Speed 21st century Supervans: Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde in DTM
We get up close with the Van der Lindes, Kelvin and Sheldon, the South African racing duo taking the world of DTM by storm
In the first round of the reimagined DTM racing series for 2021 at Monza in Italy, qualifying for Saturday’s first race started badly for Sheldon van der Linde in his BMW M6 GT3. While older brother Kelvin initially topped the time sheets in his Audi R8 LMS, Sheldon was languishing at the back of the grid and his fellow BMW drivers weren’t doing much better.
By the end of Sunday’s feature race at the famous Cathedral of Speed, both of the Van der Lindes were flying high. Kelvin drove to an emphatic race win and Sheldon took a hard-fought third place in the 19-car field. What’s more, Kelvin was leading the championship as the teams headed to the Lausitzring in Saxony for round two.
The new DTM series sees Sheldon (22) and Kelvin (25) go head to head in the same series for the first time in Europe. While Sheldon’s route to DTM was previously through the Audi TT one-make series followed by GT3 drives in an Audi R8 before landing the prestigious BMW DTM drive in 2019, Kelvin has competed for Audi since 2014 with GT3 versions of the mid-engined Audi R8 LMS in various endurance championships. The elder Van der Linde brother has twice won the ADAC GT Masters series for Audi.
DTM REIMAGINED
Under the stewardship of Gerhard Berger, with the move to GT3 regulations for DTM this year, the way was open for teams running in GT3 championships in Europe to enter DTM, and support for the new, more affordable series was instantaneous. While DTM in 2020 was contended by just two marques, the grid at Monza in 2021 featured a line-up that included seven Mercedes-amg machines, three BMWS, five Audis, two Lamborghinis and two Ferraris.
If anything, the move to GT3 regulations has been more difficult for Sheldon, who has had to adapt to a heavier car in the form of the production-based M6 GT3. The DTM car he raced last season was a bespoke “silhouette” machine specially created for the previously specialised series, with a carbonfibre chassis requiring much sharper reactions and capable of more grip.
“That DTM car remains the best racing machine I’ve ever driven,” says Sheldon, who notched up a famous victory in the car at Assen last year and who also placed the BMW on pole position. “But the new GT3 car has lots of potential. When we arrived at Monza, after first practice, the organisers realised the balance of performance (BOP) rules for the
BMW needed to be revised and this helped us. Our team also did a lot of work that paid off between the Saturday and Sunday races, which is why I was able to qualify so well on the Sunday. It was like a different car.”
MAIDEN DTM WIN
Kelvin says with a chuckle that Sheldon did a great job of holding the competition at bay while he hightailed his Audi away from the chasing pack for this maiden DTM race win in the Audi. “Sheldon was running in a strong second spot until the mandatory pit stop, and then dropped to third. But he did me a big favour in those opening laps.”
In Kelvin’s favour for his first DTM race was the fact that he has been racing an Audi R8 LMS exclusively for the past eight seasons in European GT3 races. “I know the car so well, it’s like going to the office every day, doing a job. Having said that, it’s a huge privilege to have a job like this, driving one of the best GT3 racing cars on the planet.”
He also says the continuity he has had driving for Audi Motorsport has played a big part in his success in the ADAC Masters Championships and other GT3 series. “The team and I know the R8 LMS so well, we pretty much know what adjustments to make to setup, no matter what track we are racing on. The inter-team communication is also excellent, and this is so important in a pressure-cooker situation over a race weekend like at Monza.”
BROTHERLY LOVE
Away from the track, the Brothers Van der Linde share an apartment in the small town of Kempten, which is located in beautiful hilly terrain close to the Austrian and Swiss borders. “It’s an ideal spot for training, we take our mountain bikes into the hills for fitness training and it’s lovely and quiet. I think there’s only one nightclub in the town, which means there’s no chance of us getting up to too much mischief between race weekends,” jokes Sheldon.
It’s also a nice area in which to exploit their company cars. Sheldon drives a latestgeneration BMW M3 Competition and Kelvin has an Audi RS5 quattro. Sheldon assures us they don’t race each other on the autobahns leading to Munich and nearby Ingolstadt!
Driving for competing teams and sharing an apartment is managed carefully by the brothers, as far as discussing car setups and