Team Rosberg withdraws from DTM ahead of 2023 season
Three-time DTM title-winning squad Team Rosberg will not enter the series this year after it was unable to gain sufficient financial backing to be competitive by the registration deadline.
Team Rosberg carried Audi driver Rene Rast to each of his DTM championship victories between 2017 and 2020 and was a race-winner in last year's championship with Nico Muller in Portimao.
But like all DTM teams, it faced uncertainty last autumn when it became clear that series promoter ITR was in talks with the ADAC that ultimately resulted in a sale of the branding rights. It was only in December, two months after the end of the season, when the ADAC confirmed that it would continue to run the championship in 2023, meaning teams were behind in their planning for the new campaign.
Rosberg team boss Kimmo Limatainen told Autosport in December that the situation was "not ideal now", but said he was encouraged by the delayed start to the season at Oschersleben on 26-28 May "because that will give us some time to sort things out that should have been sorted already now".
However, in a statement issued today the team revealed it had been unable to attract the desired level of support to continue in the DTM "in a competitively and economically reasonable way".
"We do not just want to participate, we want to win races and titles. That is and remains our ambition," Liimatainen said.
"But for that, you need support that unfortunately we were not able to generate by the registration deadline at the beginning of February. Therefore, entering did not make sense to us.
"I really do regret that, since I believe we would have had a good chance for top positions. Our development in recent years and our work over the winter had certainly made me very optimistic."
Kimmo Liimatainen, Team principal Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Liimatainen told Autosport that he planned to continue with Audi this year, having represented the marque continuously since 2006. It previously raced Opels in 1995-96 and Mercedes from 2000 to 2004.
Rosberg was already facing the prospect of competing without Muller, who has departed the Audi fold to join Peugeot's World Endurance Championship programme. Fellow DTM race-winner Kelvin van der Linde has become the latest driver to leave Audi when its roster of factory drivers was revealed earlier today.
Liimatainen said the team is currently "exploring possible new fields of activity in GT sports for this season", adding that "a return to the DTM is also not ruled out".
The team will continue in the off-road Extreme E championship with an unchanged lineup of Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky.
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