The company ITR, which has been organizing the DTM championship for years, has announced the closure. Negotiations are currently underway with the German national automobile club ADAC, and if successful, the legendary body series will change promoters. But for now, her future remains in doubt.
In 2021, a reform took place in the DTM: from the cars of the so-called Class 1, the teams of the series switched to vehicles of the slightly cheaper GT3 Pro category. Because of this, the championship increased in entrants, including new teams with factory support, and popularity began to grow again. However, this still did not make it possible to overcome the economic crisis, which was also related to the fact that in the past large German car manufacturers provided DTM with direct financial support. Now this is not.
ITR’s headquarters in Munich will be closed, the workforce of 17 employees will be disbanded and all have already been notified of the impending layoffs.
“Negotiations with ADAC are very constructive, but no final decision has been made yet,” Gerhard Berger, head of ITR and head of DTM management, said in an official statement. “But since we as entrepreneurs are responsible for the company, we had to make it clear: it was decided that ITR would no longer be the promoter of the DTM in 2023.
We foresee many problems and believe that the economic risks next year will be too great. Personally, I think this is a great shame, because our entire team has done a lot to ensure that the DTM is a successful series. But even without the ITR, it may have a future under the auspices of ADAC. That is why we continue the dialogue with them.”
Berger, a former Formula 1 driver, took over the management of the DTM in 2017 and it was he who reformed the series, which had 34 drivers from 17 teams last year.
Of the Russian racers in the DTM, only Vitaly Petrov, who teamed up with Mercedes, ever made an appearance, and Alex Albon was noted as one of the participants in the 2023 World Championship.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
