Audi confirms team structure for 2017 DTM season

While the series scaling down to six cars per marque led to ART and Mucke leaving the Mercedes DTM contingent, and MTEK and Schnitzer refocusing on other projects within the BMW family, Audi has opted to downsize the Abt entry from four cars to two.

The squad will continue to field two-time champion Mattias Ekstrom and Nico Muller, with its two other drivers from the previous campaign – Edoardo Mortara and Miguel Molina – both exiting the Audi line-up.

The Phoenix team, which delivered Audi's most recent teams' championship title back in 2013, will retain Mike Rockenfeller for a sixth straight year, with former WEC driver Loic Duval arriving in place of Timo Scheider.

Rene Rast, who subbed for Rockenfeller at Phoenix at the end of last year, will instead compete with Team Rosberg, taking Adrien Tambay's spot alongside Jamie Green.

"In Mattias Ekstrom at Abt, Jamie Green at Rosberg and Mike Rockenfeller at Phoenix, all three teams have their spearheads," said Audi motorsport boss Dieter Gass.

"These team-driver combinations were very powerful in the past. Our youngster, Nico Muller, is following in Edoardo Mortara’s footsteps and our two new DTM signings, Loic Duval and Rene Rast, are going to benefit from the experience of their teammates."

2017 DTM driver line-up:

Manufacturer/Team	Drivers
Mercedes/HWA	Edoardo Mortara  Robert Wickens  Gary Paffett  Paul di Resta  Lucas Auer  Maro Engel
Audi/Abt	Mattias Ekstrom  Nico Muller
Audi/Phoenix	Mike Rockenfeller  Loic Duval
Audi/Rosberg	Jamie Green  Rene Rast
BMW/RMG	Marco Wittmann  Timo Glock  Augusto Farfus
BMW/RBM	Bruno Spengler  Tom Blomqvist  Maxime Martin