The DTM 2018 season is slowly starting up this coming week, where the first test sessions starts.
All three manufacturers will go to the Vallelunga track in Italy, and will be testing the new 2018 upgrades to the BMW M4 DTM, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM and the Champinoship winning car from last year, Audi RS5 DTM.
Audi has announced that they will bring Jamie Green and Rene Rast for the test, while the other teams haven’t announced which drivers that they will bring to the test on 1-3 March. It is however clear that Mercedes can’t use neither Maro Engel nor Edoardo Mortara, since those two drivers will be racing in Mexico in Formula E. BMW have, according to our information, all 6 drivers available for the test in Italy, but time will tell if they will run all or limit it to selected drivers only.
On the other hand, all teams have announced the car numbers for the upcoming 2018 season, and what the driver combos will look like. Mercedes-AMG usually gives the pair of drivers some sponsor names, but they haven’t announced those yet.
It will be interesting to follow Mercedes through their final DTM season for now. It can basically be anything from them – could be 10 weekends, that they just want to get done with, or they might show up more focused than through the last few seasons. Pascal Wehrlein is the most resent Mercedes driver to win the Championship, and he returns from two seasons in Formula 1, where he hasn’t really been able to prove his worth, due to the slow Manor and Sauber cars. Losing the Formula 1 drive will for sure fire him up, and trying to prove his speed, and open the eyes to the Formula 1 teams, thinking about putting him in a 2019 car.
The Audi team arrives directly from Lanzarote, on the Canary Islands, where all the works drivers from the DTM and Formula E part of Audi SPort, and their team bosses, have had a week of intensive training, guided by physiotherapist Dr. Vincenzo Tota and Tom Kristensen. The training was a mix of physical workout but also team building for the teams, to brighten things up.
Photo: Audi Sport
The car numbers for the upcoming DTM season will be these:
Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Rene Rast, 33
Jamie Green, 53
Audi Sport Team Phoenix
Loic Duval, 77
Mike Rockenfeller, 99
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Robin Frijns, 4
Nico Müller, 51
BMW Team RMG
Marco Wittmann, 11
Augusto Farfus, 15
Timo Glock, 16
BMW Team RBM
Bruno Spengler, 7
Philipp Eng, 25
Joel Eriksson, 47
Mercedes-AMG DTM Team HWA
Gary Paffett, 2
Paul di Resta, 3
Lucas Auer, 22
Daniel Juncadella, 23
Edoardo Mortara, 48
Pascal Wehrlein, 94
