Thiim could return to DTM this year in an Aston Martin

Factory Aston Martin driver Thiim was due to contest a full season in the DTM this year after signing a deal with Lamborghini squad T3 Motorsport, nearly four decades after his father Kuurt Thiim won the 1986 title in a Rover Vitesse.

However, the 33-year-old split with T3 Motorsport just two rounds into the campaign with a best finish of just 12th to his name, with the squad itself skipping the following races at Imola and the Norisring.

But according to Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Total.com, plans are now afoot for Thiim to make a wildcard appearance with his employer Aston Martin in the second half of the season.

While Thiim’s entry has been more or less decided, a second Vantage is also believed to be on the agenda to help secure funding for the entire project. It remains unclear who will drive the other car should the plans come to fruition.

The Nurburgring round on August 27-28 is understood to be the most likely option for the Dane's comeback, with an Aston Martin Performance Centre located just across the road from the famous German venue. A wildcard entry in the penultimate round at the Red Bull Ring is also under discussion.

#90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3: Marco Sörensen, Nicki Thiim, David Pittard, Maxime Martin

The biggest question mark remains over the choice of team to handle the potential Aston entry, as the manufacturer currently doesn’t have any presence in the DTM.

There have been talks of a British team running the car, with Tom Ferrier’s TF Sport outfit emerging as a hot candidate. Based out of Sussex, TF Sport currently leads the GTE Am class of the FIA World Endurance Championship with a GTE version of the Vantage and has also been contracted by Aston to run its factory entries on the Nurburgring Nordschleife since 2021.

Thiim, in fact, drove for TF Sport in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours and could have fought for the win had he not crashed after driving over an oil spill.

Should Thiim be able to make a guest appearance this year, it will make Aston Martin the seventh different manufacturer on the grid after Germany’s ‘big four’ Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, and Italian supercar makers Ferrari and Lamborghini.

A guest entry could also be the beginning of a long-term involvement from Aston Martin in the DTM, given Germany is the marque’s biggest market outside of the UK. It is also understood that Aston’s interest in the DTM has increase since it announced earlier this year that it would focus only on GT World Challenge Europe and the NLS series in 2022.

Aston Martin was last represented on the grid in 2019 when R-Motorsport privately ran four Class One cars based on the Vantage with a license from the British car manufacturer.