficult to understand and risks setting a dangerous precedent."
His team principal, Gottfried Grasser, was even more blunt. "I find the current regulation very questionable because it allows you to always pull out - regardless of losses or accidents in the pitlane. You always win," the Austrian said. "We were two-thirds ahead of Preining with the car because he drove into Mirko’s right rear wheel. No offense intended, but he doesn't even see him anymore at the moment of contact."
Thomas Preining hit Mirko Bortolotti in the pits during the second round of stops. Why Bortolotti got a penalty for contact rather than Preining getting a penalty for an unsafe release, I don't understand at all.
— Vincent Bruins 🧡 (@VincentJBruins) May 24, 2026
🎥 ADAC Motorsport | #DTM https://t.co/eQJitO50NU pic.twitter.com/7Ikhv39R2i
Grasser demands that the regulation should be "the same as in every other racing series in the world, where the fast lane has priority. Otherwise, there is no such thing as an unsafe release anymore. They are forcing you to always pull out," he added, seeing a dangerous precedent in the making.
Grasser criticizes DTM rule: "Encourages accidents in pitlane"
"What I find particularly questionable: at a track like the Norisring, this will likely result in very seriously injured people," he worried for the mechanics. "This is something that really needs to be thought about because it encourages accidents in the pitlane."
While not all team principals speak as candidly in public as Grasser, he is not alone with his opinion in the paddock. "We are reaching the point where someone dies," a leading member of another team said after Zandvoort. "When you see how the tires are flying, how the cars are crashing into each other, how close they pass the mechanics: if someone gets hit, they won’t be getting back up."
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This is also due to the specific layout in Zandvoort: no other pitlane on the DTM calendar is as tight or narrow - combined with the fact that high tire degradation usually leads to everyone stopping at the same time. This already caused an accident last year and led to calls for a minimum pit stop time.
Unsafe Release: What the controversial DTM rule looks like
But what exactly does the DTM regulation say? And why was Bortolotti - to the confusion of many spectators - actually penalized both times?
"It shall be the responsibility of the participants to release their cars from their pit or from the pit stop position only when it is safe to do so and without endangering other participants," states Article 23.9 of the DTM Sporting Regulations. "Cars in the working lane shall yield to those in the fast lane."
So far, the regulation aligns with most other racing series, but the DTM includes a specific add-on: "The mere fact that a car has to brake in the fast lane in order to avoid a collision with a car coming from the working lane is not generally considered to be a danger. It is, however, not permitted to change from the working lane to the fast lane if, at the moment of changing lanes, an overlapping with another car in the fast lane occurs."
Hit in the "fast lane": Why Bortolotti was penalized
This explains why Bortolotti received a five-second penalty in the incident with Preining: The "Grello" driver approached the inner white line marking the boundary of the working lane after his stop but had to brake because Vermeulen was passing. He then crossed the white line - significantly before there was an overlap with Bortolotti’s Lamborghini.
Preining therefore followed the regulations - and Bortolotti should have let him into the fast lane ahead of him. This applies regardless of whether Preining is moving because - as events proved - it was impossible for the Lamborghini driver to react, even at 60 km/h, when Preining suddenly veered into the fast lane and hit the right door of the Temerario GT3, damaging the "Grello" on the front left.
"I am of the opinion that the rules should be looked at again," says HRT team principal Ulrich Fritz. "Nobody wants to lose places in the pits, but every team must do everything to ensure that accidents don't happen, making penalties the logical consequence of incidents. If the driver approaching in the pitlane always has to lift because they’ll otherwise get a penalty, then it’s not fair."
HRT team principal: "Predestined to generate dangerous situations"
What bothers him most? "It rewards opportunistic behavior - and in case of doubt, you will always release the car because you assume the other person will brake," he warns. He argues this is not only unfair but also "predestined to generate dangerous situations. And that in an area that should be particularly protected because people are working there, for whose health and lives we are responsible."
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According to information from Motorsport-Total.com, race director Sven Stoppe intends to discuss the topic of pit stops with the teams before the Lausitzring weekend. This is despite the fact that the Lausitzring shouldn't present issues due to its wide pitlane, and the rule stating it is only an unsafe release if vehicles overlap when switching to the fast lane has remained unchanged in the DTM for over ten years.
It was originally introduced so that teams whose drawn pit boxes are at the end of the pitlane are not at such a massive disadvantage, as they would otherwise have to let all cars pass during their stops. In the manufacturer era of the DTM, this even led to tactical blocking maneuvers.
