BMW has promoted its test driver in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Marco Wittmann, to a race seat in the new BMW Team MTEK for 2013.
Wittmann, 22, has acted as one of the manufacturer’s official test and development drivers throughout the 2012 season and has been rewarded for his hard work with a race seat in the newly formed MTEK team for 2013. BMW will next year expand to run four teams in the German series, with Wittmann joining the new Munich-based team.
BMW will keep its driver line-up that competed in 2012 intact and all drivers are expected to remain at the same teams, with Bruno Spengler and Dirk Werner at BMW Team Schnitzer, Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx at BMW Team RMG and Martin Tomczyk and Joey Hand at BMW Team RMG. The eighth driver for BMW’s campaign next season has not yet been announced.
“All six of our drivers produced very good performances last season and contributed to BMW Motorsport winning the Manufacturers’ Championship,” said Jens Marquardt, Head of BMW Motorsport. “For that reason, it is a logical step to put our faith in our sextet again in 2013.
“Marco spent the 2012 season preparing intensively for this opportunity. He was a permanent part of the team throughout the entire year and was present in every meeting. He knows the processes just as well as the other drivers. Furthermore, his tests in the BMW M3 DTM showed he is more than capable of coping with the DTM. As such, he fully deserves a DTM seat in 2013.”
German Wittmann has previously been a race winner in the Formula 3 Euro Series Championship, where he raced between 2009 and 2011.