Mercedes-AMG has lost its biggest customer with HRT: How it wants to position itself in the DTM in 2025 and which ex-DTM team could make a comeback
How is Mercedes-AMG reacting to the loss of the HRT team, which will exclusively field the Ford Mustang GT3 in the DTM and other series from 2025? Hubert Haupt’s team, with whom they won the drivers’ title for the last time in the DTM in 2021, was recently Mercedes-AMG’s biggest customer in GT racing, which now creates a gap.
“We think we will be competing with two cars,” says Thomas Jäger, “Of course, we are interested in having more cars competing again, but at the moment it is an open question.”
Jäger makes it clear that the two Winward cars, driven by Maro Engel and Lucas Auer this year, are also set for 2025 in the DTM. That makes sense,
Mercedes-AMG would like to continue with two teams
Mercedes-AMG had high hopes of extending its contract with HRT, but these were not fulfilled. “Maybe we’ll only race with two cars. That could well happen,” says Jäger, not ruling out the possibility of Mercedes-AMG halving its DTM line-up. As a reminder, in 2023, there were still six Mercedes-AMGs racing in the series.
How many DTM cars has Mercedes-AMG set itself as a target? “Four cars would be good, also to keep the series attractive and to have a full field,” says Jäger. Especially since, by sharing the set-ups among the teams, Mercedes-AMG ensures that the internal performance density is high and that they not only have one competitive team.
What about the rumor that the Winward team could be the only Mercedes-AMG team in the DTM to field three cars, similar to Schubert at BMW? “I don’t know,” replies Jäger. “Two teams would certainly not be bad for us. Ultimately, it also depends on the financing.” An allusion to the fact that it may not yet be entirely clear internally how the DTM teams can be supported in 2025.
Is the Landgraf team making a DTM comeback in 2025?
Nevertheless, the Landgraf team is being discussed as a possible replacement for HRT. The team was already competing in the DTM in 2023, but did not receive any financial support for a program in the traditional series this year, which is why they returned to the ADAC GT Masters and defended their title there.
It is currently unclear whether there will be a comeback in the DTM.
Interest in a HRT successor confirmed but also customer sports director Stefan Wendl: The HRT decision opens up “new opportunities for other teams,” he says. “We are currently in the middle of planning our 2025 season and are having very good discussions with interested customers.”
What led to the separation from HRT?
Why the split with HRT? “We tried to find a solution together with HRT to continue working together to the same extent as before,” he explains. “Ultimately, however, we unfortunately could not find a common consensus that met our definition of a performance team in customer sport. Consequently, we came to the decision to go our separate ways in this regard in the future.”
An interesting statement, because HRT team principal Ulrich Fritz said that it was the special status as a development team that had tipped the scales in favor of Ford, while Mercedes-AMG is committed to equal treatment among the so-called performance teams.