It’s hard to believe, but it’s true: next weekend’s 2021 DTM season opener in the royal park of Monza (Saturday and Sunday live on SAT.1 from 1 PM CEST) will be the first races for Team ABT Sportsline on the high-speed circuit outside Milan. The trips across the Alps to the previous DTM guest races in “Bella Italia” were always crowned with success for the title defenders from Kempten.
So far, the DTM has visited Italy seven times: three times at Adria near Venice, twice at Mugello in Tuscany and most recently twice at Misano near Rimini. And each time, the team led by Hans-Jürgen Abt and Thomas Biermaier brought trophies back to Kempten and even the biggest one on three occasions.
Even before the DTM era, there was a legendary appearance for ABT in Italy: Christian Abt won the night race of the German Super Touring Car Championship (STW) in Misano with the Audi A4 quattro in 1999. In the heat of battle, his rival for the title at the time, Uwe Alzen in an Opel, accidentally let him pass shortly before the finish line without much resistance. The jubilation in the ABT pits was correspondingly exuberant and the party after the important victory was a lively one.
The first Italian guest appearance in Adria during the 2003 DTM season was also a battle against the high temperatures with over 60 degrees in the cockpits. Mattias Ekström and Laurent Aiello coped well with this and thrilled the spectators. They came from behind during the final laps and scored a double podium for ABT Sportsline. Afterwards, there was one of the first paddock parties by the ABT house band “Fire & Ice”, which was always on stand-by at the DTM races back then.
In 2004, Mattias Ekström achieved the Audi A4 DTM’s first victory in Adria, which also took place in sweltering heat. It was the beginning of ABT’s 17-year joint success story as an Audi factory team in the DTM with four drivers’ championships (2004, 2007, 2008, 2009), five teams’ titles (2004, 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2020) and 59 race victories. In addition, there is the drivers’ title in 2002 and a further eight victories as a private team from 2000 to 2003. With a total of 67 victories, ABT Sportsline is the most successful active DTM team and second in the all-time leaderboard.
In 2007, Mattias Ekström celebrated his 29th birthday at the DTM round in Mugello and of course he got the obligatory cake to the face in the pits. On race day, the air was scorching with 37 degrees in the shade and asphalt temperatures of 52 degrees. Mattias Ekström had to settle for second place, because Mika Häkkinen was the only driver who had already completed his mandatory pit stop when the safety car came onto the track, which was triggered by one of his team mates, which caused wild speculation at the time.
In 2008, Tom Kristensen clinched another trophy for ABT Sportsline with third place at Mugello. His team mate Timo Scheider squandered the victory when he rolled up short on pole position and consequently received a drive-through penalty that dropped him to 17th place. Scheider still ended up as the champion.
In 2010, the two-time DTM champion drove “the race of my life”, as he later called it, in the rain at Adria. Starting from 15th place on the grid, today’s SAT.1 expert overtook one car after the other and finally crossed the finish line as the winner. Mattias Ekström was equally fast, but lost half a minute in the pits due to a loose cotter pin on the gear lever.
In the supporting program, Hans-Jürgen Abt took part in the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup’s “Wings for Life Charity Race”, where he only just missed the podium. However, “HJ” was very upset that his then ITR board colleague Walter Mertes finished third.
Speaking of Hans-Jürgen Abt: In 2002, the ABT boss last drove a DTM car himself during a rainy test in Misano. The outing did not end well in view of the difficult conditions and the mechanics had some extra work …
In 2018 and 2019, Misano was also the venue for the last DTM races in Italy so far, which included the first night races in DTM history in 2018. Robin Frijns took his first DTM podium with his typical spectacular overtaking manoeuvres.
Nico Müller won Sunday’s race in Misano in 2020, but was “under investigation” until late in the evening. The subsequent party in the Audi hospitality after the confirmation of his victory lasted until the early hours of the morning.
Daniel Abt, who won the GP3 finale in Monza in 2012, also has good memories of Italy.
Now it is up to Sophia Flörsch (Germany), Mike Rockenfeller (Germany/Switzerland) and Kelvin van der Linde (South Africa) to continue ABT Sportsline’s successful DTM tradition at Monza.
Just like Kelvin van der Linde, Sophia Flörsch will be making her DTM debut at Monza. Her ABT Audi R8 LMS features the revolutionary “Space Drive” steer-by-wire system from Schaeffler Paravan Technologie GmbH & Co KG, which will be used for the first time in a DTM race at Monza.
Alongside Gary Paffett and Marco Wittmann, Mike Rockenfeller is one of three DTM champions on the grid. He celebrated his first DTM victory with ABT Sportsline at Zandvoort in 2011 and had a good chance of winning the championship at the time. His serious accident at Le Mans in June 2011 put a spanner in the works for “Rocky”. Two years later, he won the DTM drivers’ title.
As a long-standing Audi Sport driver, Kelvin van der Linde knows the Audi R8 LMS better than almost anyone else.