Ranking the 10 best Audi DTM drivers

Audi last week announced it would be exiting the DTM at the end of 2020, bringing the curtain down on 20 years of continuous participation since the series' reboot in 2000. During that time, the Ingolstadt manufacturer's drivers racked up nine titles, adding to its 1990 and '91 triumphs in a short-lived first spell in the series that ended in 1992.

Some 50 drivers have raced for Audi in the DTM since 2000 when Abt entered British-built TTs, ranging from Le Mans winners to ex-Formula 1 drivers, curious one-offs and brand loyalists, so Autosport decided to rank the 10 best drivers to represent the marque in the DTM.

Motorsport Network experts Charles Bradley, Marcus Simmons and Sven Haidinger came up with their top 10 lists, which we aggregated to form the definitive countdown.

Some big names weren't submitted by any of our experts. Future double British Touring Car champion James Thompson was a surprise member of the line-up during that initial season of strife with the TT - built by his father's Fosstech concern - in which his leg was scorched by the exhaust on debut at Oschersleben, current F1 racer Antonio Giovinazzi made a cameo at the Moscow Raceway in 2015 replacing the banned Timo Scheider, while Audi's Formula E team principal Allan McNish had a season to forget in 2005.

Likewise, two podiums for ex-grand prix racer Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 2006 and six pole positions for Spaniard Miguel Molina between 2011 and 2016 aren't enough to admit them either.

Several drivers to represent Audi in the DTM also drove for other manufacturers, but for this list only their performances wearing the four rings are counted.

10. Nico Mueller (2014-present)

102 starts, 4 wins, runner-up in 2019

Highest vote ranking: 9th (Marcus Simmons, Sven Haidinger)

Marcus Simmons: Mueller is so under-the-radar that you'd be forgiven for never having heard of him even if you were from his native Switzerland. But he's been an increasingly solid part of Audi's DTM line-up in recent years, and was a very worthy runner-up to Rene Rast in 2019. That wasn't a surprise, given that some of Audi's line-up has been ageing lately and Mueller, still only 28, is effectively now the 'man most likely to' if Rast slips up.

Sven Haidinger: After being the servant for Mattias Ekstrom, he managed to become a team leader at Abt in 2019. For that reason, he wasn't able to show his full potential for many years, but maybe his loyalty will now pay off in the battle for a Formula E seat at Audi. Last season he was the only driver to challenge Rast, even though he made a couple of mistakes in the heat of the moment. Usually his strength was qualifying, but in 2019 nobody was as consistent as him in the races.

9. Jamie Green (2013-present)

110 starts, 9 wins, runner-up in 2015

Highest vote ranking: 4th (MS)

MS: Green is so often the series' nearly man that he has been described tongue-in-cheek by this writer as the 'Stirling Moss of the DTM'. His biggest heartbreak came in 2017, when blatant Audi manoeuvring against a phantom challenge from BMW and Mercedes led to Green moving over in Austria to give a win to Ekstrom, only for Rast to steal in and leapfrog them both. Without that, he'd have been a deserving champion by eight points. Team Rosberg cites the work of Green as vital in the process behind Rast's titles. A true unheralded star.

SH: In the last two seasons he was overshadowed by his team-mate Rast at Team Rosberg, but we shouldn't forget that it is only down to a broken gearbox and Audi team orders in Spielberg that he didn't win the title in 2017. And also in 2015 he only just lost out to Pascal Wehrlein - winning more races than anybody else. In his Mercedes years, the old-school racer was stronger than at Audi.

8. Tom Kristensen (2004-2009, 2011)

61 starts, 4 wins, third in 2005 and '06

Highest vote ranking: 8th (MS)

MS: The Dane is a deity within Audi's motorsport hall of fame for his Le Mans 24 Hours record, and it can be easy to forget that he was also at the spearhead of Ingolstadt's DTM attack during the mid-2000s. Previously a Super Touring star with Honda, Kristensen finished three times inside the championship top four.

SH: His qualities as a driver are undisputed but 'Mr. Le Mans' will always be remembered for his record nine victories at the 24 hour-race and not for his DTM career. After the biggest accident of his career in Hockenheim in 2007, he couldn't unleash his full potential anymore, but he has always been a valuable driver in Audi's DTM squad and always made it into the top four in DTM in his first three seasons.

Charles Bradley: His four race wins somewhat belied his speed in these cars, which reaped nine poles, and he was a top-three fixture in the championship early on in '04 and '05.

7. Edoardo Mortara (2011-2016)

76 starts, 8 wins, runner-up in 2016

Highest vote ranking: 7th (MS, SH)

MS: Promoted into the DTM after winning as a works driver for Audi sister make Volkswagen in European Formula 3, Mortara didn't take long to start making waves. He never won the title, but came just four points short of dethroning BMW's Marco Wittmann in 2016, at which point everyone already knew he was heading off to Mercedes for the following season. Super-fast, but arguably not the most complete of drivers.

