How Audi's new DTM star is channeling Rast to achieve his "childhood dream"

“DTM is something specifically unique for me because it's something I dreamed about all my career. I never really dreamed about Formula 1 because my dad was a touring car driver in the past for BMW, so I was always watching touring cars instead of Formula 1.”

Those are the words of factory Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde, who leads the DTM standings heading into the business part of the season.

Eighteen months ago, the South African couldn’t have possibly imagined his dream turning into reality any time soon, such were the barriers to entry in the DTM’s Class One era. But Audi’s decision to quit the championship after 2020 triggered a chain of events eventually leading the series to adopt a completely different set of GT3-based regulations.

This opened the door for a wide variety of GT3 veterans to enter DTM, with van der Linde among the most high-profile drivers to take advantage of that route. But the road to the DTM hasn’t been straightforward for the 25-year-old, who had to overcome geographical limitations to establish himself against his better-funded European counterparts.

It was back in 2013 when he arrived in Europe as a fresh-faced 17-year-old to compete in the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup, which incidentally took place on the DTM undercard. It was very much a gamble for van der Linde, who faced returning home had he not succeeded that year. But his efforts were rewarded with a convincing run to the championship, scoring five wins in nine races.

“Coming from a background where we don't have a lot of money and a lot of financial backing, it's just the mentality [that determines if you succeed or not],” he says. “You see the same with my brother [Sheldon], you see the same with Jordan Pepper and a lot of the South Africans that have come across.

Van der Linde leads the DTM standings for the Abt Audi team

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

“I know that I have to go and win races, otherwise I get on a plane and I go back to South Africa and back to working a 9-5 job. We know that we have one chance. We don't have five years to kind of drive around in the top 10 and maybe get a top five result once. We have to win or we are going home, that's how desperate it is for us sometimes.

“But I'm very happy that we had that upbringing because it means a lot more to us when we make it, and it's a lot more pride that you carry on your shoulders when you do make it on your own terms.”

The success in Scirocco Cup not only secured van der Linde’s short-term future in Europe, but the 100,000 euros he received as prize money was enough to make the next step in his budding career. Combined with additional sponsorship from Volkswagen, he landed a drive with Audi squad Abt in Germany's national GT3 championship - the ADAC GT Masters - alongside a fellow graduate of Volkswagen’s one-make ladder in future DTM megastar Rene Rast.

"I saw his evolution as a driver and that's where he really made the step in terms of how he analyses things, and becoming a complete driver. I see it with myself as well, seeing my progression and how I'm going through the same journey as he did" Kelvin van der Linde 

Finishing every race inside the points and three times standing on the top step of the podium, the pair emerged victorious and suddenly van der Linde was on Audi's radar. He was duly handed a factory contract at the age of 18, marking the start of a successful relationship that has been strengthened by a remarkable victory in the 2017 Nurburgring 24 Hours and securing a second GT Masters title in 2019 (alongside Patric Niederhauser).

“I got my Audi contract straight away, purely because I was able to win the championship,” he says. “Obviously, Abt are very connected to Audi and they really believed in me.

“I was 18 back then, so to sign a works contract at 18 years old was insane. I remember picking up my first company car and it was so overwhelming for me. It happened very, very quickly.”

Van der Linde learned a huge amount from his time alongside Rast, whose departure from the DTM after winning a third title in 2020 to represent Audi in Formula E created a vacancy for his former team-mate to emerge as the prime contender to pick up the baton.

PLUS: Why Rast was 2019's best driver outside F1

“What struck me immediately in GT Masters was his pure speed and pure talent,” says van der Linde of Rast. “Back then, he was not so detailed in terms of data or stuff as he was in DTM or Formula E and it's kind of like his trademark now.

Van der Linde won the ADAC GT Masters title with Rast in his first season in GT3 racing, earning a factory contract for 2015

Photo by: Audi Sport

“I followed him when he went up to LMPs [in the World Endurance Championship] and we were always in contact. And then I saw his evolution as a driver and that's where he really made the step in terms of how he analyses things, and becoming a complete driver. I see it with myself as well, seeing my progression and how I'm going through the same journey as he did in terms of growing and evolving.”

Reunited with the Abt Sportsline team that powered him to his first title in GT Masters, van der Linde has arguably been the most consistent driver in the DTM this year, finishing inside the top five in eight of the 10 races.

He moved into the lead of the championship with victory in the second race of the Monza season opener and hasn’t looked back since, scoring further wins at Zolder and the Nurburgring to strengthen his advantage at the top of the standings. Had a technical issue not forced his car into shutdown at the Lausitzring, he would have most definitely added a fourth win to his tally.

