2005 DTM car count

[kmchow]

So from what people have said or announced, it seems like 2005 will see

Audi with 4x05 and 4x04 spec cars.
MB with 4x05 and 4x04 spec cars.
Opel with 4x05 and 2x04 spec cars?

Gives a total of about 22 cars? The Audi entries are confirmed, MB and Opel are unofficial? So the car counts haven't really increased, they pretty stable. Not much of a indepedents championships?

Would dumping the '04s for 100K US help the grid count???

[John Winter]

I will have to dissapoint you. This

Audi will enter 4* '05 and 4 * '04, so far you're correct.

Mercedes will enter either:
4 * '05 and 4 * '04 or;
5 * '05 and 3 * '04 or;
6 * '05 and 2 * '04
All depends on two persons:
- Albers: He has a contract for 2005 and 2006 with Mercedes. If he can sign a contract with a F1 team Mercedes will let him go. At this moment there is 'interest' from Jordan and Minardi, although I think his test yesterday with Minardi and the test with Jordan next week are purely thanks to the money he brings. I don't think he has enough sponsors to get a seat at either one of the teams, so I think he will drive DTM next year.
- Janis: His sponsor Dark Dog and the organisers of the DTM-race at Brno think they won't be able to get the same amount of spectators at the Brno track in 2005 when Janis won't be driving a new car. If he wants a new one i'm sure he will have to pay quite a lot. He also has been flirting with Champcar. That didn't work out quite the way it should have, I've understood.

Opel will enter 4 * '05. No '04 spec cars, unless there will be a new major sponsor, but the chances of that are minimum.

To get a better view of things, A 'FIRE'-list of DTM:

01. Audi A4 2005 - Mattias Ekström
02. Audi A4 2005 - Martin Tomczyk
03. Audi A4 2005 - Tom Kristensen
04. Audi A4 2005 - Alan McNish
05. Audi A4 2004 - Christian Abt
06. Audi A4 2004 - Frank Stippler
07. Audi A4 2004 - Pierre Kaffer
08. Audi A4 2004 - Rinaldo Cappelo

09. Mercedes C-Class 2005 - Bernd Schneider
10. Mercedes C-Class 2005 - Jean Alesi
11. Mercedes C-Class 2005 - Gary Paffett
12. Mercedes C-Class 2005 - Christijan Albers
13. Mercedes C-Class 2005 - Mika Häkkinen
14. Mercedes C-Class 2004 - ???
15. Mercedes C-Class 2004 - ???
16. Mercedes C-Class 2004 - ???

17. Opel Vectra 2005 - Heinz-Harald Frentzen
18. Opel Vectra 2005 - Marcel Fässler
19. Opel Vectra 2005 - Laurent Aiello
20. Opel Vectra 2005 - Peter Dumbreck / Timo Scheider / Manuel Reuter

italicized : not confirmed

[kmchow]

That is a very good list. I was thinking of doing that as well. Any potential sponsor information for the various teams? It would be nice to see ProMarkt/Diebels Alt/etc... back in the series.

Wow, why such variance with MB? Are there that many sponsor uncertainties with Mercedes? Can MB build enough '05 cars??

I feel so bad for Opel wth only 4 cars.

[Don K]

Hmmm...

Scheider performed better than Fässler and Aiello.
Reuter and Dumbreck outperformed Frentzen.

And yet Scheider, Reuter and Dumbreck have not been confirmed, and two of them will miss out next season?

[kmchow]

Could sponsorship or driver pay be what's holding drivers' like Scheider/Reuter and Dumbreck from being confirmed?

I wonder if it's the driver or the manufacturer that's keeping the driver lineup from being confirmed?

Would you rather want a less experienced(or well known??) driver if that means you're saving a tonne of money on driver pay???

[John Winter]

I think sponsorship could have something to do with the confirmation of Aiello. If they would give Dumbreck, Reuter or Scheider the Playboy-car, everybody would laugh at playboy, because neiter one of them has the charisma of a player (Dumbreck with his scottish accent, Scheider with his squeaking voice and Reuter with his age).

Who will get the last Vectra could have a lot to do with sponsorship, but not with payments from the drivers, because they get payed. DTM only knows pay-drivers for old cars (like Janis last year and Kaneishi the year before that). Valvoline was very pleased with the attention they got from the sponsorship in DTM (for the same reason Bleekemolen drove a Valvoline car in Shanghai). They were happy with Dumbreck as well. Scheider and Reuter don't have that advantage, because Reuter didn't have sponsorship on his car and if I recall correctly, the sponsorship form Scheiders car, Woman, will not return next year.

On the other hand, Reuter is very popular with the board of Opel, because he was the last DTM-champion for Opel in 1996.

The fact that Frentzen already has a drive and Scheider, Dumbreck and Reuter don't is easy to explain. Frentzen signed a contract last winter for one season, with a option for him to do another season. Halfway this season he thought DTM was so much fun that he wanted to stay another season, so he took that option and signed for another year. At that time, they had no idea GM had to cut the budgets so Opel didn't think "if we sign Frentzen now, we cant give Dumbreck / Scheider / Reuter a car", for the obvious reasons. Fässler signed a two year-contract with Opel last winter, so he was already sure of a seat.

[John Winter]

Originally posted by kmchow
Wow, why such variance with MB? Are there that many sponsor uncertainties with Mercedes? Can MB build enough '05 cars??

