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A beginners guide to the DTM (A thread):
The DTM is a German-based European sportscar championship, which begin it's current existence in 2000. It's historically been made up of German manufactuers, each running 6-9 factory cars to make a large, competitive, all-professional grid.
The DTM has been a launchpad for many F1 careers - Paul Di Resta (2020) and Pascal Wehrlein (2015) both went from winning the title straight into Formula One.
It has also seen plenty of star names, here are some of the full-time drivers from the last 5 years:
(One-off entries include Jenson Button, Andrea Dovizioso, Sebastien Ogier and Alez Zanardi)
(One-off entries include Jenson Button, Andrea Dovizioso, Sebastien Ogier and Alez Zanardi)
Here are the last 6 champions and 2020 standings:
The issue for the DTM was that its rules were very fast, but very expensive. It was only 0.3" slower than Formula 3 at Spa earlier this year, but at a much higher cost. Audi's reported 2019 budget for 6 cars was €50m.
When Mercedes (in 2017) and Audi (in 2020) left, leaving only BMW and a couple of customer Audi's on the grid, it became clear a new, cheaper formula was needed. For 2021 DTM will change from manufactuer-based to customer-based with a huge shift to the GT3 regulations.
GT3 is a category of racing versions of production supercars. The cars weigh around 1300kg, and produce 500hp-550hp. A process called Balance of Performance (BoP) is used to make sure all the cars have equal performance (people will complain about unfair BoP at every race).
Here are a list of just some of the GT3 cars which raced in 2020:
The DTM uses a race format of 2x 55 minute races a weekend. Each race features a mandatory tyre change (the championship uses Hankook tyres). There is one race on Saturday, and another on Sunday, with a seperate qualifying session for each race.
The championship uses the FIA points system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1, with 3-2-1 points awarded to the top 3 in qualifying.
The championship usually features around 10 rounds, split about 50/50 between Germany and the rest of Europe. Here is the 2021 calendar, which starts on the last weekend of May:
Last but not least, the 2021 entrylist. Despite all the changes, the grid is looking smaller than ever. For reference, 2016 saw 24 cars, 2019 saw 18 and 2020 saw 16. 2021 currently only has 8 cars confirmed:
If you have any questions or queries about the DTM, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer.