CB: Before defecting to Mercedes, Mortara racked up eight wins for Audi - scoring five of those as he finished a close runner-up to Wittmann in 2016. He was left to rue what might have been following a controversial drivethrough penalty (for speeding under a VSC) handed to him at Zandvoort that season, which cost him the points that would have made him champion. He and his team remain convinced that race organisers made a mistake with their data that day.

6. Martin Tomczyk (2001-2011)

112 starts, 7 wins, champion in 2011

Highest vote ranking: 4th (SH)

SH: His title in 2011 was a huge surprise. After being a consistent frontrunner for many years at Abt, he had to leave the team from Kempten and settle with one-year-old machinery at Team Phoenix. Still he rose and managed to beat Ekstrom in the championship battle with last year's car - something that no one has managed before in DTM.

CB: It took him 11 years to win the DTM title with Audi, but he showed flashes of speed right from the start of its programme in 2000. His breakthrough win came in the qualifying race at the 2002 season-opener, although he wouldn't score another victory until Barcelona in 2006. Back-to-back wins in '07 at Zandvoort and Nurburgring meant he got to within four points of the series lead, but the remaining races were a disaster. He finally nailed a flawless season in 2011, when his worst result all year was fifth place and his three race victories made him a dominant champion.

MS: He didn't have a stellar single-seater record when he got picked up by Audi for the DTM, but the son of the head of the German motorsport federation went from being rather erratic to a very solid contender. When the stars aligned, he won the 2011 title before skipping off to BMW when that manufacturer arrived and started throwing money around.

5. Mike Rockenfeller (2007-present)

173 starts, 6 wins, champion in 2013

Highest vote ranking: 5th (MS)

MS: The diminutive Rhinelander with a baritone voice has become an absolutely, ahem, 'Rocky-solid' performer within the Audi strikeforce over the past decade and a bit, a disastrous 2016 season notwithstanding. Although he won the 2013 title he is rarely the quickest, but he nearly always brings home the results, frequently from adopting an alternative strategy that requires taking care of tyres.

CB: A staple of the Audi set-up since 2007, dovetailing his role with its highly successful sportscar programme, it took until 2011 for him to win a race. He was crowned champion in 2013 with only two wins, but his consistency that season was remarkable. In contrast, his form has blown hot and cold since, but he's still managed three years in the top four since his title year.

SH: 'Rocky' is unbreakable. Only a couple of weeks after his terrible Le Mans accident in 2011 he was back in the DTM car. Two years later he was champion, and his second place in Moscow in 2017 with a broken foot will never be forgotten. In 13 DTM seasons, he was in the top three only twice which shows that he has the DNA of a winner, but not a subscription to championships.

4. Timo Scheider (2006-2016)

126 starts, 7 wins, 2x championships in 2008 and 2009

Highest vote ranking: 3rd (SH)

SH: In his glory days he was very hard to beat. With his titles in 2008 and 2009 he was the only Audi driver in the history of the new DTM to become champion twice in a row. Despite that, he will always be remembered for the radio scandal in Spielberg in 2015, when he followed the order of Audi sporting director Wolfgang Ullrich to drive Pascal Wehrlein off the track. His career was damaged and also his long-term relationship with Audi broke up. Still, Ullrich was the man who discovered him. He believed in Scheider despite modest results at Opel - and the titles proved him right.

CB: It feels like some kind of Jedi mind trick that Scheider managed to win a total of only five races in his back-to-back title years in 2008-09. He'd been something of a ticking timebomb since joining the DTM as a youngster with Opel in 2000, always promising to deliver some devastating results without ever doing so. For each of his titles he narrowly defeated a British Mercedes driver - Paul di Resta by four points in 2008 and Gary Paffett by five in 2009. Of course, his legacy was somewhat tarnished by 'push him out'-gate in 2015, but that's to ignore one of the most consistent performers of his generation, amassing over 500 points in 17 seasons.

MS: Over two years in 2008 and 2009, Scheider was the top dog in the DTM at the wheel of Audi's A4, beating fierce opposition within Audi and at rival Mercedes. But he never came close again, and leaves behind a legacy as a bit of a two-hit wonder. Fourth spot in 2010 and 2011 was good by any standards, but after that this staunch Audi man's career probably went on a couple of seasons too long.

3. Laurent Aiello (2000-2003)

39 starts, 7 wins, champion in 2002

Highest vote ranking: 3rd (MS and Charles Bradley)

MS: Some claim that he is the greatest touring car driver in history, if you encompass his exploits in the Super Touring series of France, Germany and the UK as well as the DTM. But with the focus here solely on the DTM Audi years, his 2002 title with the TT-R doesn't quite get him to the top, as it was one of only three seasons at Abt before he headed off for a big paycheque at Opel.

