Opel denies Herbert link; Wendlinger a possibilty

The German marque, which hopes to again field eight cars in the series in 2001, was linked to a deal with Herbert when a fan of the series claimed he had spotted the former Le Mans winner with press spokesman Uwe Baldes and marketing boss Joerg Schrott near its Russelsheim base.

"I just have to laugh at this story and all the rumours," said Baldes. "The story with Johnny Herbert was obviously created on an internet forum by a fan, and then a journalist picked up on it and wrote a story. I can tell you Johnny Herbert is not on our list of drivers."

Opel has only signed four of its drivers so far, retaining Manuel Reuter, Joachim Winkelhock and Timo Scheider, while introducing young German Steffen Schulz to the fold. It is still in contact with Eric Helary and Michael Bartels, both of whom drove last season, but Opel's recent financial difficulties are believed to have had an impact on its driver budget.

One big name that is a distinct possibility, however, is that of former F1 driver and FIA GT champion Karl Wendlinger. Although he might drive for Jochen Mass's team in the new V8-STAR silhouette tin-top series, the Austrian has been linked to the Irmscher squad which ran Christian Menzel last season, while Euroteam also hopes to field a pair of cars.

"Euroteam and Irmscher have got to sort out their financial packages for the season," added Baldes. "If Irmscher comes along with the right money and Karl Wendlinger, then we'd say 'great!' but they are not yet in a position to do that. We're waiting for both teams to fix their packages."

Team boss Gunther Irmscher said: "It is our plan to run two cars in this year's DTM, but we are still working on getting the budget together. The other thing is that the package
has to be competitive, which means that we want to have at least one car to 2001-spec. I expect a decision before the end of this month. That really is our deadline. If we want to be competitive, and of course we do, we can't afford to wait any longer than that."

Opel plans to build four 2001-spec Astra V8 Coupes, which will feature an extended wheelbase and larger overhangs to give it the same dimensions as Mercedes-Benz's CLK, but may build more if there is a demand. The first new Astra is expected to test for the first time at the end of this month, well before the opening test of the season against Merc at Hockenheim on March 19-21.

Mercedes-Benz's DTM drivers have been fitness training in Austria this week. Present were confirmed 2001 signings Bernd Schneider, Marcel Fassler, Peter Dumbreck, Uwe Alzen, Patrick Huisman and Bernd Maylander, while Thomas Jager, Pedro Lamy and Darren Turner also attended, which should mean their announcement as 2001 drivers will be a formality. That means the DTM team/driver line-up should be something like this...


- Schneider, Dumbreck, Alzen, Fassler
- Lamy, Jager
- Turner, TBA (Coronel? Albers?)
- Huisman, Maylander
- Reuter, Scheider
- Winkelhock, Schulz
- TBA (Wendlinger? Asch? Menzel?)
- TBA (Haupt? Olivier? Modena?)
- Aiello, Abt, Ekstrom, Tomczyk

NB: 2000 drivers Bartels and Helary could be placed with an Opel team.