Why the DTM must reinvent itself after Audi exit
Audi's announcement that it will withdraw from the DTM at the end of 2020 was the latest blow for a series that has lost three manufacturers in as many years. Some major soul-searching will now be required to assess how it can survive.
Two down, one to go. Ever since Mercedes announced its plans to pull the plug on its DTM involvement in favour of Formula E in the summer of 2017, it has felt like the German tin-top championship has been on a slippery downward slope.
And following Monday’s news of Audi – to use the prevailing corporate jargon – ‘realigning’ its motorsport priorities for 2021, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the DTM now finds itself in a full-on nosedive, its very existence hanging in the balance.
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Jamie Klein is one of Motorsport.com’s Global News Editors, reporting primarily on the FIA World Endurance Championship, Super Formula and SUPER GT. He took his first steps into motorsport journalism in 2013 as a freelancer before joining Motorsport Network full-time in 2015 as UK Editor. In 2016, he moved into a more wide-ranging role as he became a regular in the paddocks of the WEC and MotoGP. After a two-month trip to Japan in late 2018 gave him his first taste of reporting live on Super Formula and SUPER GT, he made the move to Tokyo permanently in 2019, and has been a regular presence in both paddocks since 2020. Away from motorsport, he is studying the Japanese language and can often be found relaxing in an ‘onsen’ (hot spring) or gorging on ramen, occasionally at the same time. He can be found on Twitter at @JamieKlein_.
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