DTM has announced their 2017 calendar.
A calendar that has caused a few raised eyebrows across the motorsport world.
They have been drip feeding the calendar over the last few weeks, but now all the dates are out.
The season starts at Hockenheim on May 5th-7th, before the second weekend is held 14 days later at Lausitzring.
And then we come to the raised eyebrows. Round 5 and 6 are held at Hungaroring on June 16th-18th. It’s not the choice of track which is the surprise – but that it’s being held on the same weekend as the big 24 Hours race at Le Mans. We saw the same conflict between Le Mans and Formula 1 in 2016, and it looked like a repeat for a long time in 2017 as well, until Baku moved their Formula 1 date. So that DTM chose to put their race on exactly that weekend, baffles a lot people.
There are no DTM constructors at Le Mans in 2017, since Audi announced their retirement, and it won’t be before 2018 that BMW will go to the French race. So it’s very weird what DTM has chosen to do in 2017.
It has to be mentioned that the calendar still has to be approved by FIA, so it will be interesting to see whether they will approve it or not. Almost all focus in the entire motorsport world will be at the 24 Hours race in France, and very unlikely at the DTM in Hungary.
After that race, they will return to Norisring before leaving for Moscow Raceway and Zandvoort. On early September it’s back on German tarmac at Nürburgring before the season, after a small detour to Red Bull Ring, will be finished at Hockenheim.
Audi and BMW have announced all their drivers for 2017, leaving Mercedes to be the only team that still has to name their six drivers.
5th – 7th of May 2017 | Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg |
19th – 21st of May 2017 | Lausitzring |
16th – 18th of June 2017 | Hungaroring (Ungarn) |
30th of Juni – 2nd of July 2017 | Norisring |
21st – 23rd of July 2017 | Moscow Raceway (Rusland) |
18th – 20th of August 2017 | Circuit Park Zandvoort (Holland) |
8th – 10th of September 2017 | Nürburgring |
22nd – 24th of September 2017 | Red Bull Ring Spielberg (Østrig) |
13th – 15th of October 2017 | Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg |