DTM blog from Shanghai

Z Very good news: The DTM entourage is complete Material in good condition, complete and on time in Shanghai. And the 240 tons of material that were shipped by the DTM teams by plane found their way to the financial center of the 17 million megacity at the right time, where the 450 hp horde on Sunday at an unusually early time (8 a.m. in Germany; live, in HD and the usual quality in the first) will set out on the wild hunt on the 2.3 kilometer road course.

At 431 km /h on the rails

On the Some DTM drivers traveled faster than they ever will be in their lives - except for the jet plane: If you don't feel like being rocked around by age-old VW Santana taxis with questionable shock absorbers and asthmatic engines , can also take the so-called 'Maglev' at Pudong Airport. With up to 431 km /h you can travel around 30 kilometers towards the city center for just 5.50 euros. The end of the line is in the suburbs. From there it is another 20 kilometers to the city - by taxi.

The 'Maglev' is the legendary maglev train Made in Germany, which the former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber also likes to ride on between Munich Central Station and Franz-Josef Strauss Airport. To listen and see on youtube.com, simply enter the keywords 'Stoiber' and 'Transrapid'. A classic of the promised word, very funny!

Concrete barriers instead of run-off zones

The route that leads around the huge natural history museum is practically finished. Joe Franz played a big part in this. Since November 11th, the line workers have been moving the heavy concrete barriers under the guidance of the robust line organizer with the accurate stubble haircut. 'It's the same concrete parts as at the first DTM guest appearance in 2004,' grins Roland Bruynseraede, the long-time former Formula 1 starter, who is also working on the track. 'Since then, the parts have been temporarily stored in the parking lots of the Grand Prix track.'

The construction of a non-permanent race track is quite a hard work. 5,000 running meters of 1.1 tons each have to be carted in. That's around 300 truck loads. By the way, there are practically no run-off zones: every driving error ends in the wall. Interestingly, there are many in the DTM, including evenTeam bosses (!) Who think that's good.

'It's really bad with these newfangled routes with their huge run-off zones,' says a particularly pain-free person. 'It cannot be that driving mistakes are not punished and that the drivers then line up again as if nothing had happened.' Here, in Shanghai, it's a track for real guys.

Supermarket stands in the way of the pit lane

Incidentally, the DTM pit crews will only see their cars in person if the drivers rush to the two mandatory pit stops. The command posts were of course set up in the pit lane as usual, but unfortunately, unfortunately, they are a good 30 to 40 meters away from the track. In between, where the pit lane should actually have been built, there is an empty two-story house that once housed the Japanese supermarket called 'Window of the world'. But because the Chinese apparently don't like the Japanese that much, they didn't buy anything in the 'Window of the world' either, and the store went bankrupt.

If it had been up to the Chinese race organizers, the ruin would be long since demolished. But the previous owner was cross: he insisted on a contract that will end in 2011. And he probably got away with it with the authorities.