Mercedes says its win no cure for DTM plight

Christian Vietoris' win at Oschersleben does not change the fact that Mercedes is in a transitional period with its DTM program, according to Wolfgang Schattling.

The brand's DTM boss still believes the C-Coupe is down on outright speed compared to the Audi RS5 and the BMW M4, despite Vietoris' win in Sunday's wet race, and says the organisation will continue with an intense period of restructuring following the departure of HWA technical chief and CEO Gerhard Ungar a week ago.

"We should not get drawn away by this success," said Schattling. "This was a well-deserved success, because our people did everything right. All the manufacturers and teams had the same circumstances, and we made the best out of it. It was absolutely excellent.

"If something is well done, and then you have a little luck on top of it, then you have a deserved win. But that doesn't mean we will be in the same position in Hungary. We are still not where we want to be, we have to improve our performance. We are working on it, we want to improve, we want to get closer to the top, and we will achieve it. We can't say if it's in weeks, but hopefully it won't be months."

Schattling also confirmed that outside hires are a possibility.

"Step one is analyzing what is wrong. Step two is analysing what we can do to rectify the problem. Step three is to put the right people in the right positions. Step four is recruit people from somewhere else if necessary," he said.

"If after step three, we think 'OK, we have found the conclusion, we are restructuring, we have found the right processes and we don't need anybody in addition to who we have, then it's OK. If not, we'll go on."