CB: After a laughably bad debut season with its stubby TTs in 2000, Abt Sportsline was given a hefty rules break for '01 - as well as some back door factory Audi help. This included a touring car gun-for-hire who had won French, British and German Super Touring titles (as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours). The stretched TT-R model was a winner second time out in Aiello's hands, finishing third in points. In 2002, his all-out title attack was quite brilliant, defeating Bernd Schneider who'd looked hitherto unbeatable in 'new' DTM. The 2002 Norisring duel between them is an all-time classic.

SH: Who would have thought after the uncompetitive start with the private Audi TT that Aiello would become the only driver in the first four seasons to beat 'Mr. DTM' Bernd Schneider? In 2002 Aiello clinched the title and, after that surprise, Audi became a manufacturer in the DTM in 2004. By that time Aiello was already gone to Opel - a big mistake, as the car was uncompetitive - and in 2005 he retired from racing, but will stay part of Audi history forever.

2. Mattias Ekstrom (2001-2018)

197 starts, 23 wins, 2x championships in 2004 and 2007

Highest vote ranking: 1st (CB)

CB: In 2001 he arrived as a wide-eyed 22-year old with a reputation from Sweden of being rapid but perhaps not quite top-tier material. He proved that theory wrong by flourishing in the Abt-Audi environment, and stayed there for almost 200 races. Maybe he was helped initially by the low expectations of the TT, which went from also-ran to title winner in three years. Two championships later - and it could have been more - his 23 race wins rank him third in DTM history, behind only Schneider and Klaus Ludwig. He also bowed out as series runner-up in 2017, showing his longevity. Not just the greatest Audi DTM driver, in my opinion, but an all-time series great.

MS: For pure longevity as a leading contender in the DTM, no one in the series can match the Swede. It's extraordinary that he was runner-up in 2017 - his 17th season with the Abt Audi team and his last before bowing out, and exactly one decade after the second of his two titles. He was the right man at the right age at the right time for the right manufacturer. Audi in the DTM was Ekstrom.

SH: Will be remembered as the most charismatic DTM driver and has now been linked to the Audi brand for almost two decades. A real all-rounder who also competed in rallying and rallycross, always in it for a good battle and a cheeky comment. He won the title in 2004 and in 2007 - and won 23 DTM races. No other Audi driver was that successful. A negative aspect? In his final season Audi did everything to make him champion a third time, but in the end Rast got the better of him.

1. Rene Rast (2016-present)

58 starts, 17 wins, 2x championships in 2017 and 2019

Highest vote ranking: 1st (MS and SH)

MS: In just three full seasons in the DTM, Rast has become arguably not just Audi's best driver in series history, but the greatest across all the manufacturers. Since his 2017 title as a rookie, and after Audi's poor start to the 2018 campaign, he has been the class act by far. Calm, composed, an incisive racer and hard worker, he deserves to be celebrated on the world stage.

SH: One of the big mysteries of DTM: how could this man stay under the radar for so long? It took him till he was almost 30 to get into DTM - he failed twice in Audi driver scouting sessions and once in a BMW shootout. But his record speaks for itself and in 2019 he was in a class of his own. Besides his talent, the special thing about Rast is his dedication. He leaves no stone unturned in his preparation, is very data driven and he extracts the maximum out of anything you give him to drive.

CB: There are some days - and there's been quite a few of them - where Rast is absolutely unbeatable. And when you consider the strength in depth of his rivals, his 17 wins from 58 starts, his two titles in three years is nothing short of remarkable. He was also unlucky in 2018 to only miss out on the title by four points, after a wretched start to the season that was dominated by Mercedes, suffering a couple of relatively minor incidents that tripped him up along the way. Perhaps his most remarkable stat is leading 52% of the races he's started...

The champions who missed out

Hans-Joachim Stuck (1990-1992)

58 starts, 11 wins, champion in 1990

Highest vote ranking: 4th (CB)

CB: Looking at Stuck's DTM statistics alone isn't the point, this is someone whose zest behind the wheel and zany personality out of the car helped cement the DTM in the nation's psyche - and he helped put Audi on the DTM map, scoring its first-ever series win at Avus in 1990. Look at the names Stuck (pictured below) beat to win the title that year: Johnny Cecotto, Kurt Thiim, Steve Soper, Klaus Ludwig, Jo Winkelhock and Jacques Laffite! He scored 11 race wins across the '90-91 seasons (finishing behind only Frank Biela and Ludwig a year later).

Frank Biela (1991-1992, 2004, 2007)

48 starts, 7 wins, champion in 1991

Highest vote ranking: 7th (CB)

CB: Joined Audi in 1991 and steamrollered his way to the title with six wins, beating Ludwig and Stuck with double wins at the Hockenheim finale. Audi's pullout over an engine wrangle meant he was exiled to its French campaign (he won there too) before becoming its Super Touring point man. He returned to the DTM in 2004 with Joest and found it a very different proposition, scoring only one top 10 finish all season. His last start was a one-off in 2007, subbing for the injured Kristensen.