We are set to see at least three teams representing Mercedes following their return to DTM, which has been made possible due to the change to GT3 rules for the upcoming season. This is Mercedes return to DTM since leaving the sport in 2017.
Written By Ian Bruce, Edited By Ryan Lack
It has been confirmed that HTP Winward Motorsport and Haupt Racing Team are going to be joining the grid, as they are two of the most successful Mercedes teams in the current GT3 era, Mercedes will be pleased by this. They will be joining the Hong-Kong based GruppeM racing, who confirmed they would be entering the series last year.
We have also seen rumours that Mucke Motorsport may also be joining as another Mercedes backed team. The team, who raced with Mercedes cars in DTM from 2005-2016, are in the early stages of contract discussions.
It is understood that HTP and HRT are in the final stages of completing their deals to run the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in DTM following its shift from the Class 1 touring-car rules. A spokesperson for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport has said that it may be likely that there will be “four to five” AMG GT3 race cars, spread across the 3 or 4 teams that may be entered in DTM for 2021.
The three teams, HTP, HRT and Gruppe M have all raced under the banner of ‘Mercedes AMG performance’ teams in other GT3 championships. This has meant that they have received some level of financial assistance and access to drivers from the Mercedes-contracted driver-pool.
When asked about this, the spokesperson replied; “It depends on which teams want to participate – they might be performance teams of pure customers”.
Mercedes fans must be pleased by this change in stance from the company following their initial reluctance to re-join DTM following this rule change, it will be great to see the three-pointed star return to a series that has given it so much success in the past.
One hopes that isn’t another series that Mercedes will start to dominate, there are a wide array of other marques joining this ‘new’ DTM series and they might be pushed hard. It remains to see if this change to GT3 rules will reinvigorate this once great series or will it just fade into the background with other GT3 series around the world? I hope not.
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