Driver line-up: Three champions, six winners, two youngsters

BasicInfo Sub Page
04/08/2016
Back to overview

Audi Sport has been opting for continuity in the DTM. For the second consecutive time, the driver line-up has remained nearly unchanged, with good reason. Six of the eight Audi drivers managed to win at least one race last season.

In Mattias Ekström, Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider, Audi Sport has three DTM Champions in its ranks again in the 2016 season. Combined, they have clinched the drivers’ title an amazing total of five times for Audi. Mattias Ekström, with two championship wins and 21 victories under his belt, is the most successful Audi DTM driver of all time – plus, in terms of victories, ranks in third place of the DTM’s all-time winners’ list.

The track record of the Audi drivers before the start of the 2016 DTM season is impressive: a total of 747 races, 3,075.5 points, 54 pole positions, 55 fastest race laps, 48 victories and five titles were scored by them by the end of 2015. As a result, they perfectly embody Audi Sport’s new “League of Performance” brand tagline.

Only two minor, albeit significant, changes have been made within the driver squad compared with the 2015 season. The two youngsters, Nico Müller and Adrien Tambay, are swapping cockpits. Audi Sport expects the change to provide new impetus. As a result of the switch, seasoned campaigner Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara are now forming a powerful duo in Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline. Had they competed in the same team in 2015, they would have achieved a dominant win of the teams’ classification.

Four of the eight Audi drivers are working together with new engineers in the 2016 DTM. Nicola Palarchi is the new man supporting Edoardo Mortara. Daniel Grunwald takes care of Nico Müller, Arnau Niubo of Mike Rockenfeller, and Karl Jennings supports Adrien Tambay’s car. The other four driver-engineer combinations have remained the same as last year’s.

The Audi Sport driver line-up for the 2016 DTM

Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline

#5 Mattias Ekström: Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM (Engineer: Florian Modlinger)

#48 Edoardo Mortara: Castrol EDGE Audi RS 5 DTM (Nicola Palarchi)

Audi Sport Team Abt

#17 Miguel Molina: Teufel Audi RS 5 DTM (Markus Michelberger)

#51 Nico Müller: Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM (Daniel Grunwald)

Audi Sport Team Phoenix

#10 Timo Scheider: AUTO BILD MOTORSPORT Audi RS 5 DTM (Laurent Fedacou)

#99 Mike Rockenfeller: Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM (Arnau Niubo)

Audi Sport Team Rosberg

#27 Adrien Tambay: Speedweek.com Audi RS 5 DTM (Karl Jennings)

#53 Jamie Green: Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM (Erich Baumgärtner)