Audi, BMW say DTM privateer teams "definitely feasible"

The DTM is facing just two manufacturers on the grid for 2019 as Mercedes will exit at the end of the current season for Formula E.

Talks with Super GT over a move to ‘Class One’ regulations are still ongoing and the uncertainty of the future rules led BMW and Audi to suggest the lack of clarity is putting off a Mercedes replacement.

Cost saving, including a common aero package and simplified suspension, has led to suggestions that privateers could be a viable solution.

Although Mercedes has ruled out a continuation through its HWA arm, Audi head of motorsport Dieter Gass says that privateers are a feasible option.

“I think it [privateers] would need to be looked into for next year,” Gass told Motorsport.com. “There are only two manufacturers so we need to improve the grid [and] it could be privateers. 

“If you look at the cost concept it has become increasingly interesting over the past years, we have really significantly reduced the costs. 

“Running a private team with up-to-date material is achievable these days and it could be interesting.”

BMW’s director of motorsport Jens Marquardt says that the reduction of costs since it returned to the DTM in 2012 make privateers feasible. 

“I think it’s definitely feasible, over the course of the last years since we have been involved the costs have come down massively,” he told Motorsport.com.

“When we joined I was told by the guys already there that the step made then was around 40 percent, throughout the years we’ve been involved we’ve made another 30 or 40 percent reduction overall. 

“We are on a good way and for sure you can have private teams be involved with a kind of technical and whatever support package. [The] David vs Goliath kind of set-up is a good one.”

DTM supremo Gerhard Berger reiterated his view that privateers are essential to the DTM's future.

“It’s a must, you need independent teams,” he said. “You need this ‘David vs Goliath’, that is what fans like to see. 

“I think we have the technical base for professional private teams to succeed and make a good result.”