ITR e.V., which currently holds the rights to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, is exploring multiple avenues to continue the success of the series, which has been in operation for over 30 years.
Chairman Gerhard Berger recently admitted in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com, that consideration of private teams are also ongoing, with concrete ideas not yet set in stone.
“There are a few who deal with it in concrete terms and who have solid options,” stated the Austrian, who remained very tight-lipped on the details already discussed.
“Then it’s a case of being realistic very quickly. The basis is just that you have to raise it financially, because there are a few private teams in Germany.”
Both Audi and BMW have had interest from outfits looking to enter the DTM as private teams, with Mercedes’ Ulrich Fritz saying that it was not really feasible to fully-finance a privateer team under current regulations.
Aston Martin has also been rumoured as a possible entry for 2020, which will align with both DTM and Super GT under the “Class One” regulations that they will use from 2019 and 2020 onwards respectively.
The British sportscar manufacturer currently competes in endurance racing, but with an already-established tie-in through the Formula One arm, which has backing from both Red Bull, and Honda as an engine partner from next year, it could happen.
But Berger has other ideas, as the DTM had a mix of both manufacturer and privateers in the early 2000s, which brought great racing, and a wider variety of car brands an audience.
“No other company has more experience and expertise in the DTM than HWA – the cars are there, and only the engine changes in 2019,” he said, especially with the know-how the Affalterbach-based outfit has.
“The financing of the deployment costs would have to be covered by sponsors, but that would be feasible.”