Photo: DTM Media

Audi announce departure from DTM after 2020 season

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Audi has announced it will exit the DTM after the 2020 season, in a bid to realign its racing commitments towards becoming a carbon-neutral footprint manufacturer.

The management board of Audi AG stated it has made this decision taking into consideration the economic and financial challenges ahead due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2021, Audi will focus on Formula E and customer racing.

“Audi has shaped the DTM and the DTM has shaped Audi,” said Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. “This demonstrates what power lies in motorsport – technologically and emotionally.

“With this energy, we’re going to drive our transformation into a provider of sporty, sustainable electric mobility forward. That’s why we’re also focusing our efforts on the racetrack and systematically competing for tomorrow’s ‘Vorsprung’ [cutting edge technology].

“Formula E offers a very attractive platform for this. To complement it, we’re investigating other progressive motorsport formats for the future.”

Audi has been one of the most successful manufacturers in the DTM, with 11 drivers’ titles and 12 manufacturers’ crowns, 114 victories and 106 pole positions.

“We’re hoping that this currently difficult situation will improve soon and that we’ll still be able to contest a few DTM races this year,” said Board for Development member Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler.

“The fans would deserve this, and so would the ITR, our drivers as well as our teams and partners, who will now have adequate advance notice to reposition themselves for the time after 2020. Successful motorsport is – and will continue to be – an important element of Audi’s DNA.”