Alesi confirmed for Mercedes drive

After 12 years in F1, Alesi decided to turn his back on grand prix racing after failing to secure a drive with Jordan for next year. However, he made no secret of his intention to continue racing.

Alesi's switch to the German series comes as no surprise after the affable Frenchman tested 2001 champion Bernd Schneider's Mercedes CLK-DTM car at Hockenheim two week's ago.

"I've always liked the DTM with its close competition," said Alesi. "Without electronic aids assisting you like in F1, the DTM cars are very challenging, that's what I like very much. My decision comes as a result of the test I had in Hockenheim a few weeks ago. I'm very much looking forward to competing in the best touring car series in the world."

According to this week's AUTOSPORT magazine, Alesi is expected to drive one of the Warsteiner-backed AMG-run CLKs alongside DTM winner Uwe Alzen, which means he will be going against both DTM king Schneider and his team mate top Brit Peter Dumbreck.

The 37-year-old's contract runs for two years with an option to run beyond the end of 2003. Mercedes Sport boss Norbert Haug said: "Jean is the perfect completion to our [2002 driver] line-up."