DTM Trophy: Who Are the Drivers we Should Keep an Eye On?

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is the premier touring car championship in Germany. The 2022 season was the 36th season and is the 23rd under the name Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters or DTM. It is also the parent series of the DTM trophy.

DTM Trophy Results for 2022

The overall winner of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters this year was South African driver Sheldon van der Linde. Sheldon won three races on his road to the title, clinching the championship in the last race of the season with a 3rd place finish. His closest competitor, Lucas Auer, won two races and finished on the podium two other times, beating 3rd place finisher Rene Rast, who won one race. With only 11 points between 2nd and 1st, if Auer had just taken a few more gambles, he may have finished on top.

Mirko Bortolotti

The 32-year-old Mirko Bortolotti isn’t exactly a young hotshot, but with a stellar racing career behind him, we can expect to see a strong showing from him next year. The former FIA Formula 2 champion had Formula 1 testing back in 2008 with Ferrari after winning the Italian F3 Championship and with Williams after his Formula 2 winning season. Unfortunately, neither of them panned out into a race seat, but he’s been making his name in DTM, where he finished on the podium five times in the 2022 season.

Thomas Preining

After a brief spell in Formula 4 back in 2015-16, Preining made the move from single-seater cars to sports cars and competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup in Germany. This proved to be a wise decision, as he won two races in his debut season before winning the Championship in 2018. After a couple of years in endurance racing, he switched to DTM, scoring two wins and two other podiums in his debut season. If it weren’t for four retirements in the first six races, he might have been fighting for the title.

Luca Stolz

Stolz began his car racing career back in 2011, where he made his debut in the ADAC Formel Masters. After a couple of years, he appeared to find his niche in endurance racing, finishing 1st in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and 3rd in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, he’s slowly been pivoting back into shorter race distances and made a splash in his debut DTM series, with one win and three second-place finishes.

Nico Müller

At 30 years old, Nico has had a long career in motorsport, with his debut coming in the Swiss Formula Renault back in 2008. However, he has been racking up impressive series results along the way, including winning the Swiss Formula Renault in his second year and finishing 2nd in back-to-back years in DTM with Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline. In 2021 he made the switch to Team Rosberg, and the car hasn’t quite been up to standard, but if you give this guy a championship-winning car, he’ll be one to watch.

Conclusion

DTM is such an exciting motorsport series to watch, with more talented drivers up and down the grid than those in the Race to Win slot and other Merkur games. Every year is tightly contested, with any one of a number of drivers capable of taking the title. Next year promises to be as hotly contested as ever, and these drives are certainly ones to watch.