May The Force Be With You: BMW Readies To Challenge Audi With M4 DTM Racer

BMW entered the new DTM last year and won the driver's, team's, and manufacturer's championship. So technically BMW still has all three crowns.

Or are you talking about this season? There's three races left. An Audi driver is first but Audi is last behind BMW and MB, among the manufacturers. And MB leads in the team's championship.

Since the new DTM debuted in 2000, MB and Audi both won 6 driver's championships. MB won 9 manufacturer's championship, Audi 3. BMW entered last year and won both.

This season's DTM leader Mike Rockenfeller in Audi RS5 beat last season's DTM champion Bruno Spengler (BMW M3) at Brands Hatch circuit, England in May 2013.
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Does Audi really give a shit about the M4 entering next year? Nah.

Audi can still win with the RS5 -- Mike Rockenfeller with an RS5 achieved a massive 31-point lead as season leader due to his consistency and excellence (8, 1, 4, 2, 5, 1, 4) in his first seven races. He will likely win this season's driver's championship. The other 9 Audi drivers have simply not earned their paychecks -- several of them need to be replaced next year with winners.

Here are the 2013 DTM season standings, with three races remaining. BMW has little chance of winning the 2013 driver's championship or team championship. But BMW is leading the manufacturer's championship.
- Driver's championship: Audi first, Mercedes second and third. The Audi RS5 driver Mike Rockenfeller (106 points) has massive 31-point lead in first place ahead of two Mercedes AMG C-Coupe drivers with 3 races remaining (last year's BMW M3 winner finished the season just 5 points ahead of the Mercedes runner up; he is in fourth place).
- Team championship: Mercedes first, Audi seond, BMW third. Rockenfeller's Audi team (110 points) is second, 31 points behind a Mercedes team (whose drivers are second and third in the driver's championship withn 71 and 70 points respectively), because Rockenfeller's team mate Molina has had only 4 points this season (Rockenfeller's team would have been in first place if his team mate had been another Audi driver Mattias Ekström, who has 38 points). A BMW team is in third place, 17 points behind Rockenfeller's Audi team.
- Manufacturer's championship: BMW first, Mercedes second, Audi third.

http://www.dtm.com/en/Races/Standings.html

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Audi's greatest success came with the A4 between 2004 to 2011, when it won 5 driver's championships (2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) and 3 manufacturer's championships (2004, 2007, 2011). Audi switched from the A4 to the A5 in 2012, but that year Mercedes switched to the AMG C-Coupe and BMW entered with the M3. In 2013 Audi switched to the RS5.

In 2012 DTM season, new technical regulations and new points system were applied. BMW did win the drivers championship, team championship and manufacturer's championship.

- BMW's car was M3: An BMW M3 driver won drivers championship (5 M3 drivers came in 1, 7, 8, 9, 13 among top 16 drivers). BMW teams were 1, 6, 8 in top ten of team championship. BMW was first in manufacturer's championship.
- Audi's car was A5: An A5 driver was 4th place in driver's championship (6 A5 drivers came in 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14 among top 16 drivers). Audi teams were 4,5, 7, 9 in the top ten of the team championship. Audi was second in manufacturer's championship.
- Mercedes' car was AMG C-Coupe: An AMG C-Coupe driver was 3rd p

- Mercedes' car was AMG C-Coupe: An AMG C-Coupe driver was 3rd place in the driver's championship (5 of the AMG C-Coupe drivers came in 2, 3, 12, 15, 16 among top 16 drivers). Mercedes teams were 2, 3, 10, 10 in the top ten of team championship. Mercedes was third in manufacturer's championship.
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Blame Audi's overall performances in the last two years to poor Wolfgang Durheimer, lol (he was also VW Group's Motorsport boss since mid 2012, and I believe still retains the position). In truth, Audi is probably more interested in the world endurance championship (24 Hours Of Le Mans, etc.) than in DTM racing. Audi has won Le Mans 12 times (in the past 14 years) and will keep focused on Le Mans until it breaks Porsche’s record of 15 victories.

This series is huge in Germany, all 3 manufactures want nothing more than to win the manufactures title while competing against there German rivals. 2012 was BMW's rookie year and they swept all 3 titles while using only 6 cars, compared to Audi and Mercedes having 8 cars a piece. This year audi and BMW have 8 cars and Mercedes is using 6 with BMW leading the constructors championship since the very first race, with Mercedes in second and Audi in 3rd.

In 2012 DTM:

BMW had 6 cars: all were M3 DTM

Mercedes had 8 cars: all were AMG C-Coupe DTM

Audi had 8 cars: all were A5 DTM (not RS5 or S5)


The following are the driver's overall positions at the end of the season out of 22 drivers.

Audi A5 DTM: 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 18, 19

BMW M3 DTM: 1, 7, 8, 9, 13, 20

Mercedes AMG-C-Coupe DTM: 2, 3, 12, 15, 16, 17, 21, 21


For the 2012 season, BMW poached two top drivers from other brands Audi and Mercedes teams:

- Martin Tomczyk from Audi: Tomcyk was the 2011 driver's champion driving an Audi A4 DTM. In 2012, Tomyck came in 8th place driving the BMW M3 DTM. In 2013, Tomcyk is currently in 16th place driving the BMw M3 DTM.

- Bruno Spengler from Mercedes: Spengler was third in the 2011 and 2010 driver's championship. In 2012, Spengler was the driver's champion driving the BMw M3 DTM.. In 2013, Spengler is currently in 4th place driving the BMw M3 DTM.


The DTM Series is big in Germany, yes. That's why Audi and Mercedes (and initially Opel from 2000 to 2006) that carried the DTM all these years... while BMW stayed away for 20 years until 2012.

But Audi's motorsports focus is in endurance racing such as Le Mans -- which is more prestigious and provides the more important testing ground for development of Audi's future technologies. That's why, in the Audi A8 premiere, the 2013 Le Mans winner Loic Duval tells the DTM driver Edoardo Mortara: "but you're only a DTM driver, and I am the Le Mans winner." see 2:43 in clip (In addition to DTM, Mortara does drive in other races: e.g., he was the GT winner of this year's 24 Hours of Daytona in an Audi R8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvO8ahp3EzY

"BMW had 6 cars: all were M3 DTM

Mercedes had 8 cars: all were AMG C-Coupe DTM

Audi had 8 cars: all were A5 DTM (not RS5 or S5)"

You obviously don't know much about DTM. It doesn't matter what badge is on the car weather is RS5 or A5 2.0T, as DTM cars have nothing in common with the production cars. The out sides of the cars are shells like NASCAR. In fact Mercedes, BMW, and Audi all share the same driver cell portion of the chassis, they all use the same exact gearbox and ECU units, and identical rear wings.

The only area the car makers are free to develop are suspension, and aero. The engines are independently developed, but are all 4.0 liters and made to the same strict regulations.

"For the 2012 season, BMW poached two top drivers from other brands Audi and Mercedes teams:"

Haha "poached" is the wrong word...I guess you could say Audi poached Allan Mcnish from Toyota in 1999.

Audi has had much success in le mans, but against limited competition, and considering their budget was almost double their nearest rival Toyota ( around 50 Million for Toyota, and nearly 100 Million for Audi) you would hope Audi wins. Not exactly very sporting when you can just buy the best of everything. The prototype class is currently just a marketing exercise, once they implement budget caps it will be more legitimate racing...not just who writes the biggest check has the best odds.

Back to DTM. BMW swept all 3 titles last year, and look to claim the coveted constructors title again this year, having led from the very first race of the season, Mercedes is 2nd, Audi is in 3rd.