BMW team commits to DTM
BMW will be represented from the start of the DTM’S new GT3 era, with 2018 Spa 24 Hours-winning team Walkenhorst Motorsport fielding at least one of the marque’s venerable M6 GT3 machines this season.
BMW pledged support last year for the DTM’S GT3 future. While the Munich manufacturer warned that it won’t officially get involved in the series until its new M4 is homologated in September, it did state that customer teams are free to contest the 2021 season with the outgoing M6, which was introduced for 2016.
Walkenhorst, which took victories in the Indianapolis 8 Hours and Kyalami 9 Hours last year during BMW’S title-winning Intercontinental GT Challenge programme, made no mention of how many cars it would enter or who will be a part of its driver line-up. It has been competing in this month’s Asian Le Mans Series with two M6s, with Bmw-contracted
Nicky Catsburg as its star driver.
“We are delighted to announce our involvement in the DTM,” said Walkenhorst team manager Niclas Konigbauer. “As a team, we have worked very hard to turn the DTM project into reality. After our international achievements in the past years, graduating into the high-class DTM is a logical step to expand our involvement in GT3 racing. It is our aim to compete at the highest level in motorsport, so as a result it was clear to us that the DTM is the place to be.”
Walkenhorst joined the DTM platform in 2020, when it ran two M4 GT4S in the inaugural season of the supporting DTM Trophy. The team plans to continue in this series too.
Another German squad, leading GT4 operation Racing One, is evaluating an entry to the DTM. The team already has a brace of Ferrari 488 GT3 Evos for the Nurburgring-based NLS and the 24 Hour Series, but has opened talks with Aston Martin to field a Vantage GT3. “The chances between Ferrari and Aston Martin are currently fifty-fifty,” said team boss Martin Kohlhaas.
RAST RULES HIMSELF OUT
Rene Rast will not continue in the DTM this year to bid for a fourth title. Audi last month confirmed that Rast’s fellow DTM stars Nico Muller and Mike Rockenfeller would remain as factory drivers, and that Rast (below) could make appearances in ‘select customer racing events’, which might have included DTM outings with Audi customers Abt and Phoenix. But he has now ruled that out, saying he wants to focus on his Audi Formula E campaign. Sources have confirmed to Autosport that 2020 runner-up Muller and 2013 champion Rockenfeller will compete in the DTM, but it is unclear which team will run either driver.