21 Feb DTM 2023 without Team Rosberg
This year, the DTM will take place without Team Rosberg. Since its formation back in 1994, the team from Neustadt an der Weinstraße has been, except for the 2005 season, a part of the DTM or ITC, which was the official international successor to the DTM in 1996. But now the team led by team principal Kimmo Liimatainen sees no chance of being able to compete in the DTM in a competitively and economically reasonable way and has had to refrain from enrolling with a heavy heart.
“We do not just want to participate, we want to win races and titles. That is and remains our ambition,” says Kimmo Liimatainen clearly. “But for that, you need support that unfortunately we were not able to generate by the registration deadline at the beginning of February. Therefore, entering did not make sense to us. I really do regret that, since I believe we would have had a good chance for top positions. Our development in recent years and our work over the winter had certainly made me very optimistic.”
Team Rosberg looks back on 24 years in the DTM, including 17 DTM seasons with Audi Sport, which were filled with lots of success. The DTM driver’s title went to Neustadt three times and the team was team champions twice. The total of 36 race victories with Audi race cars also shows that Team Rosberg has always been a strong and reliable partner of Audi Sport, delivering top-level performances at a high sporting level. In addition to working with established drivers such as René Rast or Nico Müller, the team has also been able to quickly bring inexperienced drivers up to a higher level. This was also proven by the second place of American Dev Gore at the DTM race in Imola 2022.
And what’s next? “We are exploring possible new fields of activity in GT sports for this season; a return to the DTM is also not ruled out,” says Liimatainen. “Furthermore, we are continuing our involvement in Extreme E and want to reclaim the title there. And TRE GmbH, one of the leading companies in the field of chassis development for production cars, will continue to be an important business area for us.”