Dörr Motorsport has officially presented its DTM program with McLaren: Who the drivers are, what the structure looks like and how many years the project is designed for
After the ADAC announced McLaren as the seventh manufacturer in the DTM, Dörr Motorsport has now officially presented the project: The Frankfurt-based racing team of Germany’s largest McLaren dealer will compete in the 2024 DTM season with two McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and drivers Clemens Schmid and Ben Dörr. This brings the number of officially confirmed cars for 2024 to 20
On Friday and Saturday, the team, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024, held secret previews of the car for its own customers at the Dörr branches in Frankfurt and Munich. The McLaren is – as befits McLaren – in the traditional papaya orange color.
The presentation of the driver pairing makes it clear that Timo Glock, who has also been in talks with the racing team, will not be driving the car. This also applies to the Project 1 team of Glock’s former manager Hans-Bernd Kamps, which was under discussion as a partner but had to file for insolvency
What role Project 1 and manufacturer McLaren play
In addition to mechanics from the crew of the former WEC project with the Porsche, team boss Axel Funke will also be involved. He will be part of the team management for the Dörr project. The race engineers come directly from McLaren and therefore have experience with the mid-engine car, which is little known to the team
This makes sense, as the Frankfurt-based squad has largely had experience in GT4 racing, but also raced the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife last year.
Team provides youngest driver in the field
By the way, with youngster Ben Dörr, who is the son of team owner Rainer Dörr and at the age of 19 is now the youngest driver in the DTM starting field for the season. He has been able to test the McLaren car in recent months at a manufacturer test in Estoril and Portimao, which is why the team decided to nominate him for the project despite his limited GT3 experience.
His team-mate will be 33-year-old Austrian Schmid, who has plenty of GT3 experience and has driven for Lamborghini Team Grasser for the past three years. “To be able to help develop and drive forward a project like this as part of the team from the very beginning is a rare and precious opportunity,” he says happily, despite having no previous experience in a McLaren.
DTM project set to run for three years
“Thanks to our partners, customers and friends, this has become a really good package that we can use to make the season a success,” says team owner Rainer Dörr with pride.
“The sponsors have given us their loyalty for three years because we know that the first year will be a learning year. We want to be at the front, but we are realistic enough to realize that we won’t be able to do that in the first year. Clemens has to get used to the car, Ben has to get used to everything. And the best GT drivers drive in the DTM.”
The biggest challenge before the debut year in the DTM? “We don’t know where we stand,” says Dörr. “When you’ve driven for a season and you know you’re one second short, then you know where to start. We started with a blank sheet of paper and first have to find our feet,” he says, keeping his cool.
