5 and electric machine 7 are added up and which has a connection 11 to an element 12 which likewise characterizes the response of the overall drivetrain by a diagram if the driver requests a certain driving torque via the position of an operating element in particular an accelerator pedal this is detected by the sensors in element 1 and forwarded to control unit 3 which distributes the requested torque to internal combustion engine 5 and electric machine 7 so that when the internal combustion engine enters a range of favorable efficiencies the electric machine is controlled to operate more as a generator the characteristic diagram of the internal combustion engine has two torque curves plotted against time the one curve describing setpoint torque 13 of the internal combustion engine and having a sudden change toward a higher torque and the other curve describing actual torque 14 of the internal combustion engine due to the inertia in torque triggering of internal combustion engine 5 actual torque 14 of the internal combustion engine responds with a time lag and only asymptotically approaches setpoint torque 13 of the internal combustion engine the highly dynamic response characteristic of electric machine 7 depicted in the characteristic diagram of electric machine 7 produces a rapid asymptotic approach of actual torque 15 of the electric machine to a sudden change in setpoint torque 16 of the electric machine the total of the actual torques of internal combustion engine 5 and electric machine 7 produces the response of the overall drivetrain represented in element 12 the total of setpoint torque 13 of the internal combustion engine and setpoint torque 16 of the electric machine corresponds to setpoint torque 18 requested by the driver with an increase in setpoint torque 18 requested.