Mercedes has been announced that Maro Engel will be leaving the DTM series.
The 32 year-old German has previously had a break from the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, but he returned in 2017, to what we know now, a single season.
Engel will have focus on the GT3 competition from Mercedes-AMG and the ABB FIA Formula E Championship for the Venturi team.
He managed to take his first DTM victory in Moscow in 2017, but that single race gave him almost half of his complete points tally for the season. Until that point, his best race result in the DTM was a single 6th position in 5 seasons. To be fair, his first 4 seasons was in a year-old car, compared to the Championship candidates.
it is a bit of the same tendency in Formula E, where he hasn’t got his breakthrough yet.
Photo: Mercedes Motorsport
But when it comes to GT3, he is loaded with trophies. He travels the world, and is often dropped into a team as the Mercedes expert, when one of their GT teams needs a super fast driver.
Mercedes made the announcement in 2017, that the focus in the future would be Formula E, and that they will end their DTM commitment after the 2018 season. Engel will be a very important for the brand, when they will run their own effort in the 2019/20 season. HWA has already moved some engineers to the Venturi Formula E team, so they will get to know the electric technology well.
According to the press release today, the reason for his change of focus, is due to a date clash between DTM and Formula E. It is not yet known what situation that puts his Venturi and Mercedes teammate Edoardo Mortara in – Mercedes haven’t mentioned anything regarding him.
About three months ago, it was announced that Robert Wickens had left the Mercedes-AMG DTM team for the the Verizon IndyCar Series, so Mercedes will have to find at least two new drivers, before the DTM season starts on 4-6 May at Hockenheim.
