In the absence of manufacturers, what solutions for the DTM?

The officialization, Monday April 27, of departure from Audi at the end of the 2020 season, caused a lot of noise. President of the ITR, promoter of DTM, Gerhard Berger did not try to hide his bitterness: “Given the difficulties we face at the moment, we would have hoped for a more united approach, launched the Austrian. This announcement presents us with a challenge and worsens the situation.”

The ex-pilot F1 has hardly been spared from pitfalls since he succeeded Hans-Werner Aufrecht at the beginning of 2017: aannouncement of Mercedes' departure a few months after taking office, “Class One” project with the Super GT still far from being completed, very pale presence and for only one season of Aston Martin Vantage of the R-Motorsport in 2019, and now Audi's withdrawal. The challenge of keeping the DTM alive is no small one.

Customer competition, the short-term solution?

Fiercely opposed to this concept since its rebirth in 2000, the DTM ended up resigning itself to it after the departure of Mercedes end of 2018. Aston Martin Vantage, which digitally replaced the star-studded C63s, was the work of a joint venture between AF Racing and HWA, and did not benefit from the support of the parent company. Audi had also entrusted two RS5s to WRT – three this year – while BMW also took the plunge in 2020, via the entry of an M4 by ART Grand Prix for Robert Kubica.

Therefore, why not consider a second life for the six official RS5s within private teams well established in the bosom of Ingolstadt, such as Phoenix or Rosberg? A possibility that Dieter Gass, head of Audi Motorsport, seems to rule out. This perspective would only be a short-term solution in any case, because it would mean the end of the evolution of these cars. Finally, would this option suit BMW, condemned to win… or to receive the snub of being beaten by something smaller?

Is the option of a DTM GT viable?

President of the DMSB (German motor sports federation) until last February, Hans-Joachim Stuck did not wait for the announcement from Ingolstadt to proclaim that the series had to change or risk disappearing. « GT3 is the way to go, said the 1990 DTM champion. Gerhard has always rejected the idea, but I talked to him about it again recently and, for the first time, he didn't reject it outright. He didn’t say anything positive but listened.”

A sign of the seriousness of the situation. We still need to find a place in an ultra-competitive environment, both on the national and international scene, with the ADAC GT Masters and the GT World Challenge respectively. Unless we build something from the DTM Trophy, which gives pride of place to GT4s and was to take off this year as a support race.

But if the series has conquered around twenty competitors including a few DTM teams (Phoenix) or not (Walkenhorst, Leipert, etc.), it offers sprint races to one driver per car and is intended for amateurs, the only formality being to have an international driving license. Again, complicated.

Will salvation come from Japan?

The prospect of seeing Germans in Japan and Japanese across the Rhine has always been highly improbable. Certainly, the “Class One” project, reactivated in disaster by Berger as soon as he was informed of the departure of Mercedes, experienced an unprecedented boost last year since the start of talks in 2012. Two meetings “ mixed” took place last year, during the DTM final at Hockenheim in October, then at a non-championship event at Fuji, a month later.

Although attractive, they also highlighted the philosophy so different from the two series. “Having participated in the discussions, I cannot wrap my head around the idea of ​​a common future, dropped Stuck at Hockenheim last October. Il est inimaginable qu’un constructeur japonais rejoigne le DTM de manière permanente. Vous voyez Toyota débarquer dans une série où ses adversaires comptent au moins dix ans d’expérience ? » However, a long way has been covered on the technical level, Honda even moved the engine of its NSX to the front.

This means if thewe didn't appreciate, in Japan, seeing Audi drop the deal, even if Masaaki Bandoh, president of GTA – promoter of Super GT – assured us that this did not constitute betrayal. However, he also assures that it is “unimaginable that a Japanese manufacturer will participate in the DTM in the near future” before recognizing that “If there are not at least three manufacturers in the DTM, it will be difficult for it to continue.”

The Japanese's predictions are, unfortunately, likely to come true. Already complex to manage, the situation is even more so in view of the global economic crisis which is looming…