MB will be able to build enough '05 cars. Although DaimlerChrysler has to save money too, the DTM is their little baby, and they will do everything to be succesfull in it.

The variance is caused by mr. Albers and mr. Janis. Albers wants to get in F1 at all costs, to the agony of mr. Haug. They had a big argument about the way Albers' management behaved in Zandvoort too. That all caused that many journalists, most of them British since Albers is the biggest competitor of Paffett, wrote that Albers won't be driving for Mercedes next year. Fact is that he has a contract untill 2006 and I think the chances for him in F1 are very slim. So Albers will probably drive in DTM next year. Janis has said he wants to go to champcars. He drove a race in Surfers Paradise and was gonna drive another one, but that didn't work out. I think that if he will drive DTM next season, he won't get a new car, despite Brno and Dark Dog want that.

[gwyllion]

If Mercedes enters more than 4 new cars will Audi not increase their number of 2005 A4s to compensate? I think Kaffer and Capello can be fast in a new car as well.

[FIRE]

BTW Why did ITR not choose to race with only 2004 cars in 2005? Building some extra 2004 cars, but having no development costs.

[John Winter]

For the same reason the FIA didn't choose to race in F1 with only 2004 cars in 2005. Audi would have loved it, Mercedes wouldn't have, for the obvious reasons. You can't stop developing, that would ruin the competition. They already aren't allowed to develop during the season.

[kmchow]

Originally posted by John Winter
Valvoline was very pleased with the attention they got from the sponsorship in DTM (for the same reason Bleekemolen drove a Valvoline car in Shanghai). They were happy with Dumbreck as well. Scheider and Reuter don't have that advantage, because Reuter didn't have sponsorship on his car and if I recall correctly, the sponsorship form Scheiders car, Woman, will not return next year.

It's disappointing that there doesn't seem to be a lot of stability with sponsors in the DTM right now? The return sponsors are the factory ones only? They stay for only one year? Vitaphone left after last year? I recall Oase went out of business? Will Playboy return?

How do we know that Valvoline was pleased with all sponsorship? Did a Valvoline rep mention something in print?

[John Winter]

Vitaphone was sponsor of Michael Bartels. When he left Opel, so did Vitaphone. Oase transfered from Opel to Manthey (Mercedes), but when Manthey left DTM, so did Oase.

With the signing of Aiello, Playboy will probably stay as well.

The lack of stability in sponsoring is mainly caused by the fact that it's mostly internal sponsorship, like the car of Albers, Alesi, Paffett, Mayländer and Reuter. It's quite easy to change sponsorships like that. Gives every department of the company a bit of display.

Valvoline expressed their happyness with the sponsorship of Bleekemolens car in Shanghai and at the Shanghai race itself. The boss of GMAC, sponsor of Fässlers car, showed his appreciation at the Nürburgring race.

[FIRE]

Originally posted by John Winter
Valvoline expressed their happyness with the sponsorship of Bleekemolens car in Shanghai and at the Shanghai race itself. The boss of GMAC, sponsor of Fässlers car, showed his appreciation at the Nürburgring race.

GMAC is also an internal sponsor of General Motors.

IMO Australian V8 Supercars is the right way to go for DTM. A lott of private teams (with factory support) with external sponsors.

[kmchow]

So a lot of DTM drivers bring their own sponsors, in addition to be being paid by the factory? I never knew that Valvoline was so interested in China? OTOH, I don't recall noticing too many (auto) oil company ads in China.
Interesting info indeed.

[toot toot]

Mercedes C-Class 2005- Schneider
Mercedes C-Class 2005- Paffett
Mercedes C-Class 2005- Alesi
Mercedes C-Class 2005- Hakkinen
Mercedes C-Class 2005- and Albers will not be there but
mystery new driver to DTM, i am
reliably informed!

[FIRE]

Originally posted by toot toot
Mercedes C-Class 2005- and Albers will not be there but
mystery new driver to DTM, i am
reliably informed!

Hope not.
Is Albers replaced by another driver from the old people's home?

[toot toot]

Nope, an up and coming star, to be announced soon.

[Kicking-back]

Jamie Green?

[SALEEN S7R]

Jamie Green would make most sense. And a couple of weeks back AUTOSPORT magazine commented that he has tested one of the Mercedes recently at Hockenheim. I think he said his preffered options are GP2 or formula Superfund but if he cant sort something there then DTM is a option.

[cos]

Jamie Green confirmed at Mercedes - www.dtm.de

[SALEEN S7R]

Excellent news! 4 Brits in the series for 2005. Now all we need is a British round again.

[FIRE]

Originally posted by cos
Jamie Green confirmed at Mercedes - www.dtm.de

According racesport.net team Rosberg will not compete in DTM next season. Probably Mucke Motorsport will replce Rosberg.

[flor]

looks like Jamie Green has a seat

[FIRE]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Excellent news! 4 Brits in the series for 2005. Now all we need is a British round again.

Dumbreck is not confirmed.



And I understand from several websites it's not clear Green will drive a 2005 car (if Albers moves to F1?) or a 2004 car.

[mcurtis26]

How many 05 cars will there be? Presumably Schnieder, Hakkinen, Paffet, Alesi all get one, plus Albers if he;s there?