Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters: Encyclopedia II - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters - DTM pilots

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters - DTM pilots

The drivers are a mixture of young and older drivers, including well known former Formula One drivers Bernd Schneider, Allan McNish, Jean Alesi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and former two-time F1 world champion Mika Häkkinen. Others, such as Laurent Aiello, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, have made their career racing sports cars and touring cars.

However increasingly the DTM is being used by young guns such as the newly-crowned champion Mattias Ekström or Gary Paffett to jump-start their racing career in single-seaters. One driver this strategy appears to have worked for is the Netherlands' Christijan Albers, who built a reputation by finishing 2nd and 3rd in the 2003 and 2004 championships and then graduated to Formula One in 2005. Gary Paffett has also used his championship win to gain a test with Team McLaren, and they signed him as permanent Test Driver for 2006. This prevents Paffett from defending his title in 2006, however he aims that it will be a springboard for a Race Seat during the 2007 Formula One season. The team has signed Fernando Alonso, though.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "DTM pilots", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki