Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline: DTM relaunch in the Allgäu

With a little more fortune, the squad headed by team owner Hans-Jürgen Abt and motorsport director Thomas Biermaier could have won two more DTM drivers’ titles in the past two years. In the 2016 season, Edoardo Mortara was merely four points short of clinching the title and Mattias Ekström even just three last year. “Missing out on winning the title by just a narrow margin in the last race twice in a row was obviously very painful,” says Thomas Biermaier. “We analyzed what we could do better and have reorganized ourselves in many areas. Now we’re attacking again with full motivation.”

2018 in a way is like a relaunch in the DTM for Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline because since Audi’s return with a factory commitment in 2014 everything in Kempten revolved around Mattias Ekström. After the Swede stepped down, hopes at Abt are now resting on two younger drivers: Robin Frijns and Nico Müller.

New as well are the two race engineers: Michael Petit, previously Mattias Ekström’s data engineer, is responsible for the car of DTM rookie Robin Frijns. Felix Fechner, most recently a performance engineer with Audi in the DTM, takes care of Nico Müller. Both can draw on Florian Modlinger’s enormous experience. As Technical Director DTM he led Audi to the “triple” in 2017 and since this year has been with ABT Sportsline.

Major successes of ABT Sportsline
1st DTM drivers’ classification: 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 (all Audi)
1st DTM teams’ classification: 2004, 2007, 2011, 2016 (all Audi)
1st Formula E drivers’ classification: 2016/2017
1st Formula E teams’ classification: 2017/2018
1st German Supertouring Car Championship: 1999 (Audi)
1st ADAC GT Masters: 2009 drivers’, 2010 teams’ classification (both Audi)
1st ADAC Formel Masters: 2009
1st ADAC Formel Junior: 1991, 1992, 1996