How Maximilian Götz, the last DTM champion of Mercedes-AMG to date, assesses the chances of a comeback and how his season is going
Will Maximilian Götz, like Timo Glock before him, also make a DTM comeback? The last DTM champion from Mercedes-AMG to achieve this feat in 2021 will also be part of the squad for the brand with the star in 2025. After his DTM retirement at the end of 2022, the 38-year-old now wants to return to the traditional series.
“I wrote a wish list, gave it to the AMG Santa Claus and maybe something will happen,” “It’s every driver’s dream to knock on the door and say, ‘Hey, I’m up for it again!’ Sure!”
But is a comeback realistic? A good question, because so far Mercedes-AMG has only confirmed support for the two Winward cars. The Texan-German team has a DTM contract with the brand with the star for the 2025 season.
“Don’t know how many places are available at all”
“You also have to say that the places are limited,” says Götz. ”We don’t yet know exactly which team is coming. So far, only Winward has been confirmed. That means we don’t even know how many places are available at all. So we have to wait and see. I think things will look different after Christmas.”
In fact, it is currently unclear whether the Landgraf squad will return to the DTM after the HRT rebranding to Ford in 2025, or whether there will even be a second Mercedes-AMG team.
This will also determine whether there is even a theoretical chance of a DTM comeback for Götz, who was one of the experts in the DTM broadcasts on Pro.Sieben last year. This is because there are drivers for whom a DTM appearance is a condition of their contract.
Götz looks back on the 2024 season highlights
What was Götz’s 2024 season highlight as a racing driver? “On the race track, it was my victories – in Spa, not in the 24-hour race but in the British GT Championship, but still,” he says, referring to his triumph with Kevin Tse from Hong Kong in the 2-Seas Motorsport team. The two of them achieved another victory at Snetterton – in the championship, they came in seventh.
What did Götz’s program look like in the 2024 season apart from the British race? The Franconian was in the GT World Challenge Europe in the sprint and endurance series for the Boutsen-VDS team, and Götz also had races in the GT World Challenge Asia with Craft-Bamboo and at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife with his former championship-winning team HRT.