DTM: Presentation of the 2023 season

Twenty-seven drivers took part in the first free practice session held early this Friday afternoon for the official resumption of the DTM. C’est le pilote officiel Lamborghini, Mirko Bortolotti, qui a signé le temps de référence. Au niveau des équipes, on en compte pas moins de 14 représentant 6 constructeurs (Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Audi and Ferrari), entered for the entire season consisting of eight meetings (with two races per meeting). 

A tempting poster 

While everyone thought it was in danger of disappearing following the withdrawal of its historic promoter (ITR and its boss Gerhard Berger), the DTM is in excellent shape at the dawn of 2023 under the aegis of the ADAC, German automobile club. BMW and its outgoing champion Sheldon van der Linde are putting their title back on the line. The South African will have a hard time facing his prestigious teammate René Rast (triple DTM champion in 2017, 2019 and 2020), defector from Audi and 3rd in 2022 and new recruit of the Hélice. The eldest Kelvin van der Linde will be entered in an Audi R8 LMS from the ABT Sportsline team. 

It's back to school for the German championship ©DTM

The number of drivers able to win this season is really significant. We are thinking in particular of Marco Wittmann (champion in 2014 and 2016) competing in the Project 4 BMW M3 GT1. Porsche is calling on experienced teams and men to try to shine in 2023. Manthey Racing is entering a pair of 911 GT3 R for the Dane Dennis Olsen and the Austrian Thomas Preining (GT Masters champion in 2019). Timo Bernhard's team, for its part, trusts Ayhancan Güven and Laurin Heinrich. Mercedes-AMG will be defended by three teams including Lucas Stolz's HRT. Maro Engel is at the wheel of an AMG GT3 Evo from the Landgraf team. Ferrari (winner at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring last weekend) has entrusted the Emil Frey team with its new 296 GT3, Jack Aitken and Thierry Vermeulen will be behind the wheel.

On the track, the German championship offers some new features. Inspired by MotoGP and his “long lap”. Drivers penalized for an infraction will have to pass through a penalty zone allowing them to maintain hope of fighting for a good position in the race. The estimated loss of time being around five seconds. A handicap ballast will weigh down the car of the winner of a race as well as the drivers who accompany him on the podium. 20 kg for the first, 10 kg for the second and 5 kg for the third in the round. For the distribution of points, the scale becomes quite greedy with units distributed to the first 15 in the final ranking.

Two races are on the program this weekend, meet this Saturday at 9:45 a.m. for the first qualifying session and 13:30 p.m. for Race 1. Rebelote Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. for qualifying before Race 2 still at 13:30 p.m.

2023 DTM season calendar

Oschersleben (May 26-28), Zandvoort (June 23-25), Norisring (July 7-9), Nürburgring (August 4-6), Lausitzring (August 18-20), Sachsenring (September 8-10), Red Bull Ring (September 22-24), Hockenheim (October 20-22).

All DTM results can be found on AutoHebdo.fr

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