Looking back at the season so far, it would be remiss to overlook what he managed to achieve at the Red Bull Ring, widely considered to be the weakest track for the Audi R8 LMS GT3 on this year's DTM calendar. While his Audi stablemates - among them 2013 champion and team-mate Mike Rockenfeller and last year’s DTM runner-up Nico Muller - all failed to score a point, van der Linde beat the odds to finish fifth and sixth across the two races. That healthy total of points could prove the difference between winning and losing the championship come the end of the season.

His GT3 background meant van der Linde was always expected to be among the frontrunners in the new era of the DTM, but he knew he had to lift his game to compete against the established DTM veterans, particularly over a single lap. This is reflected in his qualifying performance, with three pole positions and four front-row starts giving him the best record of any driver on the grid.

“Some of my weaknesses which I had in the past I've managed to fix this year, especially in qualifying,” he explains. “In the past I wasn't really known as a qualifying specialist, it's something I always struggled with. This year I felt like I found a way to extract the most out of myself and out of the car in qualifying compared to my team-mates and the other Audis.

“To be one of the drivers who have scored the most points so far in qualifying makes me proud and it shows the work in the winter all the guys around me did, it has paid off.”

Van der Linde won the second round of the season at Monza and has scored consistently ever since

Photo by: Paolo Belletti

Red Bull junior Liam Lawson did what many considered to be unthinkable under DTM’s new success ballast rules, the AF Corse Ferrari driver scoring a double win at the Red Bull Ring earlier this month to reignite his title challenge. This has cut van der Linde’s points advantage to 12 heading into this weekend’s races at Assen, with HRT Mercedes driver Maxmilian Gotz another four points adrift and very much in the title hunt too.

But with the Austria nadir now behind him, van der Linde can now turn his attention to tracks that do not expose the weaknesses of his package. While Assen may still hand a small advantage to Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari, Hockenheim should act as a level playing field when it hosts the penultimate round of the championship early next month.

Teams do not have any data running GT3 cars at Norisring, the venue for this year’s title decider, but Audi could potentially be the favourite given the tight and twisty nature of the circuit. Even so, van der Linde is refusing to hype up his title chances but concedes that his points gap is preferable to the alternative.

"I know that I can perform at a high level and I know I can pretty much be in the top two Audis wherever we go. So, from that point I'm confident. But obviously I can't influence how strong other manufacturers will be, that's still to be discovered" Kelvin van der Linde

“I would rather be in a situation where I am, to have a points gap, rather than having to make up those points,” he says. “It's always the easiest situation to be in when you still have a buffer and you can afford to have one okay race and maybe one not-so-good race, whereas the other guys need a perfect run to the finish.

“I definitely see our chances are strong. Naturally, if you are leading the championship with three rounds to go, you automatically count as one of the title guys that are in the fight, but to really say if I'll be able to win is extremely difficult to judge at the moment.

“I'm very confident of our package, at least in terms of Audi and in terms of Abt. I know that I can perform at a high level and I know I can pretty much be in the top two Audis wherever we go. So, from that point I'm confident. But obviously I can't influence how strong other manufacturers will be, that's still to be discovered.”

Should van der Linde emerge triumphant come the end of the season at the Norisring, he’s clear that it would be unfair to compare it with his previous successes. But achieving his “childhood dream” of winning in the DTM would carry extra pride, he admits, for doing so without sharing the car with a team-mate.

Driving solo in the DTM puts more emphasis on drivers working closely with engineers, a point van der Linde enjoys

Photo by: DTM

“Comparing it to the GT Masters and Nurburgring, each one is kind of special in its own way,” he says. “Obviously, Nurburgring is one race in a year, you only get one chance to win it every year. It's very tough to win it and it shows. I won it at my first attempt and then never really stood on the podium after that. Despite having fought for wins until the last couple of hours on several occasions, it's really tough to really convert a Nurburgring win.

“GT Masters is more or less the same, although in GT Masters you are very dependent on the team you are with and your team-mates during that specific season.

“Here in DTM I think what would be nice is that I would have won it as a single driver, knowing that I've made the difference with my team, my engineers - we've developed the set-up ourselves. So, there will probably be more satisfaction from that perspective.”

The 2021 DTM season is set for a thrilling climax, with the final three rounds taking place over a span of just four weeks in a rapid-fire end to the season. Lawson has the momentum from his successes on Red Bull’s home turf, but van der Linde’s experience arguably makes him the favourite for the crown.

And if he does go on to win the title, it would only be reasonable of Audi to reward him with an LMDh drive for 2023...

Race winner Kelvin van der Linde, Abt Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz