DTM
Aston Martin ace Thiim secures 2024 DTM return with Lamborghini
GT racing star Nicki Thiim will return to the DTM next year after signing a contract with Lamborghini’s top squad SSR Performance.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Dec 20, 2023, 10:10 AM
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Thiim will form an all-star team at SSR, partnering factory Lamborghini driver and this year’s championship runner-up Mirko Bortolotti.
The Danish driver has received the blessing from his employer Aston Martin to drive a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO in the 2024 DTM season following valiant efforts to get the British manufacturer on the grid for the first time in the series’ GT3 era.
Both the Allied and Comtoyou teams were understood to be working on securing an entry next year, but all plans to field the updated Evo version of Vantage have so far failed to come to fruition.
This is likely to have prompted Thiim and his manager Dennis Rostek to change their strategy, with Lamborghini and SSR Performance offering a great opportunity to succeed after they challenged for the title in 2023 with Bortolotti.
“That’s a nice Christmas surprise for DTM fans! With Bortolotti and Thiim we can be at the forefront of the DTM,” said team boss Stefan Schlund.
“I am very happy about this strong driver combination! We want to fight for the title in the new season and win the team championship,”
“There were good discussions with both drivers at the SSR Performance company location in the Freimann district of Munich.
“The chemistry is right. We have already worked well together with Mirko this year and have been successful together. Nicki brings a lot of individuality and we believe that he will enrich our team with his skills and experience.”
Photo by: SSR Performance
SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo
Thiim has long harboured ambitions of racing in the DTM and emulating his father Kurt, who won the 1986 title in a Rover Vitesse.
He appeared to have realised his dream in 2022 when he joined another Lamborghini team T3 Motorsport, but parted ways with the squad just two rounds into the season after a lack of results. T3 Motorsport subsequently withdrew from the championship.
Unlike T3 Motorsport, SSR Performance is a well-funded operation that is backed by Lamborghini, after the outfit joined the Italian manufacturer’s roster in 2023 following a long stint with Porsche.
The German outfit has retained Bortolotti after he mounted an impressive title assault against Manthey EMA Porsche driver Thomas Preining, losing out on the final day of the championship at Hockenheim.
Fellow factory driver Franck Perera, who started the season with a victory at Oschersleben, has been dropped by SSR to make way for Thiim.
Thiim’s DTM campaign comes ahead of Aston Martin’s highly-anticipated LMH programme with the Valkyrie in the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2025.
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