Sponsored: Why the new-look DTM is still a major player

There was a sizeable dollop of controversy when the DTM announced it would end its current Class 1 rules – which allowed manufacturers to create truly spectacular high-powered, flame-spitting silhouette racing cars that actually bore little resemblance to the production models they were based upon – and switch to the more regulated world of GT3 racing. But one year down the line and it looks like the DTM has pulled it off.

Despite there being multiple GT3-based contests across the globe – including the actual creator of GT3 in the first place, SRO’s own GT World Challenge contest – the championship boasted a 19-strong full-season grid featuring some of the finest GT racing marques and teams on the planet, not to mention a smattering of star names at their wheels.

It also produced one of the tightest seasons in recent history, with four different brands winning races – Audi, Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes – run by six different teams, and the wins were shared between seven different drivers. In the end, the championship was decided by just three points. The only recent DTM campaign with anywhere near comparative stats was back in 2018. And let’s not forget that this was just year one of the new era.

But it hasn’t stopped many from lamenting the loss of those super tourer silhouettes that really made the DTM stand apart in a crowded European racing scene. So, to truly understand and appreciate this new direction, you have to examine why they ultimately became unsustainable.

As Germany’s leading racing series, the DTM is the flagbearer for all that is good about the country’s automotive manufacturing giants. It’s where brands like Mercedes, BMW and Audi go to take each other on head-to-head to prove which is any given year’s performance benchmark.

Start action, Kelvin van der Linde, Abt Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3, Liam Lawson, AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo at the start

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

The thinking was that the race results would have a direct correlation to the brands’ marketing, whether it’s through AMG, M Sport or the RS Line, the old adage of ‘win on a Sunday sell on a Monday’ was firmly part of the DTM’s appeal to its brands. For example, if you see an RS-badged DTM car blow the opposition away on track, it may just prompt you to walk away from that AMG dealership and point toward an Audi one instead.

The DTM was big business for the German giants. And the key to that sentence is the word ‘was’. The world, and the motor sport landscape with it, has changed a lot since the DTM (or DRM as it can originally be traced back to) started life in 1972.

With the rise in things like electrification, climate awareness, global recessions, pandemics and everything else, suddenly splashing a load of cash one-one off silhouette racers bearing little actual resemblance to the production models they’re meant to flog didn’t make a whole lot of sense, regardless of how many flames they spat.

Mercedes-AMG was the first to jump, ending its involvement at the end of the 2017 season to focus its racing budgets elsewhere (namely Formula 1, Formula E and developing GT3 and GT4 cars that it could actually sell to customers). The (slightly odd) Aston Martin effort went shortly after before Audi and BMW followed suit in 2020. This stripped DTM of its biggest strength, and perhaps also its biggest weakness.

The rising cost of such Class 1 silhouette super tourers had meant that it was pretty much only the factory teams that could fight at the front, with any privateers forced to fight for scraps with older, outdated machinery. Once those manufacturers walked, so did much of the grid.

Last season’s DTM campaign was a pivotal one for so many reasons – not just for its new-look GT3-based formula, but for the entire DTM brand and, arguably, the entire future of domestic German motorsport.

Good thing it bounced back with a bang then.

Lucas Auer, Mercedes AMG Team Winward Mercedes AMG GT3

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

One of the strengths of customer-focused GT3 racing is its even playing field. Balance of performance rules place every car on an even keel, making the racing closer whilst also trimming manufacturer spending – after all, what’s the point in splashing out on developing your GT3 offering when any gains will be pegged back through cuts in power, additional weight or aero restrictions?

Sure, the Class 1 cars were spectacular, but the racing the new DTM provided last season was even more so.

First off, adopting GT3 rules means the DTM can cast its net wider than ever before. What was once a field dominated purely by the German brands plus a few wealthy interlopers is now open to a far wider variety of machinery and drivers – year one featured Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Porsche alongside the regulars.

The manufacturers haven’t disappeared entirely, Audi, BMW and Mercedes are all still present through their appointed factory partner teams: Rosberg and Abt for Audi, Walkenhorst and ROWE for BMW and Mücke and Haupt for Mercedes-AMG. Plus, Ferrari’s long-term partner AF Corse ran its Red Bull and AlphaTauri efforts. But the format change has undoubtedly brought the privateer teams back into play. Austrian Lucas Auer won two races and finished fifth in the points for Winward Racing, an AMG customer team, last season to cement that fact. A privateer had never won a race during the previous era of DTM. In fact, Ferdinand Habsburg became the first one ever to score both a pole position and a podium back in 2020.

Sure, the majority of the field is still made up of paid, professional factory drivers, but there is now room for rising stars and enthusiastic amateurs to get in among them, whereas before it was close to being a totally closed door.

Facts like this haven’t gone unnoticed, and DTM has already announced it will cap the grid at 30 cars for this year amid rising interest in the championship. “We are currently at around 25 cars,” said Frederic Elsner, director of events and operations at the DTM. “We are not yet at the stage where we want to think about a final limit, which is somewhere around 35. But as long as we are moving towards 30, we are at a number that should be the upper limit for a championship like this.”

Good news all round then. And if you’ve yet to visit a DTM event, this season could well be the one to go to. While the old Group 1 cars may have been awesome to behold (not to mention deafening) a typical issue was a lack of overtaking due to their heavy dependency on aerodynamics. You don’t have that with GT3. The racing is now far more open than it ever was, entry lists are on the up and, with virus restrictions easing, the DTM can welcome back its healthy fanbase in droves. Plus, with a calendar blending tracks like Portimão, Imola, Spa and the Red Bull Ring with the German classics, there’s not much of this new era that’s not to like.

Why not make the new era of DTM a key part of your racing season? A superbly affordable racing series, adult full weekend grandstand tickets for the first round in Portimão start from just £14. And for the first time this year Motorsport Tickets can get you to all eight of its rounds thanks to its ticket packages. Visit Motorsportickets.com to secure yours now.