By Tarek Ramchani
Today Audi Sport revealed its driver line-ups for the German Touring Car Masters. Seven cars will be fielded for the new season. Seven drivers, all of who are familiar faces.
Audi is moving from a nine car effort to only seven cars this year. Martin Tomczyk left the squad earlier following his championship title in 2011. Now Oliver Jarvis has also officially left the DTM, but he is staying with Audi, joining the sportscar Le Mans program. Once again three teams will represent Ingolstadt in the premiere touring car series: ABT Sportsline, Phoenix Racing and Team Rosberg.
ABT Sportsline:
ABT Sportsline has always been the top supported Audi team in the DTM. The 2011 teams champion will have three cars this season. Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider are long time regulars. Both drivers were crowned DTM champions twice with the team. Ekstrom was champion in both 2004 and 2007, while Scheider was champion in both 2008 and 2009. The new comer is Rahel Frey. Last year the Swiss drove for Phoenix Racing, she is switching with Mike Rockenfeller.
Phoenix Racing:
Audi Sport Team Phoenix of course won the 2011 driver championship title, the first ever satellite team to win the series overall. The team lost their two 2011 drivers, Martin Tomczyk gone from Audi and Rahel Frey joining ABT. The two drivers for this year are Mike Rockenfeller and Miguel Molina. Rocky is no stranger to team Phoenix, he raced with them in 2010 with many great performances. Miguel Molina has come from ABT Sportsline as well, with a nice second half of last year’s season.
Audi Sport Team Phoenix of course won the 2011 driver championship title, the first ever satellite team to win the series overall. The team lost their two 2011 drivers, Martin Tomczyk gone from Audi and Rahel Frey joining ABT. The two drivers for this year are Mike Rockenfeller and Miguel Molina. Rocky is no stranger to team Phoenix, he raced with them in 2010 with many great performances. Miguel Molina has come from ABT Sportsline as well, with a nice second half of last year’s season.
Team Rosberg:
The only Audi DTM team not changing its line-up. Filipe Albuquerque and Edoardo Mortara did great last year as rookies. Mortara won the non-championship event at Munich, while Albuquerque got a strong second place at the Valencia race.
Perhaps the main difference from previous years is that all the three teams will have the same spec car, while in the past, newer generation cars were only in hands of team ABT Sportsline. This year brings new rules and new cars, so all the teams at Audi will race the brand new A5 DTM R17.
The seven drivers will face world class competition from both AMG Mercedes-Benz and the new comers of BMW Motorsport. The season opener is set at Hockenheim, April 29th. Audi of course aiming to defend its two championship titles of 2011.
The seven drivers will face world class competition from both AMG Mercedes-Benz and the new comers of BMW Motorsport. The season opener is set at Hockenheim, April 29th. Audi of course aiming to defend its two championship titles of 2011.
