Abt to stay with Audi in DTM 2024, signs Red Bull as lead sponsor
Abt Sportsline will continue its long-standing relationship with Audi in the DTM next year with backing from energy drinks giant Red Bull.
Despite Audi withdrawing factory backing from GT3 racing and reducing its involvement to basic supply of spare parts, Abt will continue to field a pair of R8 LMS GT3s in the German category in 2024.
Abt had been pondering a potential switch to another Volkswagen Group brand Lamborghini, having already entered the Huracan GT3 in the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
But after careful deliberation, the team has decided to stick to the ‘tried and tested’ Audi R8, having enjoyed immense success with the car in the DTM in the last three years.
Abt has also retained its driver pairing of Kelvin van der Linde and Ricardo Feller, the duo staying as team-mates for a third consecutive season after first teaming up in 2022 when Feller made his DTM debut.
Both van der Linde and Feller will race with the famous colours of Red Bull in 2024, reviving the partnership Abt previously enjoyed with the energy drinks maker during the manufacturer-centric era of the DTM
Two-time champion Mattias Ekstrom famously raced a Red Bull-branded Abt Audi for most of his DTM career in what was one of the most recognisable liveries in the series.
The partnership also marks the return of Red Bull to the DTM, with the Austrian firm having withdrawn its AF Corse-run squad after Gerhard Berger sold the brands right of the series to the ADAC at the end of last season.
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Timo Scheider, Audi Sport Team ABT, Mattias Ekstrom, Audi Sport Team ABT Sportsline
“Red Bull and ABT Sportsline simply belong together,” said ABT Sports Marketing Director Harry Unflath. “Red Bull has been an ABT partner from the very beginning.
“We have been managing the Red Bull Germany fleet for almost three decades. We first had Red Bull on a race car in Super Touring during 1997.
“From 2002 to 2018, Red Bull was our partner in the DTM. We celebrated 27 victories together, scored 93 podiums and won the championship title twice with Mattias Ekström.
“It has been a strange feeling in recent years to compete against cars with Red Bull branding in the DTM. So, I’m all the more pleased that the Red Bulls are finally back on our DTM cars as well.”
Abt goes into this weekend’s finale in Hockenheim in contention of both drivers’ and teams’ titles. Factory Audi driver Feller sits third in the standings, 31 points behind Porsche’s Thomas Preining, while Abt trails Manthey EMA by 27 points in second in the teams’ table.
Abt has won two races so far this season, with Feller triumphing in the second Zandvoort contest and van der Linde taking a victory at the start of the Red Bull Ring round last month.
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